Firebase Studio

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Positioning and Rebranding

  • Widely recognized as a rebrand of Project IDX: a cloud/web IDE backed by Nix-based containers and a VS Code–like editor.
  • Framed as Google’s entry in the “AI IDE / vibe coding” race, competing with Cursor, Replit, v0.dev, Lovable, Windsurf, Devin, etc.
  • Multiple comments highlight confusion and overlap with other Google offerings (Google AI Studio, Vertex AI Studio, Firebase, Android Studio + Gemini), and recurring mistrust due to Google’s product graveyard.

AI Coding Experience and Reliability

  • Many users report poor outcomes: failing to build simple apps (todo lists, chess clock, Angular SSR + i18n), generating broken configs, syntax errors, and getting stuck in “infinite loops” of failing fixes.
  • For Flutter specifically, commenters from Google note that app-prototyping isn’t wired up yet, which explains some failures; workarounds via templates + chat exist but still fragile.
  • Some say the AI feels like early GPT‑4: good-looking UIs that don’t work, missing core logic (e.g., I Ching coin-flip logic), and frequent need to manually debug and guide it.
  • Others report strong successes for small, greenfield tasks: a Chrome extension in ~30 minutes, classroom utility apps, and praise for the underlying Nix environment, previews, and GitHub integration.
  • There’s broad agreement (from experience with other tools too) that these systems work best when treated like a junior developer: step-by-step prompts, constant review, and willingness to revert or intervene.

Comparisons to Alternatives

  • Several see it as significantly behind v0.dev, Replit, and specialized tools like Cursor/Zed for getting “real work” done.
  • v0.dev is praised for one-shot pages plus one-click Vercel deploys; Lovable/Windsurf get positive mentions when carefully driven stepwise.
  • Some note Gemini 2.5 performs very well in Google AI Studio, but Firebase Studio doesn’t seem to expose that “thinking” configuration clearly.

Lock‑in, Privacy, and Billing

  • Concerns about “next level vendor lock-in”: AI + Firebase + Google Cloud as a tightly coupled stack.
  • Worries about surprise billing and opaque Firebase/GCP pricing; others clarify Studio itself is free but prompts/data can be used for model training.
  • Several commenters say they avoid environments tied to a single LLM provider given how quickly “best model” changes.

Firebase Ecosystem Feedback

  • Multiple users say they’d rather have basic Firestore admin improvements (multi-select edit, simple text search) than AI layers.
  • Firebase authentication is still seen as exceptionally easy and compelling, but lack of native search forces extra infra (Algolia/TypeSense, etc.).

AI‑Built SaaS and Perception

  • A detailed anecdote about a non-technical founder building a full CRM with AI tools spurs debate:
    • Admiration for how far an individual can get in months using Replit/Cursor + LLMs.
    • Sharp criticism around security and PII handling by minimally technical builders.
  • Some founders deliberately hide “made with AI” branding, fearing reputational harm and attackers probing for LLM-induced vulnerabilities.

UX, Design, and Misc

  • Mobile Safari experience is poor (broken preview), disappointing to people who “vibe code” on phones.
  • Some dislike the new Firebase Studio visual design, calling it chaotic and aesthetically worse.
  • General sentiment: promising concept and infrastructure, but current AI behavior is inconsistent and often not production-ready compared to leading competitors.