Firebase free tier includes Spark plan, no payment method needed: Auth (50K MAU), Firestore Standard edition (1 GiB stored, 50K…). Verified October 2026. Compare with 13 alternatives in Databases.
Why caution:effective 2026-12-01 — 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 ↗Full history ↓
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180 days and then lapses on its own, with nothing about the vendor having changed; a standing condition — a free tier withdrawn and not restored, a product retired — does not lapse with time. This rating does not lapse: it also rests on the restriction recorded 2026-02-03, a standing condition. The record effective 2026-12-01 stops counting on 2027-05-31, and the rating stays caution after that date.
Subtypes in Databases:document — schemaless JSON/BSON documents as the stored unit; backend_platform — bundles a database with auth, functions or storage as one product. We read that on 2026-08-31 from https://firebase.google.com/docs/firestore, where it says: “Use the flexible, scalable NoSQL cloud database from Google Cloud to store and sync data for client and server-side development.”How we use this.
Limits, pricing history, and 13 alternatives. Verified October 2026. Last updated 2026-10-26.
Firebase's free tier offers Spark plan, no payment method needed: Auth (50K MAU), Firestore Standard edition (1 GiB stored, 50K reads/day, 20K…). We rate it caution — one recorded limit reduction, on 2026-12-01. Best for databases workloads — 13 alternatives available.
⚠️ Pricing change: 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 ↗ (effective 2027-09-30)View in changelog →
The day we last read the vendor's page. The terms we publish were last confirmed on 2026-10-03.
Free Tier Details
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.
We read that on 2026-10-26 from https://firebase.google.com/pricing, and our check recorded: the page names Firebase as "firebase" and states "10 GiB/month" and "20K writes/day" and "50K reads/day" and "20K deletes/day".
From firebase.google.com/pricing, read 2026-10-26:
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.)
Firebase's Spark plan needs no credit card or other payment method. (From firebase.google.com/pricing, read 2026-10-22.)
When You'll Outgrow Firebase's Free Tier
At 1 GiB of Firestore data or 50K reads a day, you'll need Blaze.
At 50K MAU, you'll need to upgrade.
At that point, the 13 alternatives in Databases are each listed with the free tier they offer, so you can compare what they give you against what you have outgrown.
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 ↗
Before: Firebase Test Lab ran app tests on virtual and physical Android and iOS devices in Google's data centers, with no announced shutdown date.
After: "Firebase Test Lab is deprecated and will be fully shut down on September 30, 2027." "you won't be able to run any workflows after September 30, 2027. The Firebase Test Lab console and API will be shut down." "While Firebase Test Lab supported some usage without billing, the Developer Device Platform requires your project to have billing enabled." (firebase.google.com/docs/test-lab/migrate-faq)
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 ↗
Before: Firebase Extensions installed and managed pre-packaged Cloud Functions solutions from the Firebase console or CLI, with no announced shutdown date.
After: "The Firebase Extensions service is deprecated and will shut down on March 31, 2027. While already-installed extensions will execute indefinitely, key management features will no longer be available after this date." "after March 31, 2027, you will lose all ability to update, reconfigure, or uninstall these extensions through the Firebase console or CLI." "Most extensions are currently built on the legacy Cloud Functions v1 SDK, which is tied to older Node.js runtimes. Once these legacy runtimes are fully decommissioned by Google Cloud, the functions may stop running or be disabled." (firebase.google.com/docs/extensions/faq-and-troubleshooting)
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 ↗
Before: Spark projects with Remote Config enabled before September 1, 2026: in a transition grace period before the 100,000 fetch requests a day limit is enforced.
After: "This transition grace period is relevant for projects that have Remote Config enabled before September 1, 2026." Spark Plan: "December 1, 2026". "Bonus: If you upgrade before November 15, 2026, your grace period is extended to 5 months (Billing starts February 1, 2027)." Blaze Plan: "Projects will automatically transition to the standard pricing on February 1, 2027." (firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing, read 2026-11-10)
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 ↗
Before: Remote Config: "No-cost" (firebase.google.com/pricing, Internet Archive 2026-06-28). No fetch limit stated.
After: "Spark (No-cost) Plan: Up to 100,000 fetch requests per day at no cost." Blaze: "No-cost for the first 100,000 daily fetch requests, then: $0.06 per 10,000 requests ($0.000006/req) between 100,001 and 10,000,000 requests per day." "Projects enjoy uninterrupted service for 30 days after the first time the daily limit has exceeded. To prevent throttling on Day 31 or beyond, you must upgrade to the Blaze plan." (firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing, read 2026-11-10)
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 ↗
Before: Firebase Studio: cloud IDE with AI code generation, Gemini integration, multi-platform preview
After: "June 22, 2026: New workspace creation and user signup are disabled." "March 22, 2027: Firebase Studio is shut down, and all remaining data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered."
