Server Vs. Serverless

As I look into making a full-stack app using React as the frontend, I am currently looking for backend options. Whether it’s non-relational databases like Mongo or relational databases like SQL, I am looking for a reliable backend infrastructure to store all of my data.

I am, for the most part, a front end programmer. I have made some cool things and side projects with Python, Node/Express and even Ruby on Rails. However, my overall experience with backend infrastructure is quite low. Especially when it comes to CRUD based apps. I didn’t even know where to start, until I learned about serverless.

A while ago, I built a messaging app for Android using Kotlin and Firebase. Firebase is a serverless alternative to “servers” as you might’ve guessed. It allows the developer to create a schema inside the Firebase console and lets your app perform CRUD operations by adding a dependency to the package.json file and using Firebase functions, and thats it.

The cool thing with firebase is that it is super easy to setup. It’s a lot less cumbersome than trying to create your own middleware from scratch when you can use Firebase functions and add a dependency to your configuration file. Plus, it’s scalable based on how you create your schema.

Also, I have noticed a lot of websites using Firebase as well, so it seems to be gaining some traction among businesses. Once I have figured out the schema, I will be using Firebase in my React project.

Let me know what you think about the serverless alternatives. Are they good? Are they bad?