Firebase vs. Localytics vs. Serverless Framework

Firebase should be your first choice if your platform is mobile first. Firebase's mobile platform support for client-side applications is second to none, and I cannot think of a comparable cross-platform toolkit. Firebase also integrates well with your server-side solution, meaning that you can plug Firebase into your existing app architecture with minimal effort.

Firebase lags behind on the desktop, however. Although macOS support is rapidly catching up, full Windows support is a glaring omission for most Firebase features. This means that if your platform targets Windows, you will need to implement the client functionality manually using Firebase's web APIs and wrappers, or look for another solution.

Incentivized

It is a great product for a smaller team to integrate into their app to start getting some in-depth analytics. The web interface is a great analytics tool without the need for writing SQL. Lack of Unity support makes it a lesser choice for mobile gaming. Like many third-party products, once data needs become substantial, the business will likely outgrow Localytics and will move towards an in-house solution.

Incentivized

• Extremely robust. Has about any tool you can think of under one roof making it extremely useful as a backup platform for data analytics or small teams that need something quickly.
• Intuitive and easy UI/UX. Being made and owned by Google, you expect nothing less. Very easy to use for anyone that has any marketing or analytical experience especially in Google Analytics (which I just assume all marketers do).
• Safe, secure, and sturdy. Never need to worry about downtimes or misinformation as it's as clean and safe as it is being run by Google.
• FREE! What else is there to say. Unless you're an extremely large application handling hundreds of thousands to millions of users, this pay as you go plan will stay free.

Incentivized

• Great web interface which provides a couple of levels of pivoting and filtering of data
• Straight-forward integration for simpler use cases
• Access to raw data through S3 for use in your own data pipeline

Incentivized

• Firebase/Firestore has very limited support for querying more complicated items; for example, performing a simple string search is not possible.
• While upfront costs are low, costs can grow quickly if you're not careful about what you are being billed for.
• Dashboards have at times shown different information to what is billed, and support from Google is less than stellar and not as effective as that from Amazon or Microsoft.

Incentivized

• The biggest thing I would like to see with Localytics is the capability for more correlations. The limited amount of correlations available does restrict the type of analyses that could be done with the data.
• An easier interface to move data into Microsoft Excel would be very useful, rather than creating annoying workarounds.
• More/better automatically scheduled reporting, as well as an Excel plug-in to access the data rather than being restricted to the Localytics interface.

There is a lot of competition. I would renew if there isn't anything more exceptional that would justify the re-coding and implementation load costs

I don't use the Firebase UI much, but rather connect it to GA4. GA4 has a great event model but the GA4 UI and analysis capabilities are limited. It's harder to measure product usage type of engagement but if you have the time and resources to leverage the GA4 to BiqQuery export you'll have all the raw event data you'll need for deep analysis, segmentation, and audience activation.

Incentivized

Our analytics folks handled the majority of the communication when it came to customer service, but as far as I was aware, the support we got was pretty good. When we had an issue, we were able to reach out and get support in a timely fashion. Firebase was easy to reach and reasonably available to assist when needed.

Incentivized

It would take several weeks to hear back from the billing team. It took 3 months to resolve an invoice last year. Their technical support is very responsive. I would typically get a response in under 24 hrs.

Incentivized

Before using Firebase, we exclusively used self hosted database services. Using Firebase has allowed us to reduce reliance on single points of failure and systems that are difficult to scale. Additionally, Firebase is much easier to set up and use than any sort of self hosted database. This simplicity has allowed us to try features that we might not have based on the amount of work they required in the past.

Incentivized

We have not used other products but are going to start exploring making a switch to a new platform.

Incentivized

• Firebase has been able to help us understand reliably, the drop-off in our user flows with their funnel feature. This has made it easy for us to be able to pinpoint weaknesses in our funnel and test and optimize with data as the dependent variable.
• From an economic standpoint, we don't pay for Firebase which is great, but as the saying goes "You get what you pay for" also holds true in this context. As we looked to grow and scale, we looked for a paid solution.
• From a developer resource standpoint, Firebase has been extremely easy to integrate into our app. Whether it be the event tracking, dynamic links or crash reporting we have not had to waste too much developer time thanks to their well-organized developer docs.

Incentivized

• We have seen an increase in usage by sending targeted push notifications.
• For our purposes we don't need as many features as they offer.
• We have an overall negative ROI from Localytics.

Incentivized