Cloud Storage for Firebase now requires the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, in effect from February 3, 2026. Projects on the no-cost Spark plan lose access to all Cloud Storage buckets, including default buckets; console access redirects to an upgrade page and API calls return 402 or 403. Provisioning a new default bucket also requires Blaze. Source ↗
Before: Spark plan included Cloud Storage with a *.appspot.com default bucket and no card required: 5 GB stored, 1 GB downloaded/day, 20,000 uploads/day, 50,000 downloads/day
After: Any Cloud Storage access requires the Blaze plan and a billing account. No-cost usage continues on Blaze: a legacy *.appspot.com default bucket keeps 5 GB stored, 1 GB downloaded/day, 20,000 uploads/day, 50,000 downloads/day; default buckets created after September 2024 are *.firebasestorage.app and follow Google Cloud Storage pricing with its Always Free tier in US-CENTRAL1, US-EAST1 and US-WEST1. Other Spark limits unchanged (Firestore, Auth, Hosting)
Recompute today's order yourself. The order above is a permutation seeded only on the UTC date and the query key — no vendor name, slug, id or offer field is an input. The list above is every one of the 7 entries in that order, not a prefix of it. The algorithm is published, so anyone can reproduce this page's order without asking us.
How Firebase compares against every one of the 13 we list, not against a selection of them. A surface with room for every member of a tied set may rotate their order. A surface with room for only some of them names none of them, because which ones it named would be the claim, and a claim seeded on the date is not the one we serve tomorrow. How we decide this.
a fast and straightforward NoSQL cloud database service. With restdb.io you get schema, relations, automatic REST API (with MongoDB-like queries), and an efficient multi-user admin UI for working with data.
filess.io is a platform where you can create two databases with up to 10 MB per database of the following DBMS for free: MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL.
Open-source backend with Postgres and Hasura GraphQL, plus Auth, Storage and Functions. The Starter plan is $0 a month: 1 GB database, 1 GB storage and 5 GB egress, with functions, realtime APIs and unlimited users.
An agent can create a MongoDB Atlas M0 cluster via the API without an account. A person must sign in to claim the cluster, which then becomes a standard Free cluster with no expiration. Unclaimed clusters pause after 2 days and delete after 7. (From mongodb.com/docs/atlas/tutorial/create-ephemeral-cluster, read 2026-10-22.)
The Flex tier has a monthly base price of $8.00, which includes 5GB storage, 100 operations per second and unlimited data transfer. More operations per second cost extra by tier, and Flex clusters are capped at $30 per month. (From mongodb.com/docs/atlas/billing/atlas-flex-costs, read 2026-10-29.)
Upgrading a Free cluster asks for payment information and starts billing. Changing from a Free cluster to a Flex cluster requires downtime. (From mongodb.com/docs/atlas/scale-cluster, read 2026-10-29.)
Postgres development platform: database, Auth, Storage, Realtime and Edge Functions. The Free plan is $0: unlimited API requests, 50,000 monthly active users, a 500 MB database on a shared CPU with 500 MB RAM, 5 GB egress plus 5 GB cached egress, 1 GB file storage, 500,000 Edge Function…
Multi-model cloud database — The 'Start' plan offers 1GB of storage free, forever, and a free compute instance with 0.25 vCPU and 1 GB memory ($0.000/hr). Further instances are available from $0.021/hr.
The free plan includes 1 Developer, API/Functions: 1/sec, 500/day, 1 Worker per queue, Worker timeout 30s, 150 MB Database Storage, 1 GB File Storage, 1 Space Chat and Email Support. No Credit Card Required.
Serverless Postgres with branching — free tier includes 100 CU-hours/month per project, 1 GB of Postgres storage per project (20 GB total across all projects), 5 GB of public network transfer per project per month, up to 100 projects, 10 branches per project, Neon Auth (60K MAU), auto-scaling up to…
Open-source BaaS — 75K MAU, 2 GB storage, 750K function executions/month, 5 GB bandwidth, 1 database, 1 bucket and 2 functions per project, 500K database reads and 250K writes a month. Limit of 2 projects.
The Free plan's resources are shared across the account's 2 projects, which draw on one allowance. Paid plans give each project its own resources. (From appwrite.io/docs/advanced/billing/free, read 2026-10-11.)
A Free project with no development activity in the Appwrite Console for 7 days is paused. User traffic does not prevent pausing. The project becomes inaccessible to users and stops running backups, cron jobs, and scheduled functions until reactivated in the Console. (From appwrite.io/changelog/entry/2026-02-20-1, read 2026-10-11.)
From October 19, 2026, cron schedules for functions on Appwrite Cloud need a paid plan. On the Free and Education plans, functions run only on an interval of 60 minutes or longer. Existing cron schedules become intervals close to how often they ran. (From appwrite.io/changelog/entry/2026-10-15-1, read 2026-10-19.)
If a Free project reaches any resource limit, such as function executions or monthly active users, it freezes and the Console becomes read-only until the next billing cycle, or the owner upgrades to Pro or removes the resources over the limit. (From appwrite.io/pricing, read 2026-10-05.)
