Firebase vs PlanetScale for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Firebase Overview

Firebase is Google's app development platform. You get Firestore (a NoSQL document database), authentication, file storage, hosting, cloud functions, push notifications, analytics, and remote config. It's a complete backend with especially strong mobile SDKs. You can build a full application without writing a single backend API endpoint.

The Spark (free) tier is genuinely generous. 1GiB Firestore storage, 50,000 daily reads, 20,000 daily writes, 10GB hosting bandwidth. For prototypes and early-stage projects, that's plenty of room to build and test without spending money.

Real-time sync is Firebase's signature feature. Update a document in Firestore and every connected client sees the change instantly. No WebSocket setup, no pub/sub configuration, no polling. Just listen to a document or collection, and changes appear. For chat apps, collaborative tools, and dashboards, this is transformative.

The tradeoff is that Firestore is NoSQL. No joins, no SQL, no relational queries. You model your data as documents and collections, and you query within those constraints. Complex data relationships that are natural in SQL become awkward in Firestore.

PlanetScale Overview

PlanetScale is serverless MySQL built on Vitess. The core value is database branching and non-blocking schema changes. Create a branch, modify your schema, test it, and merge it back to production without any downtime. No locked tables, no maintenance windows. Your application keeps running while the schema changes apply.

PlanetScale removed their free tier. The Scaler plan starts at $39/month with 10GB storage and 1 billion row reads. For a solo developer, paying $39/month from day one is a significant commitment, especially when free alternatives exist.

The developer experience is solid. A clean dashboard, a CLI for managing branches, and compatibility with standard MySQL tools and ORMs. If you know MySQL, PlanetScale feels familiar. The branching workflow adds a layer of safety for schema changes that traditional MySQL doesn't provide.

Key Differences

Data model. Firebase uses Firestore, a NoSQL document database. You store JSON-like documents in collections. PlanetScale runs MySQL, a relational database with tables, rows, columns, and SQL. If your data is naturally relational (users, orders, products with relationships between them), PlanetScale's SQL model is a better fit. If your data is document-oriented with less rigid structure, Firebase might work.

Scope of service. Firebase is a platform with database, auth, storage, hosting, functions, analytics, and more. PlanetScale is just a MySQL database. If you choose PlanetScale, you need separate services for auth, file storage, and hosting. Firebase bundles everything. For a solo developer minimizing moving parts, Firebase's integrated approach saves time.

Free tier. Firebase has a generous one. PlanetScale doesn't have one at all. For experimentation, prototyping, and side projects, this matters. You can build and launch on Firebase's free tier. PlanetScale costs $39/month from the start.

Query capabilities. PlanetScale supports full SQL: joins, aggregations, subqueries, window functions. Firebase's Firestore supports basic document queries with limited filtering and no joins. If you need to generate reports, run analytics queries, or join data across entities, PlanetScale (or any SQL database) is dramatically more capable.

Real-time. Firebase has built-in real-time sync across all connected clients. PlanetScale has no real-time capability. If your application needs live updates (chat, collaborative editing, live dashboards), Firebase delivers that out of the box. With PlanetScale, you'd need to build real-time on top with something like Pusher or Socket.io.

Pricing model. Firebase charges per read, write, and storage. Costs can spike unpredictably with traffic. PlanetScale charges a flat monthly fee with usage limits. Firebase's pay-per-operation model is cheaper for low-traffic apps but riskier for apps that go viral. PlanetScale's flat pricing is more predictable.

When to Choose Firebase

• You're building a mobile app or real-time web application
• You want a complete platform with auth, storage, hosting, and database
• Real-time sync across clients is important
• You want to start free and pay only as usage grows
• Your data model works well as documents rather than relational tables

When to Choose PlanetScale

• Your data is relational and you need SQL querying
• You need non-blocking schema changes for a production database
• Database branching is important for your development workflow
• You prefer MySQL and want a managed, serverless MySQL platform
• Your application doesn't need real-time sync from the database layer

The Verdict

For most solo developers, Firebase is the better choice. The 8/10 vs 6/10 rating reflects Firebase's broader feature set, free tier, and lower barrier to entry.

Firebase gives you a complete backend platform. Auth, storage, hosting, real-time database, and more. You can build and ship a full application without adding any other services. The free tier lets you validate your idea before spending money.

PlanetScale gives you an excellent MySQL database with great tooling for schema changes. But that's all it gives you. You need to add auth, storage, hosting, and everything else separately. The lack of a free tier means you're spending $39/month before your first user signs up.

The main reason to choose PlanetScale over Firebase is if your data is highly relational and you need SQL. Firestore's NoSQL model breaks down with complex data relationships and reporting queries. If your application needs serious querying power, a SQL database is essential, and PlanetScale provides a great managed MySQL experience.

My recommendation: if you're building something fast and don't need complex SQL, Firebase gets you there with less effort and less cost. If your data model demands SQL, skip PlanetScale and look at Supabase or Neon instead. Both offer PostgreSQL with free tiers. The only compelling reason for PlanetScale is MySQL-specific requirements.