Advantages of Firebase authentication?

2
votes

i'm creating an android app, which requires some authentication system. I want to have 3 options to log in users: mail&password, facebook login and anonymous access (in case of anonymous i'll create some kind of anonymous account, so user'll be able to give his credentials later and secure his account with 'normal' password).

I'll also have my own webservice for this app. Webservice is in fact the most crucial part and android app will just show data from WS and put some new data on it.

I'll be using Firebase for handling notifications.

My question is: should i use Firebase authentication in this scenario or maybe it's better to stay with own authentication system? If i use Firebase i still need to have users in my database (webservice requires some info about users).

Is firebase authentication good choice for project like that?

3
androidweb-servicesauthenticationfirebasefirebase-authentication

3 Answers

2
votes

Even in the case of Firebase where we use firebase authentication and the firebase database together, only a few details of user(user id, login email or number, provider details etc) are available under the Authentication tab. The rest of the details we receive after login and other custom user information we collect from the app have to be saved in the Firebase database.

So even if you have another Web service instead of using Firebase Database, you can use Firebase Authentication. There are definitely great advantages if you use Firebase Authentication.

  • Save time on developing Webservice methods for authentication : Instead, you can just have a method to store user information after the user authenticates with Firebase. Also, there is considerable time saved since you can avoid developing server-side methods for different kinds of token verification in case you want to add social logins like Facebook and Google. All that will be handled efficiently with Firebase.
  • Detailed Analytics: Also with Firebase authentication, you can also get good analytics and demographic information of users.
1
votes

You don't have to use Firebase authentication in order to use FireBase Push Notifications, Invites, etc.

That's one of the beauties of Firebase; you can choose which service to use.

Since everything is built already, I would continue to use your own Auth system

-1
votes

You can save all users, and you can authenticate with Google, Facebook, only email.

It's like a database online and it's easy to connect with the same at Android Studio and after you can login with the users.