Firebase vs Neon for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Firebase Overview

Firebase is Google's all-in-one app development platform. Firestore for your database, Firebase Auth for authentication, Cloud Storage for files, Cloud Functions for backend logic, Hosting for static sites, and a bunch more. The mobile SDKs are especially polished. If you're building an iOS or Android app, Firebase integrates deeply with the native development experience.

The real-time capabilities are what made Firebase famous. Listen to a Firestore document, and your UI updates the instant that document changes. No polling, no WebSocket configuration. It just works. For chat applications, collaborative tools, and live dashboards, Firebase's real-time sync is unmatched in terms of ease of setup.

The free tier covers prototyping and early traction. 1GiB Firestore storage, 50,000 reads per day, 10GB hosting bandwidth. But the NoSQL data model is the fundamental limitation. Firestore stores documents in collections. No joins, no SQL, no aggregations across collections. Your data modeling has to adapt to Firestore's constraints.

Neon Overview

Neon is serverless PostgreSQL. A full Postgres database that scales to zero when inactive and wakes up on the first connection. You get database branching (create instant copies for dev and testing), autoscaling, and fast cold starts. It's PostgreSQL without the server management.

The free tier is solid: 0.5 GiB storage, 190 compute hours per month, and autoscaling. For side projects and early-stage applications, the free tier handles real workloads. The Pro plan at $19/month gives you more storage, compute, and branching capabilities.

Neon is focused. It does one thing, PostgreSQL hosting, and does it well. No auth layer, no file storage, no real-time sync. Just a reliable Postgres database with modern serverless capabilities. If you need those other services, you pair Neon with other tools.

Key Differences

Data model. Firebase uses Firestore, a NoSQL document database. Neon runs PostgreSQL, a full relational database. This is the biggest difference and drives most of the decision. If your data has relationships (users own orders, orders contain products, products belong to categories), PostgreSQL handles that naturally with joins. Firestore requires denormalization and data duplication to model the same relationships.

Query power. Neon gives you full SQL. Joins, aggregations, window functions, CTEs, subqueries, full-text search. Firebase gives you basic document queries with limited filtering and ordering. If you need to run analytics queries, generate reports, or do anything beyond simple lookups, Neon's SQL is in a different league.

Bundled services. Firebase includes auth, storage, hosting, functions, analytics, and more. Neon includes a PostgreSQL database. That's it. If you choose Neon, you need Clerk or Auth.js for auth, Cloudflare R2 or AWS S3 for storage, and Vercel or Netlify for hosting. Firebase bundles everything in one SDK.

Real-time. Firebase has built-in real-time sync that's effortless to use. Neon has no real-time capability. If your app needs live updates, Firebase delivers them natively. With Neon, you'd add a service like Supabase Realtime, Pusher, or build your own WebSocket layer.

Scaling to zero. Neon suspends your database when it's idle and resumes on the first query. You pay nothing during idle time. Firebase's Firestore is always on but charges per operation. For side projects with sporadic traffic, Neon's scale-to-zero means your database costs virtually nothing during quiet periods.

Database branching. Neon lets you create branches of your database for development and testing. Branch your production data, test a migration, delete the branch. Firebase has no equivalent. For solo developers who want to test schema changes safely, Neon's branching is a significant workflow improvement.

Vendor lock-in. Firebase locks you into Google's ecosystem. Your data model, your queries, your auth setup are all Firebase-specific. Neon runs standard PostgreSQL. Your data, your schema, your queries work with any Postgres host. Migrating away from Neon is trivial. Migrating away from Firebase is a substantial rewrite.

When to Choose Firebase

• You're building a mobile app with strong iOS/Android SDK needs
• Real-time sync across clients is a core feature
• You want a complete platform (auth, storage, hosting, database) in one SDK
• Your data model works well as documents without complex relationships
• You want the fastest possible prototype-to-production path

When to Choose Neon

• Your data is relational and you need SQL querying power
• You want serverless PostgreSQL that scales to zero
• Portability matters and you don't want vendor lock-in
• Database branching would improve your development workflow
• You're building a backend with Django, Rails, or Express that needs a database

The Verdict

For solo developers in 2026, Neon edges out Firebase for most projects. The 9/10 vs 8/10 rating reflects Neon's superior data model flexibility and portability.

Firebase is still excellent for what it does best: mobile apps with real-time requirements and simple data models. If you're building a chat app, a collaborative note-taking tool, or a mobile-first product, Firebase's SDK and real-time sync are hard to beat. The integrated platform saves time when you need auth, storage, and hosting alongside your database.

But most solo developer projects have relational data. Users, products, orders, subscriptions, settings. These relationships are natural in SQL and awkward in Firestore. Once you hit a point where you need to join data across entities or run analytical queries, Firestore's limitations become painful. PostgreSQL handles these needs effortlessly.

My recommendation: if you're building something with complex data relationships, a custom backend, or plans to eventually scale, start with Neon. Pair it with Clerk for auth and Cloudflare R2 for storage. If you're building a real-time mobile app with simple data, Firebase remains the faster path. Choose based on your data model, not your familiarity with the platform.