Toptal is a marketplace for top Firebase developers, engineers, programmers, coders, architects, and consultants. Top companies and startups choose Toptal Firebase freelancers for their mission-critical software projects.
Gurpreet has ten years of experience designing and developing native and cross-platform mobile and watch applications, especially with Swift, SwiftUI, Objective-C, and React Native. He can also work with APIs and databases like REST and Socket, GraphQL, MongoDB, Firebase, and MySQL. Equally capable of leading teams and delivering directly, he is passionate about learning new technologies and improving his skillset.
Gabor is an Android developer with over ten years of experience in the tech industry, four in fast-paced startups such as Facebook, Hailo, and Deliveroo. He can build prototype apps with a Firebase server allowing you to validate your ideas fast; give advice and suggestions on what is technically feasible in an app, then build a production-ready MVP. Gabor can then further support the app, iterate on it, and keep track of crashes and issues to help your business lift-off and grow.
Yulian has over seven years of experience in software development, working with Svelte, React Native, and Angular for the last five. He's also engaged with various technologies, including ASP.NET MVC, Web API, Express.js, and, among his favorites, Firebase and Nest.js. Yulian has excellent communication skills and has prior experience working as an independent consultant.
Asma is a software engineer with five years of experience specializing in web and mobile app development. She's worked on multiple critical and sensitive governmental projects and delivered high-quality apps with 225,000+ users. You can rely on her attention to detail and her ability to stretch and work outside her comfort zone, whatever the project. Asma is passionate about her field and enjoys learning cutting-edge technologies and leveraging them to get the best product possible.
Malik is a senior developer with 15+ years of experience building websites, web services, Windows apps, Windows services, and mobile apps for iOS and Android. He specializes in React Native framework and Firebase platform. Malik is always looking for challenges and interesting projects.
Jakub is a skilled mobile developer with 7+ years of experience in Flutter and Android, specializing in Android development and clean architecture to improve extendability. He integrates multiple technologies into his projects, including REST APIs, Firebase, and Bluetooth scanners. Jakub is known for creating future-driven solutions—developing basic and complex applications, programming libraries, and custom Android widgets—and has helped many small businesses build mobile apps.
Maria is a software engineer with expertise in iOS development, using Swift and the UIKit framework. She has industry experience in the finance, insurance, and legal sectors. Maria developed a collaboration iOS app for lawyers and law firms and a fitness app that allows users to integrate with several fitness device providers and aggregate their data in one place. She has also worked on back-end services using AWS, Firebase, Node.js, and Python.
Ahmed is a full-stack engineer with seven years of experience building applications for the photo and video editor apps and medical industry. He worked on award-winning Android applications with hundreds of thousands of monthly active users and has experience with the whole Firebase stack. Besides full-stack development, Ahmed enjoys low-level Android programming and graphics programming using Android NDK and OpenGL ES.
Peter is a friendly, professional developer with nine years of experience. He's a go-to person for fellow developers as he can help with unexpected situations related to web development, UI/UX design, or even AI. He'd love to work on impactful projects by leveraging state-of-the-art technologies such as React, Angular, Flutter, Firebase, and Node.js. Peter is also familiar with the startup world and multinational banking sector, making him a good fit for any team.
Mohamed is a multi-talented software engineer with 5+ years of experience in web and mobile development, including native and cross-platform apps using the React Native framework. He has hands-on experience in JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, React Native, Redux, Swift, Kotlin, PHP, Java, RESTful APIs, HTML, CSS, Firebase, and AWS. Mohamed complements his technical expertise with deep knowledge of UI and UX guidelines, Git, and localization.
Lyndsey graduated from Amherst College as a computer science major and has been a freelance iOS developer for the past 6+ years. She’s ranked in the top 1% of question answerers on Stack Overflow; she wrote tutorials as part of the raywenderlich.com iOS team and made video tutorials for kids co-starring with the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Lyndsey has been featured by CNN, BBC, and Forbes for her computer programming skills and efforts to promote diversity in tech.