From November 5, 2026, Appwrite Cloud deletes inactive function and site deployments more than 30 days old by default. A deployment's age counts from the day it was created. The active deployment and any deployment a custom domain points to are kept. On the Free plan, retention can be raised to at most 90 days and each function or site keeps at most its 100 newest inactive deployments. (From appwrite.io/blog/post/default-deployment-retention, read 2026-10-22.)
Pro starts at $25 a month. It includes one project with 2TB bandwidth, 150GB storage, 3.5M executions and 200K monthly active users. Each additional project costs $15. (From appwrite.io/pricing, read 2026-10-29.)
Additional API bandwidth costs $15 per 100GB a month. Additional storage costs $2.8 per 100GB. Additional executions cost $2 per 1m. Additional users cost $3 per 1,000 users. Additional reads cost $0.060 per 100k and writes $0.10 per 100k. (From appwrite.io/pricing, read 2026-10-29.)
On Pro, Appwrite automatically buys extra resources when an organization exceeds its limits. The budget cap limits how much it can scale. (From appwrite.io/docs/advanced/billing/pro, read 2026-10-29.)
8base is a full-stack low-code development platform built for JavaScript developers built on top of MySQL and GraphQL and serverless backend-as-a-service. It allows you to start building web applications quickly using a UI app builder and scale quickly, The Free tier includes rows: 2,500, Storage:…
Open-source backend in a single Go binary — SQLite database, real-time subscriptions, built-in auth (email, OAuth2), file storage (S3-compatible), REST API. Completely free and self-hosted, no vendor lock-in.
deploy a forever free tier fully managed database cluster with 1 node and 8GB storage, built for developers to create the next generation of applications across IoT to AI
source unconfirmed
Left out of this list: CockroachDB (shares no subtype with this product), Turso (shares no subtype with this product), Upstash (shares no subtype with this product), Databricks (Lakeflow Connect) (none of this category's subtypes apply), Aiven (shares no subtype with this product), Xata (shares no subtype with this product), Cloudflare D1 (shares no subtype with this product), Cloudflare KV (shares no subtype with this product), Momento (shares no subtype with this product), Nile (shares no subtype with this product), DynamoDB Local (runs only on a developer machine), Redis Cloud (shares no subtype with this product), Prisma Accelerate (extends another product), Weaviate (shares no subtype with this product), Zilliz Cloud (shares no subtype with this product), LanceDB (shares no subtype with this product), Upstash Vector (shares no subtype with this product), Chroma (shares no subtype with this product), Turbopuffer (shares no subtype with this product), Gel (we have not classified this record), CrateDB (shares no subtype with this product), Neo4j AuraDB (shares no subtype with this product), InfluxDB Cloud (shares no subtype with this product), Hasura (extends another product), SeaTable (none of this category's subtypes apply), skyvia.com (none of this category's subtypes apply), StackBy (none of this category's subtypes apply), Google Cloud BigQuery (shares no subtype with this product), Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL (shares no subtype with this product), PlanetScale (we have not classified this record), Cloudflare Vectorize (shares no subtype with this product). Each is still listed in Databases, with the vendor's own words we read that from on its page. How we decide this.
Recompute today's order yourself. The order above is a permutation seeded only on the UTC date and the query key — no vendor name, slug, id or offer field is an input. The list above is every one of the 13 entries in that order, not a prefix of it. The algorithm is published, so anyone can reproduce this page's order without asking us.
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.
Firebase's free tier is called "Spark". 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 https://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 https://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 https://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 https://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 https://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 https://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 https://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 https://firebase.google.com/docs/ai-logic/pricing, read 2026-10-21.) From November 2, 2026, Firebase AI Logic requires App Check enforcement. (From https://firebase.google.com/docs/ai-logic/pricing, read 2026-10-21.) Firebase's Spark plan needs no credit card or other payment method. (From https://firebase.google.com/pricing, read 2026-10-22.)
Is Firebase's free tier reliable?
Firebase's free tier requires caution because of one specific recorded change, on 2026-12-01: 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: https://firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing
Is Firebase's free tier good for production?
Firebase's free tier is usable for prototyping and development, but we rate it caution because of one recorded limit reduction, on 2026-12-01. Consider alternatives with more stable pricing for critical services.
What changed in Firebase's pricing?
Firebase has had 6 recorded pricing changes. Most recently: 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: https://firebase.google.com/docs/remote-config/pricing (2026-09-01).
What are the best free alternatives to Firebase?
We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 13 free alternatives to Firebase in Databases, each listed above with its tier. Of those, 9 carry no recorded demerit and are indistinguishable under every signal we hold, so they are listed in an order that rotates daily, 4 are demoted with the reason named. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
When will I outgrow Firebase's free tier?
At 1 GiB of Firestore data or 50K reads a day, you'll need Blaze. When you outgrow the free tier, evaluate paid plans against alternatives — sometimes a competitor's free tier covers what you need.
What category is Firebase in?
Firebase is categorized under Databases on AgentDeals. We list 13 other Databases services alongside it, every one of them on this page with its free tier and the stability we publish for it.