Firebase vs Stream
Discover how Firebase compares to Stream, and understand which is right for your use case, based on dimensions such as scalability, pricing, security, and their chat features.
What is Firebase?
Firebase is a cloud-native backend by Google that allows developers to build mobile and web applications. Firebase services include Firebase Realtime data, Firestore database, authentication, and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), among others.
What is Stream?
Stream is a platform for building scalable, realtime chat and activity feed applications. It provides APIs and SDKs to easily integrate messaging, video calls, and social feeds into apps.
Compare Firebase and Stream
Let’s compare Firebase and Stream, looking at key elements of their offering such as their scalability, pricing, security and chat feature set.
| Scalability | |||
Concurrent connections | Number of users that can be supported in a single chat. | Firebase Up to 200,000 concurrent WebSocket connections per database instance. This limit applies per database. To support more concurrent users, you can shard your data across multiple database instances. Read more | Stream 2500 users supported in a single chat. Supported within Start and Elevate packages. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.79 per additional concurrent user. Read more |
Connections | Number of connections that can be handled across the platform. | Firebase By sharding, you can scale beyond 200,000 concurrent connections. Each additional database instance adds another 200,000 connections. Read more | Stream |
Channels / rooms | Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform. | Firebase Unlimited. Each path with listeners or queries should not exceed 75 million total nodes. Read more | Stream Unlimited. |
Messages | Number of messages that can be handled across the platform. | Firebase Unlimited. Write operations are subject to rate limits. | Stream Unlimited. |
Message throughput | Number of messsages that can be published per second. | Firebase ~1,000 writes/sec per database. Read more | Stream 5 messages per second. When concurrent connections exceeds 100 in a group messages are throttled to 5 per second. |
| Data integrity | |||
Guaranteed message delivery | Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions. | Firebase No | Stream No |
Guaranteed message ordering | Maintains the sequence of messages as they were sent. This is particularly important in apps where the chronological order of messages is essential for meaningful communication. | Firebase No | Stream No |
Exactly-once message delivery | Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages. | Firebase No | Stream No |
| Performance & availability | |||
Uptime Guarantee | An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime. | Firebase 99.95%. Read more | Stream
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Global edge network | By bringing servers (Points of Presence, or PoP) geographically closer to the devices of end users, and routing requests to the nearest PoP, global latency is reduced to a minimum. | Firebase Yes Firebase's global CDN (content delivery network) supports a global edge network by integrating with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with edge PoPs spanning over 180 internet exchanges and over 160 interconnection facilities worldwide. Read more | Stream Yes Stream has data centers located around the world, including:
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Multi-region data replication (message durability) | By replicating data across multiple regions, the risk of data loss or downtime is greatly mitigated since if data is lost or a server fails in one region, the information can be retrieved from another. | Firebase Partial Firebase supports multi-region data replication, primarily through Cloud Firestore locations, but this is not supported in Firebase Realtime Database. Read more | Stream No |
No single point of failure or congestion | Having no single point of failure means a system is resilient and can continue to operate even if one part fails. Avoiding a single point of congestion ensures messages flow efficiently across the system and avoids bottlenecks that could lead to performance issues under load. | Firebase Yes Firebase's design uses Google Cloud Platform's infrastructure, which implements redundancy and automatic failover features. | Stream Yes Stream's chat infrastructure does not rely on a single data center due to global edge network support, thus avoiding a single point of failure and congestion. |
Latency | Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience. | Firebase Unknown. | Stream Stream does not provide a global latency figure. However, it achieves a region-based average roundtrip latency of 170 ms between Amsterdam and the US East. |
Server-side batching | Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios. | Firebase Partial Firebase supports server-side batching through transactions and batched writes in Firestore. Read more | Stream |
Connection state recovery | Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not directly support automatic state recovery. The connection state recovery capabilities can be integrated with Firebase Realtime Database and Cloud Firestore, which automatically handle connection issues. | Stream Yes Stream SDKs automatically attempt to recover the connection and ensure that a connection to Stream chat is always kept alive. That chat state is recovered when the user's internet connection comes back online. |
| Ecosystem support | |||
Supported realtime protocols | Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements. | Firebase
| Stream WebSocket. |
Supported languages | Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps. | Firebase
| Stream
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| Chat room types | |||
