# What is Firebase?

**Firebase** is a Backend-as-a-Service — BaaS — and next-generation app-development platform on Google Cloud Platform.

**Firebase** frees developers to focus on crafting fantastic user experiences. You don’t need to manage servers. You don’t need to write APIs. Firebase is your server, API is your datastore, all written so generically that you can modify it to suit most of the needs. Yeah, you’ll occasionally need to use other bits of the Google Cloud for your advanced applications. Firebase can’t be everything to everybody. But it gets pretty close.

#### Firebase Pros & Cons <a href="#a481" id="a481"></a>

It’s not all roses.

I mean, it’s mostly roses, but watch the thorns.

**Pros**

* Email & password, Google, Facebook, and Github authentication
* Realtime data
* Ready-made api
* Built in security at the data node level
* File storage backed by Google Cloud Storage
* Static file hosting
* Treat data as streams to build highly scalable applications
* Don’t worry about your infrastructure!

**Cons**

* Limited query abilities due to Firebase’s data stream model.
* Traditional relational data models are not applicable to NoSQL; therefore, your SQL chops will not transfer
* No on-premise installation.


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