Firebase vs Socket.io for Multiplayer Game?

Question

Hello,

I'm making a pictionary-jackbox-style browser game with javascript / react.js / ml5.js for a school project.

I was wondering if firebase would be easier and/or better to use than using socket.io with express and postgres.

We'd just have a database of users and we're grabbing the picture data from a 3rd party api.

Thank you!

Answer 1

It depends on several factors. If all you are using Firebase for is to keep a database of users, then Firebase is definitely the easier route but it comes at monetary cost depending on how many times the data is queried.

using socket.io/express/postgres would be a lot more work to implement but it would be the free route.