Serverpod vs Firebase

Serverpod is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to Firebase for Flutter. It provides a Dart backend powered by PostgreSQL, giving you more control over your data, pricing, and backend infrastructure.

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Serverpod vs Firebase at a glance

Both give a Flutter app its backend. The difference is ownership, where Serverpod is a framework you run on your own infrastructure, and Firebase is a suite of services hosted by Google.

What is Firebase?

Firebase is Google’s app development platform, offering hosted databases, authentication, storage, functions, and a mobile-services suite with push notifications, analytics, and crash reporting. It is excellent for getting an app live quickly without running a backend. It suits teams that want managed services and are comfortable inside Google’s ecosystem.

What is Serverpod?

Serverpod is an open-source backend framework for Flutter and Dart, and a Firebase alternative for teams that want to own their backend. You write endpoint methods in Dart, store data in your own PostgreSQL, and Serverpod generates a type-safe client for your app.

How they compare

The real decision is owning a backend or renting one. With Serverpod, your logic and data run where you choose. With Firebase, they run inside Google’s services, billed per operation.

SQL database or documents

Serverpod stores data in PostgreSQL, with models defined in YAML, typed queries, and versioned migrations. Firestore is a document store that is flexible to start, and harder to query relationally as an app grows. Firebase now also offers Firebase SQL Connect (formerly Data Connect), a separate product that puts a Cloud SQL Postgres instance behind generated SDKs, billed on its own meter.

A relational query in Serverpod is one typed call.

final orders = await Order.db.find(
  session,
  where: (t) => t.customer.country.equals('Sweden'),
  include: Order.include(customer: Customer.include()),
);

In Firestore, the same result usually means multiple document reads and stitching the data together in your app.

A self-hosted backend, without lock-in

Serverpod runs as a Docker container on any cloud, and your data is plain PostgreSQL, which you can move, back up, or query directly. Firebase has no self-hosted option. Google states the emulator suite is for local development only. Leaving Firebase later means exporting proprietary document data and rebuilding the API layer, so the ownership decision is best made early.

Business logic in Dart

Custom logic in Firebase lives in Cloud Functions, written in TypeScript or Python, with Dart support currently experimental. Your team maintains a second language next to the Flutter code. In Serverpod, backend logic is endpoint methods in the same Dart language your team already writes, allowing you to share data models between your backend and your app.

Real-time and offline

Firestore’s live listeners and offline persistence are mature, enabled by default on mobile, and a genuine strength. In Serverpod, an endpoint method returns a Stream of your models over a managed WebSocket, typed end-to-end. For offline, Serverpod gives the app a local SQLite database with the same generated ORM as the server. Changes sync automatically, and conflicts resolve themselves. Your data and its relations are kept consistent, with no sync code to write.

Predictable pricing

Firebase Pricing: Uses the Blaze plan, which meters each operation, such as Firestore reads at $0.06 and writes at $0.18 per 100,000 (multi-region rate). Traffic spikes or inefficient queries directly affect the bill. Current rates are on the Firebase pricing page.

Serverpod Pricing: Free to self-host on your own servers, while Serverpod Cloud offers flat monthly tiers starting from $19 per month.

Migrating from Firebase

Serverpod supports Firebase Authentication as an identity provider, so your users can keep signing in with Firebase while you move data and logic to your own backend. Signing out of Serverpod also signs the user out of Firebase, keeping the two in sync. Run both side by side and move one feature at a time into endpoint methods and PostgreSQL. Keep services such as push notifications on Firebase for as long as they serve you.

Everything you get with Serverpod

Why teams choose Serverpod

Frequently asked questions