In this blog, I will explore a critical decision that Indie Hackers and startups often grapple with, which is selecting the ideal real-time database platform for building a Real-Time Collaborative Application with Next.js. My focus in this blog will be on Firebase , AWS Amplify , and Supabase , dissecting their features, limitations, and costs, and ultimately pinpointing the most suitable platform for Indie Hackers. When it comes to platforms for real-time database applications, three platforms stand out: Firebase , AWS Amplify , and Supabase . Each has its strengths, but not all are perfectly tailored to the specific requirements of Indie Hackers, particularly those primarily concerned with developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and swift feature development and testing.

When I am working on personal projects, I often find the need to setup an API that serves up data to my app or webpages. I get frustrated when I end up spending too much time on hosting and environment issues. These days what I end up doing is hosting the API using Cloud Functions for Firebase . It hits all my requirements: The official name is Cloud Functions for Firebase. In this article, I am going to call it Firebase Functions. This is mostly to distinguish it from Google's other serverless functions-as-a-service: Cloud Functions. You can read more about the differences here . From that page:

In this article, we will learn how to implement Firebase authentication in a React app.