Firebase developers are experts who use web and mobile platforms to build software that integrates with cloud computing services. This guide to hiring Firebase developers features best practices, job description tips, and interview questions and answers that will help you identify the best candidates for your company.
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Despite accelerating demand for coders, Toptal prides itself on almost Ivy League-level vetting.
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Creating an app for the game
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Tripcents wouldn't exist without Toptal. Toptal Projects enabled us to rapidly develop our foundation with a product manager, lead developer, and senior designer. In just over 60 days we went from concept to Alpha. The speed, knowledge, expertise, and flexibility is second to none. The Toptal team were as part of tripcents as any in-house team member of tripcents. They contributed and took ownership of the development just like everyone else. We will continue to use Toptal. As a startup, they are our secret weapon.
Brantley Pace
CEO & Co-Founder
I am more than pleased with our experience with Toptal. The professional I got to work with was on the phone with me within a couple of hours. I knew after discussing my project with him that he was the candidate I wanted. I hired him immediately and he wasted no time in getting to my project, even going the extra mile by adding some great design elements that enhanced our overall look.
Paul Fenley
Director
The developers I was paired with were incredible -- smart, driven, and responsive. It used to be hard to find quality engineers and consultants. Now it isn't.
Ryan Rockefeller
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Toptal understood our project needs immediately. We were matched with an exceptional freelancer from Argentina who, from Day 1, immersed himself in our industry, blended seamlessly with our team, understood our vision, and produced top-notch results. Toptal makes connecting with superior developers and programmers very easy.
Jason Kulik
Co-founder
As a small company with limited resources we can't afford to make expensive mistakes. Toptal provided us with an experienced programmer who was able to hit the ground running and begin contributing immediately. It has been a great experience and one we'd repeat again in a heartbeat.
Stuart Pocknee
Principal
How to Hire Firebase Developers Through Toptal
1
Talk to One of Our Industry Experts
A Toptal director of engineering will work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics.
2
Work With Hand-Selected Talent
Within days, we'll introduce you to the right Firebase developer for your project. Average time to match is under 24 hours.
3
The Right Fit, Guaranteed
Work with your new Firebase developer for a trial period (pay only if satisfied), ensuring they're the right fit before starting the engagement.
Find Experts With Related Skills
Access a vast pool of skilled developers in our talent network and hire the top 3% within just 48 hours.
How much does it cost to hire a Firebase developer?
The cost associated with hiring a Firebase developer depends on various factors, including preferred talent location, complexity and size of the project you’re hiring for, seniority, engagement commitment (hourly, part-time, or full-time), and more. In the US, for example, Glassdoor’s reported average total annual pay for back-end developers is $109,000 as of August 2024. (Firebase is a back-end-as-a-service platform.) With Toptal, you can speak with an expert talent matcher who will help you understand the cost of talent with the right skills and seniority level for your needs. To get started, schedule a call with us — it’s free, and there’s no obligation to hire with Toptal.
Are Firebase developers in demand?
Firebase developers are indeed in demand. Widely adopted, Firebase is used to build dynamic web and mobile apps. A number of prominent large businesses (including The New York Times, Le Figaro, and eBay Motors) have implemented Firebase, making it challenging to locate available Firebase developers to fill open roles.
How can you choose the best Firebase developer for your project?
One approach is to hire a full-stack developer who is experienced with an assortment of tools. A jack-of-all-trades can extract the intended utility from most tools in the Firebase suite.
For a custom solution, choose a developer whose skills specifically align with your project. For example, if Cloud Firestore is to be leveraged in your application, you won’t require the talents of a data engineer or SQL expert. You will, however, need to vet an engineer’s knowledge of NoSQL best practices for this job.
These are the hard skills for a Firebase developer:
Proficiency in JavaScript, particularly with Node.js
Experience with NoSQL databases, especially Cloud Firestore
Knowledge of front-end technologies like Angular, React, or Vue.js
Experience with serverless computing and Cloud Functions
Knowledge of mobile development and how to integrate Firebase with iOS and Android apps
How quickly can you hire with Toptal?