Multi-type chat support (group, DM, supergroups) | Enables chat experiences to be tailored to various user needs, from one-on-one to large, scalable group discussions. | Firebase Firebase does not have built-in support for specific chat room types. Instead, Firebase provides backend tools such as Realtime Database, Firestore, and Firebase Authentication that allow you to implement chat rooms. | Stream Stream provides the following chat room types:
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| Chat room management | |||
Presence | Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime. | Firebase | Stream Yes |
Occupancy | High-level metrics about the clients currently connected to a channel make it simple to show things such as connected user count, or display which channels are the most popular. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for occupancy tracking. However, occupancy tracking functionality can be built on top of the Firebase Realtime Database. | Stream No |
Typing indicators | Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for typing indicators. However, you can implement this feature using Firestore or Realtime Database. | Stream Yes Stream supports typing indicators, which appear on the channel list item where someone is typing or in the chat channel view. |
Room reactions | Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for room reactions or arbitrary room state management specifically for chat applications, but you can integrate Firestore or Realtime Database for building out room reactions. | Stream No |
| Chat message attributes | |||
Message edits and deletes | Allow users to modify or remove messages. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in message delete or edit functionality for chat applications. However, it provides flexible database services, such as Firestore, Realtime Database, and cloud functions to implement these features. | Stream Yes |
Message reactions & emoticons | Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for message reactions or emoticons in chat applications. However, it offers tools like Firebase Firestore or Realtime Database to do that with some custom development. | Stream Yes |
Rich text support | Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat. | Firebase No Firebase itself does not provide dedicated tools specifically for rich text formatting. You can leverage various third-party libraries and Firebase's existing tools to implement rich text support in your application. Otherwise, you can store rich text data (like markdown), and implement formatting on the client side. Read more | Stream Yes Stream SDKs offer markdown formatting for channel messages. |
Media attachments | Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat. | Firebase Partial Firebase supports media attachments, but it doesn't have built-in features specifically for handling media uploads in chat applications. You can leverage its Firebase Cloud Storage with Firestore or Realtime Database. | Stream Yes |
| Chat application and user state | |||
In-app notifications | Notify users of important events from other chat rooms without them leaving the current chat, keeping them engaged and informed. | Firebase Yes Firebase supports in-app notifications, primarily through its Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service. | Stream Partial Stream only supports in-app notification feeds. |
Role-based permissions | Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation. | Firebase Yes Firebase supports role-based access control through the Firebase Admin SDK, Firebase IAM, and Cloud Firestore. Read more | Stream Yes |
UI kit | Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration. | Firebase No Firebase itself does not offer a built-in UI Kit specifically for chat applications. | Stream Yes Stream offers UI kits for social media design and chat interfaces. |
| Storage and history | |||
Synchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants. | Firebase Partial Yes but not natively supported. Requires custom implementation using approval flags and client-side filtering. Read more | Stream Yes |
Asynchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants. | Firebase Partial Yes but not natively supported. Cloud Functions with ML models to analyze and moderate content post-delivery. Read more | Stream |
Manual moderation via dashboards | Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not offer a dedicated moderation dashboard. However, you can create a custom moderation dashboard using Firebase Console, Firestore, Realtime Database, and Firebase Authentication. | Stream Yes Stream offers manual moderation capabilities through its Chat Dashboard, which allows you to do standard moderation tasks. Read more |
Ban users | Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment. | Firebase Partial Firebase can support banning users, although it doesn’t provide a built-in banning feature. You can implement user bans using Firebase Authentication and Firestore or Realtime Database. Read more | Stream Yes |
| Dev tools | |||
Programmatic management | Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI. | Firebase Yes Firebase projects can be managed programmatically using the Firebase Management API. | Stream Yes |
| Pricing | |||
Pricing model | The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient. | Firebase Firebase offers a pay-as-you-go pricing plan, called Blaze, based on the services you use and the amount of unit costs incurred. Firebase pricing is usage-based, with most services charging per read, write, storage, and bandwidth. There are two main realtime database options, and other tools that can impact cost depending on your app architecture. Read more | Stream Stream's pricing plan is based on MAUs. Overages apply for additional MAU's and peak concurrent connection - over set quota. Read more |
Pricing illustration | An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees. | Firebase $1,872. Estimated usage as per their pricing: Writes 600M / 100,000 (6,000 units) = $1,080 Reads 1.2B / 100,000 (12,000 units) = $720 Egress 600 GB = $72 Storage 600 GB/month = prorated~$0.40–$0.60 (negligible). | Stream $22,186.50.
