Firebase

Firebase is Google's application platform for teams that want auth, a realtime or document database, file storage, hosting, push, and crash reporting without standing up each of those services by hand. It began as an independent realtime database and became Google's default mobile and web back end for startups.

The pieces people actually ship are Authentication, Cloud Firestore or Realtime Database, Cloud Functions, Hosting, Cloud Messaging, and Crashlytics. It is a Google Cloud project underneath. The console is friendlier than raw GCP. The lock-in is real if the data model never leaves Firestore.

Teams use Firebase to get a signed-in app in front of users quickly: a prototype, a field tool, a consumer app that needs push and a live collection. It is a strong fit when the product is a client talking to documents and files, and a weaker fit when the domain wants a relational schema you will still have in five years.

We use it when the brief wants speed and Google already holds the identity. We keep an export path. We do not pretend Firestore is Postgres.

A backend that can start fast, and still leave you a way out.

Auth and push are the common wins. We keep domain data in a database you can dump whenever the product is more than a trial. The Firebase project is yours. Preview still happens on a URL. You review the accounts and the first-run before launch.

A prototype may live on Firebase. A product that has to last should not hide its records.