Typically, you can hire a Firebase developer with Toptal in about 48 hours. For larger teams of talent or Managed Delivery, timelines may vary. Our talent matchers are highly skilled in the same fields they’re matching in—they’re not recruiters or HR reps. They’ll work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics, and match you with ideal candidates from our vetted global talent network.
Once you select your Firebase developer, you’ll have a no-risk trial period to ensure they’re the perfect fit. Our matching process has a 98% trial-to-hire rate, so you can rest assured that you’re getting the best fit every time.
When does it make sense to use Firebase?
Firebase offers a vast number of services and back-end functionality out of the box, making it an appealing solution for supporting the rapid development of a wide range of mobile and web applications. This includes diverse applications for gaming or business. Firebase has been widely adopted and offers services for authentication, databases, analytics, messaging, hosting, storage, machine learning, and more.
How do I hire a Firebase developer?
To hire the right Firebase developer, it’s important to evaluate a candidate’s experience, technical skills, and communication skills. You’ll also want to consider the fit with your particular industry, company, and project. Toptal’s rigorous screening process ensures that every member of our network has excellent experience and skills, and our team will match you with the perfect Firebase developers for your project.
How are Toptal Firebase developers different?
At Toptal, we thoroughly screen our Firebase developers to ensure we only match you with the highest caliber of talent. Of the more than 200,000 people who apply to join the Toptal network each year, fewer than 3% make the cut.
In addition to screening for industry-leading expertise, we also assess candidates’ language and interpersonal skills to ensure that you have a smooth working relationship.
When you hire with Toptal, you’ll always work with world-class, custom-matched Firebase developers ready to help you achieve your goals.
Can you hire Firebase developers on an hourly basis or for project-based tasks?
You can hire Firebase developers on an hourly, part-time, or full-time basis. Toptal can also manage the entire project from end-to-end with our Managed Delivery offering. Whether you hire an expert for a full- or part-time position, you’ll have the control and flexibility to scale your team up or down as your needs evolve. Our Firebase developers can fully integrate into your existing team for a seamless working experience.
What is the no-risk trial period for Toptal Firebase developers?
We make sure that each engagement between you and your Firebase developer begins with a trial period of up to two weeks. This means that you have time to confirm the engagement will be successful. If you’re completely satisfied with the results, we’ll bill you for the time and continue the engagement for as long as you’d like. If you’re not completely satisfied, you won’t be billed. From there, we can either part ways, or we can provide you with another expert who may be a better fit and with whom we will begin a second, no-risk trial.
Jonah is a CTO, team lead, and full-stack software developer with six years of experience. He has worked at Fortune 500 companies, including Meta and Volvo, and architected a major marketing platform at Dolby. As the sole Firebase developer at Nuro, he built a food delivery platform that integrates the company’s self-driving cars with customers’ food orders.
To consolidate and conserve resources while at the same time enhancing efficiency, companies are integrating a wide variety of tools, such as authentication, storage, analytics, APIs, and machine learning, among others. While they may benefit from the tools individually, companies seldom need a complete custom infrastructure for each.
Enter Firebase, which offers an enterprise-level software suite to address most technological needs for companies that prioritize running a scalable, highly tailored infrastructure.
With so many big players competing to find Firebase developers in a relatively small pool of qualified engineers, locating the right person to fill a role can pose a challenge.
This hiring guide explores the specific attributes that set apart expert Firebase developers from average ones, laying out what a Firebase developer does and how to identify one who is suited to your company’s business needs. This guide provides tips for writing effective job posts and composing Firebase interview questions, as well as navigating the interview and assessment processes.
What attributes distinguish quality Firebase Developers from others?
A Firebase developer uses the extensive Firebase back-end-as-a-service (BaaS) suite of tools to provide clients with a complete and tailored back-end infrastructure—without incurring the added costs and overhead of server and data management.
A quality Firebase developer has attained a notable level of experience and expertise with the suite, applying the product’s main features and tools skillfully.
What are the main features of Firebase that a developer should know?
