FirebaseUI and Firebase, what is the difference?

Question

So I'm new to Firebase and I'm trying to figure out if FirebaseUI and Firebase are the same thing. I have walked through the tutorial on firebase.google.com however I noticed that some videos online use the FirebaseUI.

What's the difference between FirebaseUI and the regular Firebase? When I'm programming do I use both FirebaseUI and Firebase?

I'm looking to use it for Firebase Web and Firebase Android.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Firebase is a platform that you use to build web and mobile applications. It consists of a suite of cloud services and a set of SDKs (and in some cases REST APIs) to access those services.

FirebaseUI is a set of libraries that build on top of the Firebase SDKs to make binding to user interface elements easier.

Specifically: FirebaseUI for Android and for iOS wrap the Database and Authentication SDKs of Firebase to make it easy to use the services in Android and iOS applications.

FirebaseUI for web is a newer entrant to the field and only wraps the Authentication SDK. To make it easy using the database in your web app, look for a dedicated library for your preferred web platform: AngularFire, AngularFire2, ReactFire, EmberFire. The names probably speak for themselves in what web library they target.