Firebase Analytics Alternative

A self-hosted event analytics pipeline you deploy into your own infrastructure. Own your raw events, control your costs, keep your data in the EU.

Firebase Analytics is convenient at small scale. At growth scale, two friction points usually appear: cost predictability becomes harder, and raw event ownership is limited.

Rawbbit is positioned as a portable alternative for teams that want the raw layer to be the source of truth, deployed in their own cloud, with no per-event SaaS fees.

Rawbbit vs Firebase Analytics
Feature Rawbbit Firebase Analytics
Pricing model Free self-serve or €500 one-time setup. No subscription, no per-user fees, no per-event pricing from Rawbbit. You only pay your own cloud costs. Firebase Analytics is free. It does not become paid after a certain number of events. BigQuery storage, queries, and streaming export may add Google Cloud costs.
Per-event fees No per-event fees from Rawbbit. More events only increase your own infrastructure usage. No per-event collection fee. Firebase allows unlimited total event volume, but has limits on distinct event types.
High-volume export Events are written directly to your own storage as Parquet. There is no Firebase-style 1M/day daily export limit from Rawbbit. Standard BigQuery daily export is limited to 1M events/day. If this limit is consistently exceeded, daily export can be paused. Streaming export has no event limit, but is best-effort and may add BigQuery costs.
Raw event ownership Strong. Raw events land as portable Parquet files in your own object storage. You can move, replay, or query them later. Partial. Raw data can be exported to BigQuery, but Firebase/Google Analytics collects and processes events first. The default raw export path is BigQuery, not your own Parquet storage.
Warehouse integration BigQuery external table over raw Parquet files. SQLMesh can be used for modeling. Metabase can be used for BI. Native BigQuery export. Good for teams already using Google Cloud, but raw export is tied mainly to BigQuery.
Vendor lock-in Lower. The raw layer is portable Parquet, and the pipeline runs in your own infrastructure. Higher. SDK, dashboards, audiences, attribution, Firebase integrations, and raw export path are Google/Firebase-centered.
Setup model Self-hosted. Runs on your infrastructure using VM, Docker containers, NATS, raw writer, object storage, BigQuery, SQLMesh, and BI. Managed SaaS. Add Firebase SDK, enable Analytics, and use Firebase/GA dashboards. BigQuery export is optional.
Suited for Technical game/app teams that want raw data ownership, portable storage, and predictable infrastructure-based costs. Teams that want fast setup, free dashboards, Firebase integrations, Google Ads/audience workflows, and minimal infrastructure work.

When Rawbbit is the better fit

  • You want to own raw event data in Parquet on your own object storage.
  • You need EU data residency for GDPR or contractual reasons.
  • You have predictable infrastructure costs and want to avoid per-event SaaS pricing.
  • You already use BigQuery or a similar warehouse and want raw events to land there as a portable layer.

When Firebase Analytics is the better fit

  • You want a zero-ops managed dashboard with no infrastructure to operate.
  • You are at small scale and the Firebase free tier comfortably covers your usage.
  • You are already deeply integrated with the broader Firebase platform (Auth, Crashlytics, Remote Config) and don't want to introduce a second pipeline.

Migration outline

  1. Stand up the Rawbbit pipeline (collector-api, NATS JetStream, raw-writer, GCS bucket) in your own infrastructure.
  2. Add the Rawbbit SDK to your client alongside the existing Firebase SDK — events go to both during the transition.
  3. Verify event parity in your warehouse (BigQuery external table over the raw Parquet layer).
  4. Cut over reporting and dashboards to query the raw layer; stop sending events to Firebase Analytics.

FAQ

Is Rawbbit a hosted SaaS like Firebase Analytics?

No. Rawbbit is deployed into your own infrastructure. The pipeline runs on your servers, raw events land in your object storage, and you query through your own warehouse.

Can I run Rawbbit and Firebase Analytics in parallel during migration?

Yes. The recommended migration path is dual-send — your client sends events to both pipelines until you verify parity in your warehouse, then you cut over.

Does Rawbbit work outside Google Cloud?

The current supported deployment path uses GCS for raw storage and BigQuery as the external query surface, but the pipeline itself is Docker-based and cloud-agnostic. Other object stores and warehouses are on the roadmap, not yet in the supported path.

Talk to us about migrating

If you are evaluating analytics alternatives, we can help you move to a portable raw-data-first setup.

See pricing details