10 Major Differences Between Firebase And Firestore
Difference Between Firebase And Firestore: The recent release of Google’s Cloud Firestore, their new Document Database for applications has brought up a lot of comparisons between it and the former Firebase DB. The most obvious performance difference most users point out is that the recent Firestore uses documents and collections which allow for easier use of queries as compared to Firebase.
However, there are more differences of a more nuanced sort. Google’s Firebase is the older and original database while Cloud Firestore is the newer database for mobile application development, which features richer, faster queries.
10 Distinctions Between Firebase And Firestore
1. Data Model: Both Firebase DB and Cloud Firestore are NoSQL Databases. However, in the way they store user data. Firebase DB stores data as one large JSON tree. Here, sample data is very easy to store, while complex, hierarchical data is more difficult to organize and store. Cloud Firestore stores data as a collection of documents making it easier to organize and store complex, hierarchical data.
2. Offline Support: While both databases support local data storage for offline-ready apps, the Cloud Firestore extends this offline support to cover web clients, in addition, to support for iOS and Android clients
3. Presence: Sometimes, a user may need to know when a client is online or offline. Firebase DB can record client connection state and provide updates each time the client’s connection state changes. This feature is not natively supported by Cloud Firestore.
4. Querying: This involves retrieving, sorting, and filtering data from a database using queries. The major difference here is that Firebase DB affords deep queries but with limited sorting and filtering functionality. Queries can sort, or filter, but not do both – and Firebase DB queries do not require an index. However, Firestore affords indexed queries with compound sorting and filtering. Queries here are shallow and are indexed by default.
5. Writes and Transactions: Both database solutions allow users to write data and transactions. The difference however is that Firebase DB affords basic write and transaction operations while Cloud Firestore affords more advanced write and transaction operations.
6. Reliability: While both database solutions are reliable, it is worth noting that Firebase DB is a single region while Cloud Firestore is a multi-region solution that is available in multi-regional configuration around the world.
7. Scalability: Firebase DB’s scaling requires a process known as shading for concurrent connection beyond 200,000 and 1000 writes/second in any single database. Firestore scaling is done automatically and the scaling limit is around 1 million concurrent connections and 10,000 writes/second.
8. Security: Firebase Realtime Database uses cascading rules language that separates authorization and validation – while Firestore uses non-cascading rules that combine authorization and validation.
9. Pricing: Cloud Firestore charges primarily on operations performed in one’s database and at a lower rate and bandwidth and storage. Firebase DB charges rely on for bandwidth and storage but at a higher rate.
10. Ease of operation: Recent user reviews suggest that the newer Cloud Firestore offers more accessible services that are better organized and easier to use than the original Firebase DB.
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