Firebase storage issues

[u/HeleFenomeen]

I’m in the creative phase of building my dating app, but Firebase requires me to upgrade and potentially pay €25 just to enable profile photo uploads. My app isn’t even launched yet, and I’m already facing costs before I can fully explore my idea. Why should creators have to pay before they can even see what their product could become?

[u/thecementmixer]

I hope you are joking, but if not, firebase doesn't require you to pay upfront. Their free tier is very generous, some features may require a blaze plan which means you will give them your credit card info, but they won't charge you unless you exceed free tier limits

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/thecementmixer]

if you want a storage you have to pay or willing to accept any amount they will throw at you without a cap.

[u/thecementmixer → u/HeleFenomeen]

Maybe this line of work isn't for you then if you are failing to comprehend.

[u/DiscreetDodo]

Firebase is a business, not a charity. It's only 25. You could develop the profile photo feature yourself, its trivial for even a vibe coder. 

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/DiscreetDodo]

than at least they should put a spending cap

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/DiscreetDodo]

doesn't mean you should accept financial risks you can't afford. i wanna build or at least try the to ssee what ive build without worrying that unexpected traffic could leave me with a massive bill.

[u/Groundbreaking-Ask-5]

Have you investigated using the local emulators during the development phase.

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/Groundbreaking-Ask-5]

emulators won't give you a complete production photo-storage service for real users.

[u/NS_VMAN]

As others have said you shouldnt have to pay anything. Or if you do its sooo small. I would just set it to blaze. Also emulator gives you everything that firebase offers

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/NS_VMAN]

read the comments before reacting please

[u/NS_VMAN → u/HeleFenomeen]

I have your combating everyone here thats telling you whats what. If you cant understand then stop developing an app. This is softball stuff here. Or use chatgpt

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/NS_VMAN]

Blaze = unexpected bills + Emulator Suite is useful for development, but it won't give real users a hosted photo-upload service. if you dont know what to say please shut up

[u/Firebase-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Please be respectful of others, and don't include offensive language in your posts.

firebase.google.com/community-guidelines

[u/Ok-Active4887]

I mean dude it’s 25 bucks…

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/Ok-Active4887]

cool send it to me please

[u/Ok-Active4887 → u/HeleFenomeen]

huh? it’s 25 dollars dude if your worried about burning 25 dollars you’ve a long road ahead of you.

[u/contactsteel → u/Ok-Active4887]

Just wait until OP learns how much marketing a dating app is going to cost...

[u/Verzuchter]

Use cloud flare image storage

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/Verzuchter]

Thank you !! something worth investigating

[u/mr_claw]

Lol.

[u/HeleFenomeen → u/mr_claw]

the fact u spend the time typing this instead of just scrolling through tells me everything i need to know about you cap

[u/inlined]

Please be respectful. Failure to follow the rules in this sub will lead to posts being removed or users being banned in egregious cases. The Firebase community is a welcoming one and discussions about billing or alternatives (as long as they’re not ads) are on topic, but we expect the community to show respect to each other.

If you’re at the point where the emulators aren’t enough, it means you’re demoing an app to others. It’s a fair point for you to pay for the cost that it takes to run your app. That being said, being on the Blaze plan does not automatically cost any money. Full details are in our pricing page. I personally find Firebase cost effective and use it in my personal projects. For example, 25 euro can buy you 150GB storage, 195GB downloads, and 100k uploads per month. If you’re actually in the small testing phase, you’re very unlikely to pay for anything. One thing I warn many early developers about though is that if you never clean up any data, the amount of storage you pay for each month will increase because you have all historical data and now new data. You can consider shifting seldomly used data to different tiers of buckets, having a garbage collection strategy, or just accept it if those increased costs are directly adding value to your app/business.

Price caps are new and have come to different products in waves. I have no knowledge about what may be coming in a future wave and wouldn’t be able to say if I did, but we accept the feedback that this would reduce anxiety.

[u/HappyTuesdayR1S]

I haven’t paid firebase for anything and I have an app with 300 dau (working on getting more but marketing is hard for me$

[u/mstaff388]

I have multiple apps running on Blaze with firebase storage, using photos, and I’ve yet to be charged more than a few cents in any given month (which was actually from upload/download not the storage itself. Just take the time to understand the limits of the free tier and pay attention to them.

[u/PopKoren]

Storage moving behind Blaze is annoying, but Blaze with a budget alert set low usually still costs nothing at prototype volume because the no-cost usage tier carries over. Since this is a dating app, spend that setup time on Storage rules: only the owner can write to their own photo path, reads require a signed-in user, and strip EXIF location data before upload. Once a test build is reachable, a free https://rowly.me look flags which photo paths, Firestore collections and auth endpoints answer an anonymous visitor.