Firebase vs Mailgun
Google's mobile & web app development platform
vs. Email API for developers with deep deliverability tooling
Pricing tiers
Firebase
Spark (No-cost)
Free tier with generous quotas. No credit card required. Cannot exceed free quotas.
Free
Blaze (Pay as you go)
Usage-based billing. Includes Spark quotas free, then pay Google Cloud rates. Required for Cloud Functions outbound networking, scheduled jobs, some extensions.
Custom
Mailgun
Free
100 emails/day. 1 custom domain, 1-day log retention, 1 inbound route. No credit card.
Free
Basic
$15/month. 10,000 emails/month, no daily limit, 5 inbound routes.
$15/mo
Foundation
$35/month (1st month free). 50,000 emails/month, 1,000 custom domains, 5-day retention.
$35/mo
Scale
$90/month. 100,000 emails/month, SAML SSO, 5,000 email validations, dedicated IP pools, 30-day retention.
$90/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Deliverability services, managed onboarding.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing spark on Firebase vs free on Mailgun.
| Metric | Firebase | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| auth mau | 50000 users/month | — |
| firestore deletes per day | 20000 docs/day | — |
| firestore egress gib month | 10 GiB/month | — |
| firestore reads per day | 50000 docs/day | — |
| firestore storage gib | 1 GiB | — |
| firestore writes per day | 20000 docs/day | — |
| functions cpu seconds | 200000 CPU-sec/month | — |
| functions gb seconds | 400000 GB-sec/month | — |
| functions invocations | 2000000 invocations/mo | — |
| functions outbound gb | 5 GB/month | — |
| hosting storage gb | 10 GB | — |
| hosting transfer gb month | 10.8 GB/month | — |
| phone sms verifications day | 10 sms/day | — |
| rtdb connections | 100 connections | — |
| rtdb downloaded gb month | 10 GB/month | — |
| rtdb stored gb | 1 GB | — |
| storage downloaded gb day | 1 GB/day | — |
| storage gb | 5 GB | — |
| storage operations day | 50000 ops/day | — |
Features
Firebase · 20 features
- A/B Testing — Experiments on Remote Config params, FCM notifications, and Analytics events. Ba…
- App Check — Attestation service: only requests from authentic, untampered app instances reac…
- App Hosting — Managed hosting for modern web apps (Next.js, Angular, SvelteKit). Git-based dep…
- Cloud Firestore — Serverless NoSQL document database. Real-time sync, ACID transactions, offline p…
- Cloud Functions — Serverless functions (Node.js/Python). Trigger on HTTP, Firestore, RTDB, Auth, S…
- Cloud Storage — Object storage for user files. Built on GCS. Security rules + signed URLs. Resum…
- Crashlytics — Real-time crash reporting for iOS/Android/Unity/Flutter. Stack traces, breadcrum…
- Data Connect — GraphQL API backed by Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. Type-safe SDK generation. Previe…
- Dynamic Links — Deep links that survive app install. NOTE: deprecated, shutdown Aug 2025 — migra…
- FCM Topics — Publish/subscribe messaging: devices subscribe to topic names; backend sends one…
- Firebase AI Logic — Client-side SDK to call Gemini models directly from mobile/web. Formerly "Vertex…
- Firebase Authentication — Drop-in auth: email/password, phone, anonymous, 10+ federated providers, custom …
- Firebase Cloud Messaging — Push notifications for iOS, Android, Web (APNs/FCM transports). Topics, device g…
- Firebase Extensions — Pre-packaged Cloud Functions + config: Stripe, Algolia search, image resize, tra…
- Firebase Hosting — Static + dynamic hosting with global CDN. Preview channels, atomic deploys, rewr…
- Genkit — Open-source AI app framework. Unified API for Gemini, OpenAI, Ollama; tools, RAG…
- Google Analytics for Firebase — Free unlimited event tracking with audience building. BigQuery export on Blaze. …
- Performance Monitoring — App startup, HTTP network, and custom traces. Integrates with Google Analytics e…
- Realtime Database — Low-latency JSON tree database with WebSocket sync. Best for high-frequency pres…
- Remote Config — Feature flags / parameterized config with conditional targeting (user property, …
Mailgun · 14 features
- Batch Sending — Send up to 1,000 recipients per API call via recipient variables.
- Dedicated IPs — IP pools with auto warmup. Scale+ tier.
- Deliverability Suite — Inbox placement testing, DMARC reporting, seed lists.
- Email Logs — Searchable log of all send attempts + events.
- Email Templates — Template builder + variables + versioning.
- Email Validation — Real-time email verification (syntax, MX, role accounts, disposable).
- EU Region — Data stored in EU for GDPR-sensitive customers.
- Inbound Routing — Route incoming emails to URLs/SMTP. Attachment forwarding.
- Mailing Lists — Unlimited mailing lists with bulk subscribe/unsubscribe.
- Open/Click Tracking — HTML + text tracking with configurable tracking domain.
- SAML SSO — Scale+ tier.
- Send API — REST/SMTP send with MIME + tracking.
- Tags — Tag messages to slice stats.
- Webhook Events — delivered, opened, clicked, unsubscribed, complained, permanent_fail, temporary_…
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Firebase | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Firebase CLI | — |
| SDK | Admin SDK (Go), Admin SDK (Java), Admin SDK (Node.js), Admin SDK (Python), Android SDK, Apple Platforms SDK, Flutter SDK (FlutterFire), JavaScript SDK, Unity SDK | mailgun.js (Node), mailgun-php, mailgun-python, mailgun-ruby |
| REST | Auth REST API, Cloud Storage REST, Firebase Management API, Firestore REST API, Realtime Database REST | Mailgun REST API |
| MCP | Firebase MCP Server | — |
| OTHER | Firestore gRPC, Realtime Database WebSocket | Inbound Routing, SMTP Relay, Webhooks |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Firebase and Mailgun are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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