When it comes to choosing a backend solution for your project - either a mobile app or a website - several factors must be considered to make a good selection. Considering effective features of your preferred services is essential. If you are looking for a Backend as a Service solution (BaaS) to enhance the backend of your applications, XServer comes to help.
Let's say it straight: at present, Firebase is a well-known backend, managed by Google, while XServer is an indie backend hosted on Amazon AWS, but it's growing day by day in terms of subscribers and options.
In the table below you can see the comparison between the 2 backends.
| XServer | Firebase | |
|---|---|---|
| Data Storage in JSON format | √ | √ |
| Real-time data sync | √ | √ |
| Visual Database with Tools | √ | No |
| Third-party Authentication | Google, Apple, Facebook | Google, Twitter, Facebook |
| Intuitive Settings Panel | √ | No |
| Download and self-host the API | √ | No |
| Custom Background Job | √ | No |
| Custom code | √ - through the self-hosted API | No |
| SDK Languages | Swift, Java, C#, PHP, Javascript | Swift, Java, C++, C#, Javascript |
| Push Notifications | iOS, Android, + possibility to send campaigns | √ |
| Learning Difficulty Level | •• | •••• |
| Pricing | Free for 10 MB storage - 1 Database | 4 Custom Paid Plans | Free (limits apply) | Blaze plan - Pay as you go |
| Download SDKs on Github | √ | √ |
| Documentation | √ | √ |
As you can see, there are a few points that make developer choose XServer nowadays: the possibility to buy the API and host it on an AWS Lightsail instance - or your own VPS server - which allows you to also customize the UI and code, and the visual database that looks like a spreadsheet, so it makes it easy to manage data.
If you choose to use the XServer Baas at xserver.app you'll be able to easily and quickly configure your database settings for Push Notifications, Google Web Sign-in, email verification on sign up, and upload a custom Javascript file with functions to run background jobs.
Conclusion
If you are building an app or a website that needs a backend, the best option depends on the type of application you are creating.
XServer – Better for apps looking for flexibility, customization on source code and to integrate with other cloud services.
Firebase – Better for apps looking for real-time database and Crash Reporting.