Popular Firebase tools that a skilled, experienced developer should be proficient in include:
Secure JWT two-factor authentication using email, SMS, and most single-sign-on (SSO) services
Cloud Firestore and Realtime Database
Two distinct real-time NoSQL serverless database options, each of which offers serverless authorization and offline mobile and web app support to keep business data in sync
Cloud Storage
A cloud bucket storage service for business assets
Cloud Functions
Hosted serverless and stateless REST API functions to run server-side logic, allowing for scaling servers without the overhead of a monolith
Hosting
Static and dynamic website hosting (e.g., to serve a site built with a popular framework like React.js)
Cloud Messaging
Push notifications and in-app notifications for mobile and web platforms to enable developers to broadcast transactional and marketing content to the app’s users
Release and Monitor
Google Analytics
Tracker of events, users, site visits, and more to help businesses optimize products by gaining valuable insights into user needs and experiences
Crashlytics
Real-time reports on mobile crashes, inclusive of root cause, enabling better tracking and fixing potential issues (e.g., bugs) by engineers
Engage
A/B Testing
A vehicle for releasing and comparing multiple versions of a single site for web app testing purposes
Dynamic Links
Links that tailor the user experience by adapting to the platform (Android, iOS, or browser) from which they are accessed
(Firebase Dynamic Links uses deep linking and data preservation for both mobile and web redirects—whether or not the app is installed.)
Which core experiences and skills should candidates possess?
Mobile development experience – Firebase is one of the top solutions for mobile platforms. It integrates with native and hybrid mobile apps; therefore, an expert developer must have mobile development experience, including user authentication and authorization, persisting data in real-time databases, and an understanding of REST API to facilitate communication with a back end.
Full-stack knowledge – An expert developer’s understanding of proper front- and back-end design patterns gives them a unique and comprehensive perspective on the project and its intra- and intersystem communications. In Firebase, all tools are considered full stack. This enables the developer to pick the best tools and technologies for a specific job.
Server and serverless experience – An understanding of the core principles of serverless solutions makes it easier for a developer to recognize and anticipate the bottlenecks associated with each service. An expert developer also understands what’s happening under the hood and is therefore better able to lead a company in the right direction.
What complementary technology skills are required for Firebase?
A Firebase engineer with substantial and varied cross-platform experience will stand apart from the rest. The following technologies are especially relevant:
For front-end development, Firebase integrates well with popular JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue.js. A good grasp of at least one of these frameworks is helpful.
Firebase uses the Realtime NoSQL database, so a good understanding of how NoSQL databases differ from traditional relational databases is important.
How can you identify the ideal Firebase Developer for you?
To identify the ideal candidate for your organization, you must first identify your specific business needs and use cases. For example, if you are integrating Firebase for the first time, note the problem you’re trying to solve in as much detail as possible. Alternatively, if you are trying to augment an existing implementation, specify all the Firebase tools you have integrated already, such as Authentication or Firestore.
Knowing which tools are needed for your project enables you to focus your search on candidates who possess those Firebase developer skills. For instance, if your project entails sending push notifications, you will want to hire a Firebase developer who is experienced in Firebase Cloud Messaging. If you are building a mobile app with Realtime capabilities, you’ll do well to hire a Firebase engineer with a background in Firebase Realtime Database or Firestore.
What is the difference between Firebase and MongoDB developers?
The Firebase developer is familiar with the comprehensive Firebase platform, which provides cloud and remote security services. They are proficient with integrating Firebase’s straightforward API into apps.
In contrast, a MongoDB developer is ideally suited to manage the storage of large amounts of real-time data. They are adept at executing the advanced security practices recommended for the MongoDB database.
How do you determine the level of experience you need?
Let’s identify what can be expected with each level of Firebase talent. The following table addresses the question: What will a Firebase developer do for you?
Junior
Handles simpler, repetitive tasks, such as updating Firebase support libraries. They also ensure that an app’s performance has not degraded as the result of a library upgrade. They may require guidance and access to support resources, especially if this is their first Firebase project.
Mid-level
Performs more complex tasks, such as the integration of one or more Firebase services. They may need to juggle priorities and be flexible in order to fulfill their professional obligations.
