Compare Firebase and Vercel free tiers side by side. Pricing, limits, change history, and risk assessment for developers.

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Firebase vs Vercel

Side-by-side free tier comparison. Catalogue dates here run to 2026-11-07.

Verdict

Both Firebase and Vercel offer free tiers. Firebase provides "Spark" while Vercel offers "Hobby". Vercel has a more stable pricing history (3 recorded changes vs 6).

A verdict here is not a fixed property of the vendor. A one-off pricing event demotes a vendor while its recorded date falls in the last 180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn and not restored, a product retired — does not lapse with time. A badge carrying a date states the record it rests on; a badge with no date rests on no record in force.

Firebase profile → Vercel profile →

Firebase

Riskcaution 2026-12-01 reduced
CategoryDatabases
TierSpark
Verified2026-10-03
Last read2026-10-26
Changes6 recorded
Spark plan, no payment method needed: Auth (50K MAU), Firestore Standard edition (1 GiB stored, 50K reads/day, 20K writes/day, 20K deletes/day), Realtime Database (100 simultaneous connections, 1 GB stored, 10 GB/month downloaded), Hosting (10 GB storage, 360 MB/day transfer), and no-cost Analytics, Crashlytics and Cloud Messaging. Firestore Enterprise on Spark includes 1 GiB stored, 10 GiB/month network egress, 40K write units/day, 50K read units/day, 50K real-time update units/day. Cloud Functions and Cloud Storage need the Blaze plan.
  • If a Spark project exceeds a no-cost quota, that product is shut off for the project (all its apps) for the rest of the calendar month, unless you upgrade to Blaze. (From firebase.google.com/docs/projects/billing/firebase-pricing-plans, read 2026-10-05.)
  • A Spark account can create a small number of projects, usually about 5-10. (From firebase.google.com/support/faq, read 2026-10-05.)
  • Linking a Cloud Billing account to a Spark project, including one with $300 Google Cloud free trial credits, automatically upgrades it to the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan. (From firebase.google.com/docs/projects/billing/firebase-pricing-plans, read 2026-10-05.)
  • On Spark, email-link sign-in is limited to 5 emails a day; sending more needs a billing account (Blaze). (From firebase.google.com/docs/auth/limits, read 2026-10-07.)
  • Phone (SMS) sign-in is not available on the Spark plan; on Blaze each SMS sent is billed. (From firebase.google.com/pricing, read 2026-10-20.)
  • Since September 1, 2026, Remote Config allows up to 100,000 fetch requests a day per Spark project at no cost. A Spark project that exceeds this limit gets 30 days of normal service, then is throttled unless it upgrades to Blaze. Blaze projects pay $0.06 per 10,000 requests above 100,000 a day, up to 10,000,000, and $0.01 per 10,000 above that. (From firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing, read 2026-10-17.)
  • Spark projects that used Remote Config before September 1, 2026 are subject to the 100,000-fetches-a-day limit from December 1, 2026 until they upgrade to Blaze. Blaze projects that used Remote Config before September 1, 2026 start Remote Config billing on February 1, 2027. A Spark project that used Remote Config before September 1, 2026 and upgrades to Blaze before November 15, 2026 starts Remote Config billing on February 1, 2027. (From firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing, read 2026-10-17.)
  • On the Blaze plan, all Gemini Developer API usage, including calls through Firebase AI Logic, is pay-as-you-go, and most projects must prepay. A project with no billing account (on Spark) can use the Gemini Developer API's free tier with no payment method. (From firebase.google.com/docs/ai-logic/pricing, read 2026-10-21.)
  • From November 2, 2026, Firebase AI Logic requires App Check enforcement. (From firebase.google.com/docs/ai-logic/pricing, read 2026-10-21.)
  • Firebase's Spark plan needs no credit card or other payment method. (From firebase.google.com/pricing, read 2026-10-22.)

