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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

#111

Post by yunolisten »

stemuk wrote: post #107
yunolisten wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So a bot net could absolutely wreck your credit card by just repeatedly trying to access your API with invalid credentials. You could argue that for pretty much anything being hosted, anywhere.

No, because most self-hosted services are 10-20x cheaper than comparable SaaS offerings. In the realtime space Firebase is particularly known for being really expensive for the scalable plans (blaze plan).

> No, because most self-hosted services are 10-20x cheaper than comparable SaaS offerings.

This has nothing to do with the fact that it could be hit by a botnet, as per the exact point I commented on, could 'wreck your card', it's simply a question of scale.

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

#112

Post by mysterydip »

stemuk wrote: post #59
kuschku wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably the purpose of this post — the best way to get support from Google, after all, is still by posting a story on reddit, twitter or HN. Which is pretty sad.

I think it's kind of weird to see Google/Firebase team members swarming around in dozens on HN when they present a new feature, which seems to me like a coordinated marketing effort by Google. But once problems arise or they get criticized by their own users, no one seems to be available for a comment.

I was about to post the same thing. Of the two Google cloud stories I saw on here yesterday, it felt like one in three posts had "disclaimer: I work on the Google cloud team" or something to that effect. As of this writing, there's 100 comments over 4 hours and not a peep from any of them that I see.

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

#113

Post by sigi45 »

piokoch wrote: post #8

I am so surprised why people buy into some SAAS software that does simple things instead of hiring 2 programmers from cheap location (somewhere between India and Poland western border), getting Hetzner VPS or dedicates server (even the second option is cheap, including a few administrator hours) and be done. It is not so hard to predict failure/buy out of some SAAS provider, it happened so many times. I am curious wh…

They have already 'issues' by paying 2k per month for firebase. I don't think you start at some provider for under 500 euros per month for support only. The initial setup is probably much higher.

And than you don't have any control over your infrastructure as well because someone else has theknowledge not you.

I don't see any advantages doing this as long as you are small. Those few hundred dollars are better investet in simple SAAS.

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

#114

Post by Silhouette »

moduspol wrote: post #101
kbart wrote: post #52

That's the same, old vendor lock-in approach. It has happened with the servers, databases, network equipment etc. now it happens with cloud -- nothing unexpected, prepare to see more of these when cloud market stabilizes and clear leaders emerge. That's why I always prefer open solutions, that can be moved/migrated/replaced easily and advise others to do the same.

Eh, it looks like the service provider hadn't taken into account an oddball use case in the pricing / metering, and then suddenly did. They certainly should have communicated that better and their tools / charts should have a way of showing the billable data, but it's a bit of a stretch to call it vendor lock-in. It's not like everyone on Firebase is complaining and the author admits they made major mistakes.

Just "communicating better" is not a reasonable response to making such a dramatic change in how much money you charge someone. If I tell you I'm going to punch you in the face, that doesn't make the punch acceptable behaviour.

Cloud services that pull this kind of bait and switch deserve to be ridiculed and lose lots of business over the negative PR. Cloud services that unintentionally pull this kind of bait and switch but then don't make it right or provide meaningful support deserve no special treatment.

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

#116

Post by daemin »

corford wrote: post #105
flipp3r wrote: post #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 unresponsi…

I learnt this lesson the hard way. Solution: get a separate debit (not credit!) card for all cloud stuff. Make sure you only transfer enough money on to it each month to cover what you reasonably expect your bills to be (and that you can quickly top it up in hours if you legitimately need to). Worst case, if AWS or Google decide to fuck you over, let the bill bounce. This way you've still got funds on hand to deal wi…

Or the bank can just automatically give you an overdraft for that amount, add some fees because you accessed that facility, and require you to pay the full amount.

After all, they're just being helpful in managing your money and paying your suppliers.

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

#117

Post by boubiyeah »

mstade wrote: post #46
mosselman wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"you retain a running instance of every previous instance I pushed?!" What? Seriously? Is this documented anywhere? Would you recommend against using GAE?

> Would you recommend against using GAE? I've been burned so hard by them, I'd recommend against using anything Google.

Same here Marcus.

Now, if only good and valuable startups weren't getting bought by google by the dozens :( I guess it's your cue to start migrating to something in house when it happens.

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

#118

Post by mstade »

corford wrote: post #105
flipp3r wrote: post #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 unresponsi…

I learnt this lesson the hard way. Solution: get a separate debit (not credit!) card for all cloud stuff. Make sure you only transfer enough money on to it each month to cover what you reasonably expect your bills to be (and that you can quickly top it up in hours if you legitimately need to). Worst case, if AWS or Google decide to fuck you over, let the bill bounce. This way you've still got funds on hand to deal wi…

I agree, let the providers take the risk. Typically, the providers will let it bounce a few times before cutting things off as well. This might just give you another week or two to sort things out, without having to lay out possibly significant funds that you may or may not be able to reclaim.

I only wish setting up virtual cards were as easy as setting up a new mail box. I know there are services out there that lets you do this, but I've yet to find one that works globally and is easy to work with.

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

#119

Post by brianwawok »

neftaly wrote: post #45

We've also gone from ~$25/mo to $1000-2000/mo with the pricing change. While it's not the end of the world (we're near shipping replacements for FB stuff anyway), there's also been 3-4 incidents of downtime (> 1 hour) in the last 2 months, with no way to contact anyone except their stupid web form.

Do you not pay for support? It starts at $150..

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

#120

Post by princekolt »

corford wrote: post #105
flipp3r wrote: post #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 unresponsi…

I learnt this lesson the hard way. Solution: get a separate debit (not credit!) card for all cloud stuff. Make sure you only transfer enough money on to it each month to cover what you reasonably expect your bills to be (and that you can quickly top it up in hours if you legitimately need to). Worst case, if AWS or Google decide to fuck you over, let the bill bounce. This way you've still got funds on hand to deal wi…

Nowadays with some banks having virtual cards that you can create/kill at any moment, this sounds like a great idea.
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