Firestore vs IBM Cloudant
Firestore
cloud.google.com
IBM Cloudant
ibm.comSide by side
| Figure | Firestore | IBM Cloudant |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 7 |
| Spec score · Database Software | 9.2 (#4) | 7.5 (#67) |
| Spec score · Document Databases | 9.0 (#2) | 7.7 (#18) |
| Spec score · NoSQL Databases | 8.9 (#8) | 7.5 (#25) |
| Compliance | Google Cloud states that Firestore is covered by its ISO/IEC 27017 certification scope. | IBM lists ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, PCI DSS, and SOC reports for Cloudant; HIPAA configuration must be requested at provisioning and requires a BAA. |
| Encryption | Firestore encrypts data at rest automatically and uses TLS for data in transit. | IBM says all Cloudant instances use encryption for data at rest; Dedicated Hardware supports BYOK through IBM Key Protect, selected during provisioning. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | The product page names Google AI Studio, remote MCP, LangChain, and LlamaIndex integrations for building generative AI applications. | Cloudant integrates with IBM Identity and Access Management, and IBM Key Protect can provide customer-managed encryption keys for supported Cloudant deployments. |
| Product | Firestore is a fully managed, serverless document database for building AI, web, and mobile applications. | IBM Cloudant is a managed JSON document database service based on Apache CouchDB. |
| Queries | Firestore supports vector search, full-text search, geospatial queries, and ACID transactions on JSON or BSON-compatible document data. | Cloudant supports document lookups, views, Apache Lucene-based search indexes, and Cloudant Query. |
Plans
Firestore
- Standard edition — document readsPrice not published
- Standard edition — document writesPrice not published
- Standard edition — document deletesPrice not published
- Standard edition — stored dataPrice not published
- Free quotaFree
- Free quotaFree
- Standard edition pay-as-you-go$0.03 a month
- Enterprise editionPrice not published
- Standard editionPrice not published
IBM Cloudant
- LitePriced on request
- StandardPriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
- EnterprisePrice not published
- LiteFree
- Dedicated HardwarePriced on request
- StandardPrice not published
In their own words
Firestore
Firestore is a fully managed, serverless document database for building AI, web, and mobile applications. It stores flexible JSON data and supports vector search, full-text search, geospatial queries, and ACID transactions on JSON or BSON-compatible documents. Client SDKs for Android, iOS, and web provide real-time updates and automatic syncing for offline access. Firestore can replicate data across multiple regions with strong consistency; multi-region deployments have a stated 99.999% SLA-backed availability. Integrations named for generative AI application work include Google AI Studio, remote MCP, LangChain, and LlamaIndex. Identity controls connect with Cloud IAM, Cloud Identity Platform, and Firebase Authentication. Data is encrypted before it is written to disk, with customer-managed keys available through Cloud KMS. The free quota applies to one database per project and includes 1 GiB of storage, daily read, write, and delete allowances, and 10 GiB monthly outbound transfer. New customers receive $300 in credits, separate from that quota. Server client libraries bypass Firestore Security Rules, so server access needs IAM controls.