I have known about Firebase for a really long time. I’m thinking around 2018 when I was still at University. At the time, I was trying to geek out by learning the most complicated stuff I could get, and Firebase didn’t cut it for that. You can think of it as learning Bootstrap when the goal was learning how to write CSS and JavaScript.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it is for the same reasons that I need Firebase - to be able to bootstrap my ideas into finished products that I can send to the market as soon as possible to be tested. In my wannabe entrepreneurship journey, my biggest problem is prototyping applications as fast as possible. Time is of the essence.
In the past, when I had an idea I wanted to work on, I would start by thinking about what I needed to do, which would normally go on to be something like I need a backend, a database (probably Microsoft SQL or Postgres), and then an Android app and maybe an iOS one and a web app, and all these quickly got overwhelming to build for an indie developer who also has a day job.
Thanks to my colleague, I had the opportunity to revisit Firebase and see what they have to offer, and I am impressed. A lot of things I would have to work on manually are provided for out of the box. We are talking about authentication, real-time databases, notifications, crash analytics, and other features.
While my old model would also have me worried about the cost that comes with hosting, Firebase has an enticing free package, that should have you covered when testing out your ideas.
Now all I have to worry about as an indie developer is creating the client-facing bit of the application, which does feel like 80% of the load has been removed… theoretically.
I have no reason not to build something great for my 1000 true fans so be on the lookout for that, but for now ciao.