OneSignal vs. Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM): What's the Difference?

Customer engagement tools aren’t all created equally. See why customers are switching from Firebase to OneSignal. Start engaging your customers with OneSignal today.

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A High-Level Comparison

Firebase is a good fit for technical teams with simplistic use cases and who have dedicated engineering resources for continuous manual campaign management.

However, most companies need their messaging to do more or are strapped for dev resources. That’s how we’re different. OneSignal aims to streamline your messaging workflow across teams and departments. We combine powerful no-code tools (from segmentation to automation and testing), a fast and unlimited API, and top-notch support. And those are just a few of the reasons OneSignal is a G2 Leader for easiest setup and implementation.

For over 2M users, OneSignal is a better choice. For more information, see our detailed blog post.

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

Channels

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

  • Mobile Push

  • Web Push

  • In-App Messaging

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

Pricing

OneSignal

  • Free Plan: for small teams, offered for free (with unlimited mobile subscribers and up to 10k web subscribers)

  • Growth Plan: for scaling startups, starting at $9/month (with additional costs based on channel usage)

  • Professional Plan: for high-growth teams with more advanced needs (with custom pricing and volume-based discounting)

  • Enterprise Plan: for scaled companies who need total control, support, and advanced functionality (with custom pricing and volume-based discounting)

Firebase (FCM)
  • Firebase allows sending notifications for free, but data storage, image hosting, and analytics have additional costs. In the case of image hosting, Firebase bandwidth costs are $0.15 per GB, which is very expensive for message delivery at scale.

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

Campaign Tools

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

  • Limited User Segmentation

  • Basic Campaign Builder

  • Limited Personalization

  • Limited API for Push and In-App

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

Insights & Analytics

OneSignal

Firebase (FCM)

  • A/B Testing

  • Send, Open, and Click Stats

  • Data Imports and Exports

Check Out Some of Our Free Resources

Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ Study for OneSignal

The 2024 State of Customer Engagement Report

OneSignal Video Tour

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Intuitive Interface

We’re guessing that you have enough on your plate without learning a complicated new platform. We designed our dashboard to be intuitive to use on day one, so productivity and collaboration aren’t blocked by a steep learning curve.

Quick Setup & Results

Although FCM offers a variety of messaging channels, leveraging those channels requires an extensive setup process that can increase the time it takes to see value from the platform. In contrast, our extensive documentation library, powerful SDKs, and dynamic integrations make it easy to start sending messages today and optimize as you go.

Advanced Analytics, Segmentation, & Messaging Automation

Our Data Tags and Outcomes features let you customize the user events and interactions you’d like to track, so you can automate, personalize, and measure the success of your campaigns in a meaningful way.

FCM restricts the number of events and parameters that can be used for analytics and does not support custom segmentation, which can make it difficult to tailor your messaging strategy without purchasing add ons.

Straightforward Pricing With Built-in Flexibility

We believe that transparency and communication are the foundation for strong customer relationships. Unlike Firebase, our plan pricing doesn’t fluctuate based on what features you use each day, so you won’t encounter any surprise fees or roadblocks. We’ve made all our plan details and features public on our pricing page to help you decide what option makes sense for your company and your budget.

Speed & Deliverability You Can Trust

When it comes to message reliability, speed, and deliverability, we hold ourselves to exceptionally high standards. Unlike Firebase, messaging is our specialty and our sole priority. We publish our uptime statistics and offer features like Confirmed Delivery to keep you in the loop and provide peace of mind.

A Clear Customer Favorite

It’s no accident that we’re the world’s leading messaging provider. Learn why we’ve earned the respect and trust of companies across different industries and countries — and why they chose to make the switch to OneSignal.

G2 badge set summer 2024

OneSignal had all the features we needed out of the box, could deliver messages across both web and mobile, and presented a leaner workflow. It was a no brainer.
Andrew Baltazar

Director of Product, Engagement, and Apps

Top Brands Choose OneSignal Over Firebase Cloud Messaging

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