Senior
Has attained a higher level of programming and management expertise and can, therefore, consult on or handle large, complex projects. They have extensive knowledge of the various Firebase services and can work independently or as a team member.
With your problem statement in mind, you can pinpoint the skills gaps that need to be filled. For example, a junior developer is suited for a straightforward project such as performing the maintenance that keeps your app up to date.
A mid-level or senior developer’s deeper understanding of Firebase makes them capable of integrating and supporting a library that impacts the app’s behavior. A senior developer can be trusted to recommend and implement optimal solutions in cases where you have stated a problem and a solution has not been previously identified.
Compensation of a junior developer is predictably lower than that of a mid-level or senior Firebase developer. While a senior developer will cost you more, their engagement will be a sound investment in the successful outcome of your project. As such, weigh your options and choose the right level for the job you need done.
How to Write a Firebase Developer Job Description for Your Project
To grab the attention of the best engineers, it’s important to provide a thorough and detailed description of the Firebase developer position you are attempting to fill. Be thoughtful when choosing a job title. Ensure it is aptly phrased to allow applicants to quickly assess whether the job might be a fit. For example, a position titled “Lead Firebase developer” might appeal to a seasoned veteran engineer but not to a junior developer.
Add a detailed, line-by-line description of the Firebase developer’s daily, monthly, even annual responsibilities. Be organized, descriptive, accurate, and concise. Include both hard and soft skills in brief bullet-point format and list any specific Firebase services you intend to use.
What are the most important Firebase Developer interview questions?
During an interview, assess whether a candidate is a good fit for the company. Ask questions that lead them to describe their background, hard skills, soft skills, and specific strengths.
You’ll need to formulate additional interview questions that are specific to the Firebase features and services your project requires. Concentrate on your project’s focus—mobile, web, and/or full stack.
Here is a sampling of technical, Firebase-specific questions and examples of the types of answers you should expect from developers:
How can I use Firebase to support my mobile app?
Out-of-the-box Firebase features like Analytics, Push Notifications, SSO Authentication, and Realtime Database support mobile apps. Each feature, in its base form, can be integrated into a mobile app in just a day or two.
How can I use Firebase to support my website?
The majority of Firebase tools can be used with almost any web framework. After a simple integration, your front end can connect directly to any Firebase service. For example, most databases require a back-end server connection to manage data. But through the proper configuration of Firebase’s authorization tools, your front end can connect directly to a database, with no server requirement. A similar thing can be said about Firebase Authentication and Cloud Storage. Each can be configured to connect directly to your front end, eliminating the overhead of a dedicated server.
What if I need a server to leverage something like Stripe?
Third-party payment processing tools like Stripe require that a server assess and respond appropriately to payments. By deploying a containerized serverless function through Firebase Cloud Functions, we can achieve this with minimal overhead—no separate infrastructure is required outside of Firebase.
Why do companies hire Firebase Developers?
Companies hire Firebase developers to build web and mobile apps. Firebase scales impressively for companies that expect to hit the ground running—from minimum viable product to full-scale production.
Firebase engineers who expertly navigate through the Firebase suite of tools can address a broad range of technological requirements. To ensure a smooth transition when migrating or expanding an existing project, companies consult with a senior Firebase developer to learn which Firebase tools are most compatible with their objectives and systems.
While most dedicated infrastructure requires a collection of experts, the unification of Firebase’s tools and their ability to work together seamlessly allow you to start with one developer and scale based on speed requirements rather than technical requirements.
The overhead of the standard server-based model for maintaining a database includes an infrastructure that requires an impressive server setup time, as well as a team of dedicated engineers—front end, back end, and DevOps—to manage and orchestrate secure and efficient interservice communications. Typically, when you scale an infrastructure to accommodate more traffic, both your costs and the size of your engineering team increase.
When considering Firebase’s BaaS approach versus other database alternatives—specifically, the server-based model—Firebase does away with the associated overhead and costs. Firebase trims not only your setup time, but also your team size. Realistically, so long as you include one Firebase expert, the remaining developers on the team can continue to write code and implement your company’s business logic instead of maintaining hefty infrastructure and operations.
