Firebase alternatives: 11 backend and app hosting platforms compared
Teams look for a Firebase alternative when billing that follows reads, writes and Google Cloud rates becomes hard to forecast, or when they want SQL data, self-hosting or a vendor that is not Google. Most move to a Postgres-based backend such as Supabase or Appwrite, or split hosting and data across separate services.
Short answer: The first three alternatives to Firebase in our backend and app hosting platform ranking are Supabase, Appwrite and Convex. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Choose Supabase if you want relational SQL data and the option to self-host. All 11 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Backend and App Hosting Platforms in 2026, and each says where it differs from Firebase.
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Pricing: Free Spark plan; Blaze pay-as-you-go at Google Cloud rates, published
Established in: United States
Built for: Mobile and web apps that benefit from Google SDKs and Firestore sync
Not for: Teams that need SQL, portability or a predictable invoice
01
Why buyers look past Firebase
01
Bills follow operations and Google Cloud rates
Firestore's no-cost tier covers 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day, and beyond it the pricing page sends you to Google Cloud pricing. Cloud Functions and App Hosting show no Spark column allowance and need the Blaze pay-as-you-go plan. A busy app can therefore see a bill that is hard to estimate before launch.
02
Document and proprietary APIs
Firebase offers Firestore and Realtime Database, and its pricing page also lists SQL Connect backed by Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, with a 3-month no-cost trial of the first instance. Teams that want relational data from day one often start with a Postgres-first backend instead of adding it later.
03
No self-hosted version of the platform
Firebase is a managed Google product, and the pricing and terms pages describe no self-hosted edition. Supabase documents Docker self-hosting and Appwrite and Convex publish their backends on GitHub, which matters to teams with compliance rules about where data runs.
Dyno tiers from Eco to Performance, published; add-ons billed separately
Dyno-based PaaS with managed Postgres, owned by Salesforce
you run a traditional server app and want a managed deploy workflow
#10
03
What each one does differently
1
Supabase
Singapore · Free plan; Pro and Team tiers plus compute add-ons, published
A Postgres backend with auth, storage and realtime, the closest match for a Firebase app that needs SQL. Free is 500 MB of database with 50,000 monthly active users, and free projects pause after a week of inactivity. Pro starts at $25 a month plus compute. The code is Apache-2.0 and can be self-hosted with Docker.
Switch from Firebase if you want relational SQL data and the option to self-host.
Israel · Free plan; Pro per project with usage add-ons, published
An open-source (BSD-3-Clause) backend covering auth, databases, storage, functions, messaging, hosting and realtime. The company's terms are governed by Israeli law. The Free plan freezes a project at its limits, while Pro keeps running and bills overage unless you set a budget cap. Card payments only at present, per its FAQ.
Switch from Firebase if you want a Firebase-shaped product you can self-host.
United States · Free and Starter plan; Professional per developer, published
A reactive database where server logic is written in TypeScript, rather than a document store with rules. The Free and Starter plan is pay as you go, Professional is $25 per developer a month, and daily backups and log streaming are Professional features. A self-hosted backend is documented on GitHub.
Switch from Firebase if you build live-updating TypeScript apps and want one typed backend.
United States · Free plan with a credit cap; Personal and Pro tiers with credits, published
A web hosting platform that now meters usage in credits: Free has a 300 credit monthly limit, Personal is $9 a month and Pro is $20 a month. It offers functions, Blob storage and a Netlify Database, but it has no built-in user authentication product in the plan overview we read.
Switch from Firebase if your Firebase use is mostly Hosting and you want Git deploys.
United States · Free Hobby plan for personal use; Pro per seat plus usage credit, published
Front-end hosting built around Next.js, with a Hobby plan limited to personal, non-commercial use and Pro at $20 a month including $20 of usage credit. It covers deployment, CDN and compute. It does not replace Firestore or Firebase Authentication, so you pair it with a separate database.
Switch from Firebase if you host a Next.js front end and keep data elsewhere.
United States · Free instance types; workspace tiers plus per-instance compute, published
Hosts web services, static sites, workers, cron jobs, Postgres and Key Value. Workspace tiers are Hobby at $0, Pro at $25 a month and Scale at $499 a month, each plus per-instance compute. It runs always-on servers and databases you size yourself, with no managed user sign-in or client SDKs.
Switch from Firebase if you want a conventional server and Postgres without Google's per-operation billing.
United States · Free plan after a 30-day trial; Hobby and Pro minimums plus usage, published
Deploys code and databases from a repo and bills by the second for memory, CPU, volumes and egress. Hobby has a $5 minimum usage and Pro $20. The Free plan follows a 30-day trial with $5 credits, then $1 a month. It supplies infrastructure, not an auth or client-SDK layer.
