Firebase vs Amazon DynamoDB

Google's all-in-one meets aws's nosql workhorse: scales like a dream, but you'll pay for every query and pray you never need a join. Here's our take.

Firebase

Nice Pick

Google's all-in-one. Fast to start, painful to leave.

Pros

• Mature ecosystem
• Great docs
• Fast prototyping
• Google scale

Cons

• Vendor lock-in
• NoSQL limits
• Pricing surprises
• Proprietary

Amazon DynamoDB

AWS's NoSQL workhorse: scales like a dream, but you'll pay for every query and pray you never need a JOIN.

Pros

• Fully managed with automatic scaling and multi-AZ replication
• Single-digit millisecond latency for key-value operations
• Built-in security, backup, and in-memory caching with DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)

Cons

• Pricing model can get expensive with high throughput or large datasets
• Limited query flexibility compared to relational databases (no JOINs, complex queries)

The Verdict

Use Firebase if: You want mature ecosystem and can live with vendor lock-in.

Use Amazon DynamoDB if: You prioritize fully managed with automatic scaling and multi-az replication over what Firebase offers.

The Bottom Line

Firebase wins

Google's all-in-one. Fast to start, painful to leave.