SaaSBusiness WebsiteWeb AppFirebase
Choosing Firebase Over Spring Boot for a Bootstrapped Fintech MVP
UdharPay · Technical Architecture · Fintech · SaaS · 1 Weeks
3 weeks
Dev Timeline
₹0
Infrastructure Cost
2 weeks
Time Saved
10,000
Free Tier User Limit
The Challenge
UdharPay needed a backend that could handle real-time data sync, authentication, and server-side business logic — while costing essentially nothing during the pre-revenue phase.
The founder had deep Spring Boot expertise. The question wasn't capability — it was what was appropriate for the current stage.
Building the full Spring Boot version before users exist is optimizing for a problem that does not yet exist.
Our Solution
Firebase on the Blaze plan was chosen over a self-hosted Spring Boot application. Key decision factors:
- Zero cost until real usage — no idle server bills
- Built-in authentication out of the box
- Real-time Firestore database with live UI sync
- Cloud Functions for all server-side business logic
- Clear migration path to Spring Boot + PostgreSQL defined upfront
Tradeoffs explicitly accepted
Firestore's query model is less flexible than SQL. Vendor lock-in is real. Costs at scale (beyond 10,000 users) are higher than self-hosted. All three were accepted as appropriate for the current stage.
The Result
3 wks
Full app built
₹0
Infrastructure cost
5–6 wks
Saved vs Spring Boot
Technology decisions should be made for the current stage, not the imagined future scale. Firebase is the right database for 0–10,000 users. Spring Boot is the right choice after that.
Tech Stack
FirebaseFirestoreCloud FunctionsReactSpring Boot (future migration)
Project Info
Client
UdharPay
Industry
Technical Architecture · Fintech · SaaS
Timeline
1 Weeks
Live URL
https://udharpay.com ↗More Case Studies
