Firebase Case Studies
Hi folks
I've been sitting on this idea for building up a blog of Firebase case studies.
I'm a keen advocate of Firebase myself having used it to build a SaaS. I enjoy the community and I'm interested in promoting it further.
The case studies would be interviews with founders and/or developers who have built products on the Firebase platform. Think of it like IH interviews or StarterStory but for the Firebase niche, where it is centred around which Firebase components are used, what UI framework is used on top and the rationale for using it.
My first target would be to provide value for anyone in the Firebase community so that they can see what others have built using Firebase.
The second target would be to promote its potential outside the community and help the community grow.
I would ask for an email address to build a mailing list. These subscribers would initially (until I have more content) get notified of new case studies before anyone else, and would be engaged to help shape future case study interviews.
My concerns are:
- Is this something people want?
To hopefully answer this, I've added polls on Twitter https://twitter.com/thunk/status/1287376379563180032?s=19) & Reddit (/r/Firebase subreddit).
I've still got a few days to go on both of these polls before they close as I set them for a week (beginning to think that was too long, thoughts?)
If you're interested in Firebase in any way, I'd love your feedback via either poll. So far, I've amassed over 500 votes across both platforms. Is that a decent response given I've got less than 200 followers on Twitter and low (double figures) karma on Reddit? I genuinely don't know.
- Are there enough interesting case studies and enough people interested out there for a niche platform like Firebase to make it worthwhile? (Niche relative to AWS, Azure & GCP even)
My research shows Firebase has 112k followers on Twitter, 275k subscribers on Youtube & the subreddit has 9.5k members so on those basic numbers seem pretty encouraging to me.
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Am I missing out on any other platforms the Firebase community hangs out on?
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Has someone already built this that I'm not aware of?
3 & 4 I'm hoping you folks can help me on these!
Anyway, I'm trying this all out in the open for the first time to see how it goes, so this is a brain dump of what I'm thinking and where I'm at.
I'd be interested in people's thoughts in general and/or on the questions I've asked in this post.
If anyone is particularly interested in this, please reach out, as you can see from the length of this post, I'm keen to talk!
I know it's a long one, thanks for reading!
shanc is built on firebase. I love firebase for my side projects.
I don't have to worry about any server cost what so ever. It gives me the freedom to work on my monetization plan at my own pace.
4-5 years ago I used firebase for a marketplace app (let's say eBay clone) it was horrible. designing NoSQL database and permission schemas are incredibly complex. even making thumbnails was a nightmare. You have to be able to design "serverless" which is much more complex than a conventional authoritative server.
BUT they have improved a lot, they added lots of lots of helpers and features that were critical, so I assume it's better now. But for me, I'd rather not go into that route again.
Another flipside is.. direct messaging was so easy to make and real-time updates were amazing, this is where a solution like Firebase shines and it was fun to work with.
A real engineer knows which tools to use for which problems, so I'd suggest using firebase for part of your app where it makes sense but the relational and privacy-critical data should be handled by a regular server IMO.
I just wrote this on a whim.. but yeah that's my experience. I get chills whenever I hear Firebase.
Interesting points, some of which are probably valid.
I cannot contrast the Firebase of now to that of 4-5 years ago as I only started with it around 18 months ago.
What I can say is that the Firestore db is far superior in capability to that of the Realtime db.
However, they are both document databases so regardless of which one you use, if your are looking for relational database behaviour as you day, choose something else
Honestly, just make 10 tutorials. Post them here and on reddit and youtube, share on Twitter. If it gets traction, keep going. If you like it, keep going. If both of those are no, then stop.
great advice @stusim. That is pretty much the idea (perhaps a little, smidge more). Its all about getting those interviews out there. Content is first and foremost and I'm guessing always should be.
:)
I should add that I'm interested haha. Just started using firebase through GCP, just the basics but good so far.
Good luck :)
I would be interested in this. Its easier to use than other solutions but there's alot I don't know
thanks Ulysses!
