One of the major differences between Stytch and Firebase is product coverage and the flexibility of authentication methods available. Firebase may work well for those looking for basic authentication features, but those looking for more advanced authentication features such as biometrics, time-based OTP, Web3 logins, or additional social OAuth providers like Discord, Slack, or Amazon will find that Stytch offers a wider breadth of solutions.

Moreover, Stytch’s API-first approach allows for maximum flexibility, enabling you to build more nuanced, custom authentication logic like just-in-time step-up challenges. On the other hand, Firebase doesn’t offer MFA or “Cloud Function” access for building more custom logic without upgrading to Identity Platform, and even then there is relatively limited flexibility.

In addition to authentication, Stytch also offers highly flexible fraud tools with Strong CAPTCHA and Device Fingerprinting, which leverages a broad set of nuanced parameters that allow you to build more fine-grained logic around how to treat traffic by risk level.

Both Firebase and Stytch offer off-the-shelf prebuilt UIs that allow you to quickly spin up login flows with some customization options available. The major difference you’ll find is that FirebaseUI is more focused on mobile experiences, whereas Stytch may be a better fit if your login flows span multiple platforms across web and mobile.

Firebase and Stytch also both offer SDKs that allow for much more control over building your own login UI to fit the look-and-feel of your brand. However, Stytch goes a step further with offering direct API access to Stytch’s authentication endpoints, which gives you maximum flexibility if you have an existing or more complex backend stack you’re looking to integrate with.

Those with large or quickly growing user bases may also find Stytch’s scalability to be a better solution. In general, Stytch aims to abstract away complexity and handle edge cases, for example by maximizing SMS/email deliverability through built-in failover redundancy, or automatically deduplicating accounts when users switch between authentication methods.

Firebase Authentication is a part of the broader Firebase hosting platform, which in turn is a part of Google’s large suite of cloud offerings. In contrast, Stytch as a whole is focused on authentication, identity, and access management, meaning the company’s attention and resources are directed towards building and maintaining this core functionality. Whereas one may find it hard to access the latest authentication innovations or receive timely support with Firebase, Stytch’s sole focus on authentication means product resources are devoted to continued expansion of Stytch’s authentication suite to keep up with the latest technologies, and support resources are similarly devoted to customers’ authentication issues and use cases.

In general, you’ll find that Firebase comes out to a lower cost on a per-unit basis. There is a generous free tier with low pay-as-you-go rates for additional usage, and “Identity Platform” pricing enables access to add-on features at relatively low unit rates. However, Firebase’s pricing can be difficult to navigate and calculate given how every feature is priced differently, so you may find overall costs hard to predict. Fast-growing companies may also find that they quickly outgrow Firebase’s more limited product offerings.