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A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

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Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#11
> Always build your architecture in a way that will avoid becoming trapped into a specific service. Amazon’s AWS Lambda sitting between any services and your app is a strongly recommended path!

Isn't using AWS Lamba as your gateway, trapping you into using a specific service, just as much as firebase was?

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#12

> Always build your architecture in a way that will avoid becoming trapped into a specific service. Amazon’s AWS Lambda sitting between any services and your app is a strongly recommended path! Isn't using AWS Lamba as your gateway, trapping you into using a specific service, just as much as firebase was?

Sounds so to me, all that takes is lambda changing how they charge and suddenly your hard-coded app is stuck again.

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#13
post #10

I find it hard to reconcile this suggestion at the bottom of the article > Always build your architecture in a way that will avoid becoming trapped into a specific service. Amazon’s AWS Lambda sitting between any services and your app is a strongly recommended path! - Build without depending on external services - You can do this by depending on this external service

I don't feel that relying on an external service is always bad as long as there's no vendor lock-in with technologies that are open standards. Case in point the managed postgresql and mysql services that Amazon, MS, and Google all support. That said I'm extremely wary of Cloud Spanner and Azure Cosmos DB or any specialized service that the big 3 offer.

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#14
Reminds me of getting Bait-and-Switch'd by Google App Engine in 2011. From 10's of euros to 1000's.

> They have no phone number to contact, no way to dispute this other than email — which they have ignored us for over a month now without replying to our continued requests. Trapped. Doomed. We have no further options.

Sounds like Google did a great job with Firebase. Definitely gives you that Google-feel of unresponsive support and no hope when you have problems with any of their services. I bet they also have a "community" support forum or Google Group full of helpless people talking to a virtual wall. (Edit: Yep, they recommend Stack Overflow, Quora, and then their Google Group.. lol. Some things never change)

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#16
I use Firebase and find it easy, useful and constantly improving (cloud functions etc.). Their support, however, is a joke.

5 questions can be logged per year for one-on-one email support and then you're on your own. And this is for urgent requests.

I can understand not wanting to be inundated with wasteful questions but when Firebase is changing their API and pricing plans and you're trying to scale a product, and paying them lots of money in the process, support should be forthcoming.

They also don't respond on their Twitter handle, which is a further crime.

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#18

> Always build your architecture in a way that will avoid becoming trapped into a specific service. Amazon’s AWS Lambda sitting between any services and your app is a strongly recommended path! Isn't using AWS Lamba as your gateway, trapping you into using a specific service, just as much as firebase was?

This times and again. If you're hitting an API hosted on a domain you don't control, you're bound to get screwed. Otherwise they would just be able to deploy a simple Firebase API proxy (for the single call that they use) that uses TLS tickets and keep alive, change the DNS records and call it a day.

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#19

> Always build your architecture in a way that will avoid becoming trapped into a specific service. Amazon’s AWS Lambda sitting between any services and your app is a strongly recommended path! Isn't using AWS Lamba as your gateway, trapping you into using a specific service, just as much as firebase was?

You could then switch to regular servers running an open source Lambda reimplementation e.g. https://github.com/siscia/effe https://github.com/atlassian/localstack etc. Just make sure you can change the URLs everywhere.

Re: A startup’s Firebase bill suddenly increased from $25 to $1750 per month

#20
I authored the post and yes you are correct about the AWS Lambda being another service. I have since modified it based on a users suggestion to reflect.

I guess the point was that by adding the middleman between it there was more control --- We are self-funded and small group of people. We can't afford to hire a bunch of people to know about containers and servers and every little detail.

Thanks for your comments! Didn't expect so many views so quickly on this...

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