Google adds free analytics tool to Firebase

Feature Image Credit: Google Firebase Blog

In 2014, Google made (yet another) fateful strategic acquisition, this time taking over a company called Firebase, which was a back-end cloud services solution for mobile app developers. In short, Firebase provides app developers with an SDK (software development kit) that can be plugged into their app and connected to Firebase's backend infrastructure, eliminating the need to build and maintain a custom backend. Following the Facebook acquisition and subsequent shutdown of Firebase competitor Parse earlier this year and in the wake of a Google announcement to expand Firebase's feature set, Firebase's popularity grew significantly and it became known as the best alternative to Parse or building a custom backend.

Now, Google is expanding Firebase's feature set even further into the app marketing realm (beyond enabling conversion tracking for Adwords that is as easy as it is for Android apps) by releasing unlimited data analytics for Firebase customers that is based on the universally familiar web tool: Google Analytics.



While marketers who want advanced data analytics features may still opt for integrating more advanced systems such as Mixpanel, the new Firebase analytics may prove sufficient for the vast majority of app marketers & teams, just as Google Analytics has done for the web.

Similarly, while many developers will continue to opt for building their own custom backends, Google's commitment to expanding Firebase's service offerings threatens to steal market share from cloud backend leaders and competitors Microsoft and Amazon by simplifying the backend setup process, layering useful tools and features over the basic backend service offering and by proving Google's commitment to the success of its Firebase product.

“It’s driven by this one thought that the process of creating a successful app needs to be more simple, and that’s why we’ve built this next generation of Firebase,”