# Firebase vs Neon

URL: https://buildstackweekly.com/compare/firebase-vs-neon
Updated: October 15, 2026
Prices checked: October 15, 2026

Firebase and Neon are not the same database. Firebase Spark stores documents, needs no payment method, and includes hosting with a custom domain. Neon Free is Postgres, 1 GB per project, and compute scales to zero after 5 minutes. Use Firebase when you want Google's no-cost quotas and documents are fine. Use Neon when the app expects SQL.

Honest pick with no card and a document database: Firebase Spark. Honest pick for Postgres: Neon.

Prices were checked October 15, 2026 on the official pages linked in the table. A number that was not printed there stays TBD. Pair pages that repeat a full guide are not listed here. Those guides stay the canonical page.

## Comparison

### Firebase
Best for: Documents, hosting, and no card
Site: https://firebase.google.com
- Free: Spark is $0 and does not need a payment method. Firestore includes 1 GiB stored, 10 GiB of egress a month, 50,000 reads a day, 20,000 writes a day, and 20,000 deletes a day. Non-phone auth is included. Hosting includes a custom domain and SSL. Cloud Functions are not on Spark. Checked October 15, 2026 on https://firebase.google.com/pricing.
- Paid: Blaze is pay as you go. A flat monthly price is not listed, so that number is TBD. Spark quotas stay included. Firestore overage is Google Cloud pricing and the per-unit rate stays TBD. Cloud Functions include 2 million invocations a month, then $0.40 per million. Checked October 15, 2026 on https://firebase.google.com/pricing.
- Who it is for: You want to ship a small app, use a custom domain on the free plan, and you are fine with documents instead of tables.
- Downside: Cloud Functions are not on Spark. The price past the free Firestore quotas is TBD. This is not a SQL database.

### Neon
Best for: Postgres for an app you are already writing
Site: https://neon.com
- Free: $0, no credit card. 1 GB per project, 20 GB across the account, 100 CU-hours per project, 5 GB egress per project, and up to 60,000 monthly active users. Compute scales to zero after 5 minutes. Checked October 15, 2026 on https://neon.com/pricing.
- Paid: No monthly minimum, so a flat price is TBD. Launch compute is $0.106 per CU-hour. Storage is $0.35 per GB-month. Checked October 15, 2026 on https://neon.com/pricing.
- Who it is for: Your framework already talks to Postgres, and you want the database to sleep when the side project is idle.
- Downside: You do not get Firebase Hosting's custom domain as part of this product. Hit 100 CU-hours or 5 GB of egress and free compute stops until the period resets.

## Questions

### Can I use Firebase and Neon for the same job?

Only if you are choosing a database shape. Firestore is documents with daily read and write quotas. Neon is Postgres with a gigabyte cap and CU-hours. A SQL tutorial will not run on Firestore. A Firestore security rule will not run on Neon.

### Which free plan needs a credit card?

Neither. Firebase Spark does not need a payment method. Neon Free does not need a credit card. Firebase Blaze is the plan that adds billing. Neon Launch is metered and has no monthly minimum.

### Which one includes a custom domain?

Firebase Hosting on Spark includes a custom domain and SSL. Neon is the database, so a custom domain for the website is a hosting question. Vercel vs Netlify is at https://buildstackweekly.com/compare/vercel-vs-netlify.

### What about Supabase?

Supabase is the Postgres option that also includes a table editor, auth, and file storage. Compare it with Firebase on https://buildstackweekly.com/supabase-vs-firebase and with Neon on https://buildstackweekly.com/compare/supabase-vs-neon.

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