Cloud Firestore next generation of Cloud Datastore?

9
votes

I find somewhat contradicting information from Google about which data storage solution I should use for my web app. Since I'm not too interested in using Mobile SDKs and like the server frameworks offered from Cloud Datastore, I would choose that option according to this flowchart.

Google storage option flowchart

However when I go into my Google Cloud Platform and select the Cloud Datastore option from the menu, I get this message:

Cloud Firestore

It raises a lot of questions and confusion. Does this mean that Cloud Firestore will eventually replace Cloud Datastore? Will the benefits of Cloud Datastore be implemented in Firestore? Should I avoid using Cloud Datastore for my web app?

2
firebasegoogle-cloud-datastoregoogle-cloud-firestoredatastore

2 Answers

12
votes

Update

We've now released Datastore mode, a new mode for Cloud Firestore. This question was posted before that when only Native mode was available publicly:

  • Native mode: Next generation of Firebase Realtime Database
  • Datastore mode: Next generation of Cloud Datastore

Differences are documented in the official document.

Original Answer

This is a mistake in our text which is being fixed. It is meant to read "next generation of Firebase Realtime Database".

Currently, we only support either Cloud Datastore or Cloud Firestore per project (something we hope to fix in the future).

You are seeing this message because you already enrolled in the Cloud Firestore beta for that project via the Firebase Console. Not when you enrolled in the beta, there is a message: "Enabling Cloud Firestore Beta will preclude you from using Cloud Datastore with this project, notably from the associated App Engine app."

5
votes

Yes, Firestore is the 3rd generation of Cloud Datastore and is the upcoming replacement for it, essentially available in 2 modes: Native (firestore) mode and Datastore mode.