I have mixed feelings about using Firebase. If I am using it for small projects where I wouldn't have to migrate data and no sensitive data is involved then it is a very good option. In that case, I would love to use it for free of cost.
However, it is tough to migrate data and switch to any other database when you use Firebase. Indeed to it is important to know all of its secrets, and I found this source https://blog.back4app.com/firebase/ helpful in this regard. Similarly, there are many research reports that show how Firebase put the users' data at risk. A report of security researchers of Comparitech says that Firebase leaked data of users from its 24k Android apps. You can also see the report here https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/firebase-misconfiguration-report/.
In the same token, Firebase is also facing some lawsuits which claim that Google accessed the user information via Firebase apps. In my opinion, Firebase should address all of these issues. Moreover, it is very easy to proceed with paid plan because it is unpredictable to know the cost.
Just linking my follow-up post here to close this out.
If anyone would like to feature, please hit me up on here or on Twitter.
I've used Firebase for around 5 years and built one app that scaled from 0 to 50k users in two weeks. Lots of lessons learned with Firebase and flexed it's limits having to deal with exploding indexes and batch chunking. It's a great platform long as you know it's limits and workarounds. Happy to contribute!
https://www.marcuswood.io/products/guess-the-throne
Fascinating Marcus. I'd be delighted to speak to you about this if you are up for it?
Yeah for sure! Shoot me a message and we'll set something up.
Would also be insterested in reading your blog. In particular, I am interested in how well Firebase is suited for the development of mobile multi-tenant applications with low latency.
Excellent @Druux.
Hopefully the architecture discussions would bring out facets such as multi-tenancy.
Watermark.ink is completely built on Firebase. I am thinking of moving some parts to Digital Ocean/BackBlaze.
@prakis, I'm guessing you aren't happy with the tech or pricing or perhaps both and that is forcing you to migrate.
So I'd be interested in speaking to you about this. I want warts and all perspectives, not just feel good stories.
Firebase tech I am very happy, for storage and hosting price increases drastically. I am not planning to migrate the complete application only the part of templates and images.
Feel free to contact me.
This cases work like magic when you're pitching the use of Firebase (or any other tech) to your client. Even better if you guys can do it industry-specific. When selling, I've used the Sworkit example a 100 times and it always helps me with skepticals.
great feedback @viewcart, thank you.
I hadn't thought of industry verticals, its definitely something we could categorise by.
I'm building MockRocket.io on Firebase and I've built lots of past projects with it as well. 100% would be interested in this!
yep, I agree with @PaoloAmoroso, looks promising and slick.
@dfeehrer I see you are at early access stage just now. Perhaps we could talk about what timeframes you are looking at for launch and take it from there?
We could even look at one of your past projects first. I'm not adverse to interviewing the same developer/founder multiple times if they have multiple Firebase projects
Awesome! So I'm working full time on MockRocket and I have a pretty solid MVP but there are some more basic features I need to finish up and then some work on adding more 3D models. I'm hoping to be ready for first customers in the next 6 weeks or so. I'll probably have more to talk about then or in a few months, as the tech stack will probably shift a little bit.
All my other Firebase projects are pretty small personal projects, AppointmentScanner.com is the only one that made (a very small amount of) revenue.
MockRocket looks pretty slick. Do you have a good assortment of mobile and desktop devices in the Google ecosystem? I explained why here
I definitely aim to have a good selection of Android devices available, not just Apple devices. I probably will start with the latest Pixel, Samsung and OnePlus devices at the very least and I can look into a Chromebook as well. But if you have any specific device requests, let me know and I'll do my best to prioritize them. At some point once it's launched I'll probably throw up a board where users can rank requests for specific devices and other features too
Thanks, I use mostly Google mobile devices, currently a Pixel.
My needs are pretty basic now and I'm not sure I'll be able to afford your powerful tool. But I'm interested in following its development as it's the most innovative mockup generator I've seen.
Sounds good! Pixel will be there for sure.