Vercel

Riskstable
CategoryCloud Hosting
TierHobby
Verified2026-11-07
Last read2026-11-07
Changes3 recorded
Hobby plan, $0 a month, for non-commercial personal use only. Includes 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, 1M Edge Requests, 1M Function Invocations, 4 hours Fluid Active CPU, 360 GB-hrs Fluid Provisioned Memory, 1 GB Blob Storage and 5K image transformations a month. Hobby accounts are limited to these caps and cannot buy more usage. Pro is $20 a month with one deploying seat; each additional deploying seat is $20 a month.
  • Vercel restricts Hobby to non-commercial personal use: a deployment used for anyone's financial gain, including a paid employee or consultant writing the code, needs a Pro or Enterprise plan. (From vercel.com/docs/limits/fair-use-guidelines, read 2026-10-04.)
  • In most cases, exceeding Hobby plan usage limits requires waiting 30 days before using the feature again. (From vercel.com/docs/plans/hobby, read 2026-10-07.)
  • On Hobby, Vercel's terms let it use your content to train its AI models and share it with third parties for their model training; you can opt out in your team settings. (From vercel.com/legal/terms, read 2026-10-07.)
  • Hobby teams get 10 GB of Deployment Storage; going over it can block new deployments until you delete some. (From vercel.com/changelog/hobby-projects-now-retain-fewer-deployments-to-free-up-storage, read 2026-10-07.)
  • After 30 days, Vercel deletes a Hobby project's old deployments except its 3 most recent production deployments, its 3 most recent deployments of any type and its current production deployment. A team over its 10 GB of Deployment Storage loses those other deployments immediately. (From vercel.com/changelog/hobby-projects-now-retain-fewer-deployments-to-free-up-storage, read 2026-10-12.)
  • Flat Rate CDN is available on Pro plans. Pro includes the lowest tier at no extra cost: 1M CDN requests and 1 TB of data transfer a month. Paid tiers are $20 a month for 10M requests and 50 TB, $100 for 50M and 50 TB, and $300 for 150M and 50 TB. A Pro team turns it on in Billing settings. Usage above a tier moves the team to a higher tier at the start of the next cycle. Flat Rate CDN is not for bulk file distribution or download services, or large-scale media or file delivery that uses most bandwidth. (From vercel.com/docs/pricing/flat-rate-cdn, read 2026-10-16.)
  • Vercel's Hobby plan needs no credit card. (From vercel.com/docs/plans/pro-plan/trials, read 2026-10-22.)

Pricing Change History

Firebase

deprecated effective 2027-09-30 medium impact
Firebase keeps running. Firebase Test Lab can be used until September 30, 2027. After that date, no tests can run. Google's replacement is the Developer Device Platform on Google Cloud. The Developer Device Platform requires billing. The no-cost Spark plan includes 10 virtual-device tests a day and 5 physical-device tests a day. Source ↗
deprecated effective 2027-03-31 medium impact
Firebase keeps running. The Firebase Extensions service can be used until March 31, 2027. Installed extensions keep running after that date. After March 31, 2027, they cannot be updated, reconfigured or uninstalled, and their configuration cannot be downloaded. Google's replacement is function kits in Cloud Functions for Firebase (2nd gen). Source ↗
reduced effective 2026-12-01 medium impact
Firebase Spark projects that enabled Remote Config before September 1, 2026 can use it under the old terms until December 1, 2026. From December 1, 2026, the 100,000-fetches-a-day limit applies to them, with 30 days of full service from the first day they go over, then throttling unless they upgrade to Blaze. A Spark project that upgrades to Blaze before November 15, 2026 is not billed for Remote Config until February 1, 2027. Blaze projects from before September 1, 2026 start Remote Config billing on February 1, 2027. Source ↗
reduced effective 2026-09-01 medium impact
From September 1, 2026, Firebase limits Remote Config on the no-cost Spark plan to 100,000 fetch requests a day per project. A Spark project over the limit keeps full service for 30 days from the first day it goes over, and after that requests above the limit are throttled unless it upgrades to Blaze. Blaze has the same 100,000 a day at no cost and then $0.06 per 10,000 requests. Firebase's pricing page had listed Remote Config as no-cost before. This applies to projects that enable Remote Config on or after September 1, 2026. Older Spark projects follow on December 1, 2026. Source ↗
deprecated effective 2026-03-19 medium impact
Google announced the sunset of Firebase Studio (formerly Project IDX) on 2026-03-19. New workspaces and signups stopped on 2026-06-22, and Firebase Studio shuts down on 2027-03-22, when remaining data is deleted. Other Firebase products are not affected. Source ↗

Showing the 5 most recent of 6 recorded changes for Firebase.

Vercel

restructured effective 2026-07-20 medium impact
By July 20, 2026, new Vercel Pro and Enterprise accounts use Elastic build machines by default, which scale between 4 and 30 vCPUs and bill $0.0035 per CPU minute. From February 2026 the default for new Pro projects had been Turbo, billed at $0.126 a minute. Vercel now lists Turbo at $0.105 a minute and Standard at $0.014. Source ↗
restructured effective 2026-02-01 medium impact
New Pro projects now default to Turbo build machines (30 vCPUs, 60GB memory) at $0.126/minute — 9x more expensive than Standard machines ($0.014/min). Pro plan still $20/seat/month with $20 usage credit, but real-world build costs for moderate teams can hit $400+/month. Standard machines still available but must be manually selected. Source ↗
restructured effective 2025-09-09 medium impact
On 2025-09-09 Vercel replaced the Pro plan's fixed allowance for each resource with $20 of usage credit a month, applied to existing teams automatically from October 2025. Source ↗

Watch Both Vendors for Pricing Changes

We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.

curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=Firebase curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=Firebase curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=Vercel curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=Vercel

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