Facts read November 6, 2026
Firebase vs Turso
Turso is Cuely's default database pick when your description doesn't favor either one: cheap SQLite databases, practical at one per customer. Pick Firebase if you care most about native mobile apps.
Side by side
| Fact | Firebase | Turso |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Google's app backend: Firestore document database, auth, storage and push messaging. | SQLite-compatible database built for many small databases. |
| Free plan | Spark (free): Firestore 1 GiB stored, 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes per day; Authentication up to 50,000 MAU. | Free, no card: 100 databases, 5 GB storage, 500 million rows read and 10 million rows written per month. |
| Paid from | Blaze: pay as you go, with the Spark allowance included; eligible new accounts get $300 credit. | Developer: $4.99/month (unlimited databases, 9 GB storage). |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $0/month |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Mobile apps that need offline sync; Push notifications; Teams that want no SQL | A database per tenant or per user; Embedded and local-first apps; Read-heavy workloads |
| Watch out | Firestore isn't SQL; reporting and joins are harder than in Postgres. The free Spark plan caps Firestore at 50,000 reads and 20,000 writes a day. | SQLite semantics, not Postgres; many ORMs and extensions differ. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Firebase | Turso |
|---|---|---|
| a database per customer | 0 No particular strength here. | +3 Designed for many databases; 100 are free and Developer is unlimited. |
| native iOS or Android app | +2 Native iOS and Android SDKs with offline sync. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| realtime features | +2 Live listeners on documents. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| fewer vendors | +2 Database, auth, storage and push from one console. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| prefers open source or self-hosting | −2 Proprietary and not self-hostable. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| keep costs as low as possible | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Generous free row limits and a $4.99/month paid plan. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | −1 Multi-tenant reporting is harder without SQL. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| global low latency | 0 No particular strength here. | +1 Embedded replicas can serve reads close to users. |
Sources: Firebase pricing (read November 7, 2026), Turso pricing (read November 6, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.