Firebase development
Build scalable, real-time mobile and web applicationswith Firebase and Google's infrastructure
Firebase can give a small team authentication, a real-time database and hosting without a server to run. The catch is in the details: access rules live in your hands, bills follow your read patterns, and leaving later takes work. We plan for those from the first day.
What Firebase work covers
Most of the value, and most of the risk, is in the data model and the rules.
Firestore data modelling
Structuring collections around the screens that read them, because Firestore queries are limited and every document read is counted.
Security Rules
Client apps talk to the database directly, so the rules are your access control. We write them with tests, using the local emulator.
Cloud Functions
Server-side work such as payments, notifications and third-party calls, for anything a client app can't be trusted to do.
Cost and performance reviews
Finding listeners and queries that read far more documents than the screen needs, which is a common reason for a bill rising unexpectedly.
Firebase details to plan around
From Google's Firebase documentation, as of October 2026.
Budgets don't stop spending
Google is explicit that budget alerts don't cap your usage or charges. They only notify you. Cloud Functions needs the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, so a spending safeguard has to be part of the design.
Write limits are real
Google recommends the 500/50/5 rule: at most 500 operations per second on a new collection, growing 50% every 5 minutes. Sequentially indexed fields such as timestamps limit a collection to 500 writes per second.
Some products have ended
Firebase Dynamic Links was scheduled to shut down on 25 August 2025. An app still relying on those links needs another deep-linking route. Check every Firebase product you rely on.
When Firebase is right
It is very good at some things, and hard to escape when it stops fitting.
A good fit
Mobile-first products, chat and live updates, and early products with a small team and no one to run servers. Authentication and notifications alone can save real time.
A poor fit
Heavy reporting, complex joins and financial records across many documents. Firestore is not designed for ad hoc queries, so reporting usually needs an export to something else.
SQL Connect is an alternative
Firebase Data Connect, now called SQL Connect, provides a managed PostgreSQL database through Cloud SQL, with GraphQL and generated SDKs. It suits relational data within Firebase.
Plan the exit in advance
Firestore data and rules don't move directly to another database, and app code often calls Firebase everywhere. Keeping those calls behind a small layer makes leaving much cheaper.
How a Firebase project runs
The rules and the bill are designed with the data, not added on afterwards.
List screens and their reads
For each screen, we estimate document reads and writes, so you can see a realistic bill before you commit to a structure.
Write rules alongside the model
Rules and data structure are designed together, and rule tests run in the emulator as part of CI.
Separate the environments
Development, staging and production are different Firebase projects, so that a test can't touch real users or real data.
Launch with alerts and App Check
Budget alerts, a spending safeguard and App Check to limit abuse are all in place before the app is public.
How Firebase work is scoped
An audit of rules and costs is a sensible first step for an existing app.
A Security Rules and cost review is short and well defined, so it can be quoted up front. A full app build is scoped from the screen list. Hourly help runs from $20/h in USD, invoiced in USD, GBP, EUR or INR.
We are an engineering team in India with 3–5 hours of overlap with the UK and Europe; US calls by appointment. A mobile build and its back end can be tested together each day. If you expect relational data or heavy reporting, compare this with a conventional back end on Node.js or Laravel before you decide.
Why this page lists no Firebase apps
Most of our work is delivered under NDA, so many projects cannot be named.
Accordingly, we explain what we would look at in your project, and leave client names out. Sharing your Security Rules file with us is a practical first step, and one that tells us a lot.
Questions about Firebase
Often asked once an app has gone live and the bill arrives.
Why is our Firebase bill rising?
Are default Firebase rules safe?
Can we move off Firebase later?
Firestore or Realtime Database?
Worried about your rules or your bill?
Tell us what the app does and which Firebase products you use. We will tell you what we would review first.
We reply within one business day (IST).