Note: Assumes same users attend each event, to keep MAU at minimum. |
Free plan | With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan. | Firebase Yes The Spark plan (free plan) realtime database is limited to 100 simultaneous connections and 1 GB of storage. Read more | Stream Yes Offers:
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Pricing plans | The pricing plans offered by cost. | Firebase
| Stream
Overages:
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| Support for additional realtime features | |||
Pub/Sub messaging | Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps. | Firebase Partial Firebase does not natively support Pub/Sub messaging. However, this can be implemented with Google's Pub/Sub service. Read more | Stream No |
Collaboration capabilities | Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking. | Firebase Yes | Stream No |
Database sync capabilities | Database sync capabilities enable realtime updates between your database and UI, ensuring the UI reflects changes in the database instantly, with data consistency, and without the need for polling. | Firebase Yes Firebase offers database sync capabilities through both Firebase Realtime Database and Firestore. These databases are designed to keep data synchronized across client devices in realtime. Read more | Stream No |
Notifications | Send notifications directly to users screens, from chat responses to news alerts, or game updates, whether or not an application is open and running. | Firebase Yes Firebase supports notifications primarily through Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), allowing developers to send notifications to client applications on various platforms, including Android, iOS, and the web. Read more | Stream Yes |
Asset tracking | State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services. | Firebase No | Stream No |
| Integrations & interoperability | |||
AI models | Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app. | Firebase Yes Firebase uses the Gemini family of AI models by through its Vertex AI for Firebase SDKs. Read more | Stream Yes Stream supports integration with AI models from OpenAI, HuggingFace, Claude, or any LLM for its chat and voice AI SDKs. |
Serverless functions | Enables integration with third-party cloud providers by facilitating the execution of custom code against messages to perform business logic like on-the-fly translation. | Firebase Firebase supports serverless functions through Cloud Functions for Firebase. Read more | Stream No |
Streaming & queueing | Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing. | Firebase Yes | Stream No |
Observability services | Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice. | Firebase Yes Using Firebase Performance Monitoring you can monitor your application performance based on location, device, or version. | Stream No |
| Security & compliance | |||
API key authentication | Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens. | Firebase Yes | Stream Yes Stream uses API keys for authentication. You must include an API key when sending an authenticated request to Stream. |
Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication | SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management. | Firebase Yes SSO in a Firebase application can be implemented using SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). Read more | Stream Yes Stream offers Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication through GitHub Organizations and SAML 2.0. The SSO is available to organizations on Stream's Enterprise Chat or Feeds plan. Read more |
Rules for permissions and operations | Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels. | Firebase Yes Using Firebase Realtime Database Security Rules you can set who has access to your database. Read more | Stream Yes Stream applications offer customizable built-in roles. Users receive a role with permissions for the whole app and can also have channel-specific roles for single or multiple channels of the same type. |
End-to-end encryption | Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit. | Firebase No Data in transit is encrypted using HTTPS in all Firebase services, but this does not include end-to-end encryption. Read more | Stream No Stream does not natively implement E2EE. It encrypts messages in transit using TLS 1.2 and at rest with AES256. Read more |
Compliance | Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry. | Firebase Firebase ensures compliance with international and industry standards for security and privacy standards including:
| Stream Stream is compliant with five standards and regulations to ensure the security and privacy of its users' data:
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Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Firebase and Stream. The content was last updated on 16 May 2025 for Firebase and on 1 May 2025 for Stream. Be sure to double-check everything before you make any decisions. If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.
Alternatives to Firebase and Stream
While both Firebase and Stream are worth considering as options for realtime experiences, they aren’t without their limitations. We suggest evaluating them against the following alternatives to make sure you find the right solution for your needs.
Alternatives to Firebase
Supabase Realtime is a globally distributed real-time server network built on PostgreSQL, enabling developers to build applications with real-time data sync.
Pusher is a first-generation pub/sub messaging service that provides bi-directional hosted APIs for adding realtime features to applications.
OneSignal is a customer engagement platform that offers push notifications, messages, and email sends for businesses to manage communication with their users.
Alternatives to Stream
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. Serving more WebSocket connections than any other pub/sub platform on earth. Businesses trust us to power their critical applications - reliably, securely and at serious scale.
Sendbird offers APIs and SDKs for live chat, realtime messaging, push notifications, and calls with WebSocket connections, UI kits, and backend integrations.
PubNub is a developer API platform that powers the realtime infrastructure in apps to build engaging Virtual Spaces where online communities can connect.
Discover how Firebase and Stream stack up against Ably
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to Firebase and Stream on key dimensions such as core features, pricing, integrations, QoS, performance, and security and compliance.
Try Ably for free to discover the benefits for yourself
Ably has built reliable realtime infrastructure so you don’t have to. On our free plan you benefit from:
- 6M monthly messages
- 200 concurrent channels
- 200 concurrent connections