Switch from Firebase if you want usage-based hosting for services and databases you write yourself.
United States · No platform fee; per-second resource billing, published; 7-day trial
Runs containers as Machines in regional locations with no platform fee and per-second billing. New organisations get no free tier, only a trial of up to 2 hours of runtime or 7 days. Managed Postgres starts at a Basic plan priced at $38 a month in its own example.
Switch from Firebase if you need apps running close to users in several regions.
United States · Free plan with build limits; Functions metered as Workers requests
Static hosting where requests to static assets are free and unlimited on free and paid plans. Functions are billed as Workers requests, with 100,000 daily requests on the Workers Free plan. Free builds are limited to 500 a month. It has no database or auth of its own, only bindings to other Cloudflare products.
Switch from Firebase if you only need Hosting and edge functions at low cost.
United States · Pay per build minute, storage and transfer, published; new-account credits
The nearest like-for-like for teams already on AWS: hosting plus backend resources such as auth powered by Amazon Cognito. Hosting pricing is pay for what you use with 1,000 free build minutes a month, and there is no per-seat charge. Backend costs come from the underlying AWS services, so the bill has several line items.
Switch from Firebase if you already run on AWS and want Firebase-style front-end tooling.
United States · Dyno tiers from Eco to Performance, published; add-ons billed separately
A platform for server-side apps on dynos, from Eco at $5 a month to Performance tiers, with add-ons such as databases billed separately. Eco dynos sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. It is a Salesforce business unit and has no client SDKs, auth or realtime layer comparable to Firebase.
Switch from Firebase if you run a traditional server app and want a managed deploy workflow.
Firebase remains the right choice when the app is mobile-first and already uses several of its pieces together: Authentication with 50,000 monthly active users at no cost, Cloud Messaging, Crashlytics and Analytics, which its pricing page lists at no cost. Replacing those with separate vendors means more accounts, SDKs and invoices. Small apps that stay inside the Spark limits can run without a payment method.
05
What moving off Firebase involves
01
Inventory which Firebase products you actually use
List Authentication, Firestore, Storage, Functions, Hosting and Messaging separately, because no alternative here replaces all of them equally. Supabase and Appwrite cover auth, database, storage and functions, while Netlify, Vercel and Cloudflare Pages cover hosting only. Push messaging and Crashlytics have no counterpart on those pages.
02
Plan the data model change
Moving from Firestore documents to Postgres tables means redesigning the schema, rewriting security rules as database policies or permissions, and migrating users. Run both backends side by side on a copy of production data and cut over one feature at a time.
03
Set spend limits on the new platform
Supabase Pro has a spend cap on by default, Appwrite offers a budget cap and Vercel has spend management. Turn these on before cutover so the first month on pay-as-you-go billing has a ceiling.
06
Questions about replacing Firebase
6 answers
What is the closest alternative to Firebase?
Supabase and Appwrite both bundle auth, database, storage, functions and realtime, and both document self-hosting. Supabase is built on Postgres; Appwrite offers TablesDB by default with other database types available. Convex is closest if you want a reactive TypeScript backend.
Is there a free alternative to Firebase?
Supabase Free includes 500 MB of database and 50,000 monthly active users but pauses projects after a week of inactivity. Appwrite has a Free plan that freezes a project at its limits. Convex has a Free and Starter plan. Check each limit against your traffic.
Can I self-host a Firebase alternative?
Yes. Supabase documents Docker self-hosting and is Apache-2.0 on GitHub. Appwrite is BSD-3-Clause with a self-hosting guide, and Convex documents a self-hosted backend. Self-hosting puts upgrades, backups and uptime on your team.
Which Firebase alternative is cheapest?
It depends on the workload. Cloudflare Pages serves static assets free and unlimited, Fly.io starts at about $2.19 a month for a small always-on Machine in its own example, and Railway Hobby has a $5 minimum.
None includes auth, so add the cost of a sign-in service.
Do these alternatives replace Firebase Hosting only?
Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages and AWS Amplify cover hosting and deploys. Amplify adds backend resources from AWS services, while the other three need a separate database. If only Hosting is the issue, a hosting-only platform is the smaller change.
Does moving off Firebase mean leaving Google Cloud?
Not necessarily. Firebase billing for many services is processed at Google Cloud rates, and Firebase pages state it is integrated with Google Cloud. You can keep Google Cloud for compute while replacing Firebase's own backend services.
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Sources
Checked 23 October 2026
Firebase pricing: Spark and Blaze plans, Firestore and Authentication allowances, Cloud Functions and App Hosting availability, SQL Connect trial.
Firebase terms: Firebase terms, last modified 24 September 2026, Google Cloud relationship.
Supabase pricing: Free, Pro and Team prices, free limits, pausing, spend cap.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed
23 October 2026. How we review.