If you're interested, I'd love to learn more about what you'd want out of a mockup tool and how much you would be willing to pay–I'm sure there are lots of other users who also need basic/occasional mockups. I'll shoot you a message on Twitter!
See your DMs.
Considering I don't know the answer to your #3, I would love if you made this a thing. I want to know how other people use Firebase, what sort of limitations people discover and how to get around them, and how big/active the community is in general.
I'd also like to see smarter/more successful people than me explain why they use Firebase, to make me feel less like a noob lol.
thanks for the feedback @katangafor. I like the limitations aspect, I will be sure to incorporate that in the questions.
As a product manager and founder, I would definitely be interested in a blog of Firebase case studies. I can see this as a great way for other founders or product managers to understand what is capable on Firebase when they're considering their dev platform.
We're currently building on Firebase, but there was minimal content for Firebase when I was researching it beforehand for our particular use case. Would have loved to see more.
Exactly @dardang, this would be one of the hopes for the interviews; to demonstrate how Firebase can be used. I think a lot of people still think its just a mobile dev platform only.
Thanks for the feedback
ps, have you tried Twitter or reddit polls, and what response did you get?
I'm actually new to Twitter, so haven't tried polls out yet. Do you find them helpful? How often do you use them?
I think its only the 2nd time for me @dardang. My 1st time I can't even remember what it was for, and I don't think I got a single response!
Definitely think asking the right people to retweet was key.
I build on Firebase and would find it useful. I don't see much content for Firebase, so I think there is a gap in the market.
If I get this off the ground Girish, we should keep in touch to see if any of your Firebase projects would be worth building into a case study.
Sure, if we can craft a good case study, happy to join.
Thanks @girishw, my thoughts exactly - I think its one of the things missing with Firebase
I'm building on Firebase right now and so I'd definitely be interested in this content. I've never seen anything like this beyond shallow promotional content, so something more in-depth for practitioners would be appreciated.
A quick google search yielded these:
https://firebase.google.com/use-cases
https://firebase.google.com/docs/auth/case-studies
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-cee/success-stories/local-case-studies/using-google-firebase-baneasaro-increases-app-actions-180/
https://www.starterstory.com/tools/firebase/success-stories
As you can see, these are more marketing materials than useful information for developers.
If my app eventually becomes a success, I'd be happy to be a case study.
thanks @stevenkkim.
yeah, I did the exact same search. The closest thing would the the StarterStory content from Pat Walls, which is great in itself, but I'd hope to look a little more under the hood to see what Firebase products are being used and how.
I'd be very open to have you on with your app (its a win-win) so I wish you luck with your app too!
As for interesting case studies, you may start from the developers Google features on its official channels (blogs, social profiles, and so on) and ask them whether they use Firebase.
Looks like you already have an interesting case study down the corner.
thanks so much @PaoloAmoroso - the IH commmunity rocks!
Yes, there are likely enough significant Firebase projects here to keep you busy for a while.
I'm not much familiar with Firebase as I'm only a hobby programmer. But over 500 votes with 200 Twitter followers is beyond outstanding. With my 2.8K followers I can get a dozen votes to my polls on a good day.
thanks @PaoloAmoroso. I asked some prominent Firebase community people for a retweet. I only got a couple of them doing so, but I think it made all the difference.
I wouldn't normally do that kind of thing, but I guess its in their interests as well to help promote something which might help the overall community that they work in. It would be interesting if I got any feedback to say that it was a no-no.
I think it's a great idea. This can help the bootstrapped founders who want to achieve maximum with low budget and firebase does a great job in it. There aren't any specific communities around Firebase, I guess (or they aren't 'visible' enough).
I built Designtack on Firebase as well. Let me know if I can be of help. I would be happy to share my story :)
hey @vd, yeah I definitely think there is a gap there with Firebase community, and I'm hoping this might just fill it.
I'll definitely add you to the list!
Sounds great. Looking forward.
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Thank you @mckayonline