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What is Google Firebase Studio? Is it Worth the Hype?

· 3 min read
sachindas246
sachindas246
Founder

In the ever-evolving landscape of AI-powered development tools, Google has stepped in with its newest offering — Firebase Studio, a full-stack AI-powered code editor that aims to revolutionize the way developers build applications. But is it really worth the hype?

cover image of firebase studio

What is Google Firebase Studio?​

Firebase Studio is Google’s AI-powered, browser-based development platform, rebranded from Project IDX. Built on the foundation of VS Code and running on Google Cloud infrastructure, Firebase Studio brings a seamless dev environment to your browser — now with AI capabilities baked in through Gemini, Google’s generative AI.

While the tool feels like a mix of Cursor and Lovable, it doesn’t just copy existing features. Instead, Firebase Studio focuses on simplicity, full-stack development support, and deeper integration with Firebase services.

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Google Firebase Studio is currently in Preview, so features may change.

What We Liked 💡​

While we tested Firebase Studio over a few projects, there were several standout features that really impressed us — especially considering it's still in beta. Here's what we appreciated the most:

  1. Almost Free – While other platforms limit usage (e.g., prompt counts, visibility settings), Firebase Studio is fairly open.

  2. Blueprint Card – The AI shows a "blueprint card" upfront that explains what it's about to do, adding transparency to its actions.

  3. Thoughtful UX – Asking for your API key only when needed is a simple but elegant touch.

  4. Element-Level Edits – It allows you to select specific UI elements and update them. While it is not give a satisfactory experience, it's still promising.

  5. Slick UI – Google nailed the clean and responsive user interface.

What Needs Improvement ⚠️​

As much as we were impressed by some of Firebase Studio's features, our testing also surfaced several rough edges that need polishing. These issues didn’t break the experience entirely, but they’re worth noting — especially if you're expecting a seamless development flow right out of the gate.

  1. Frequent Errors – Internal errors occurred more than 10 times during our testing. Understandable, since it's in beta — but still annoying.

  2. Fails to do simple changes – When we tried to make a div expand fully (which should have already been the case) instead of a fixed width, it fails, even after multiple attempts.

  3. Lack of Polish – Compared to platforms such as Lovable, the output UI feels rough around the edges.

  4. Misunderstood Prompts – At times, the AI failed to grasp our project requirements, making it less efficient than hoped.

  5. Bugs in Core Features – Some features such as element-level selection or annotation should be expected to improve the development experience, still these features doesn't seem to help that much.

Final Verdict 🎯​

Firebase Studio is ambitious and exciting, but it’s still a work in progress. My opinion is that if you’re building a commercial-grade product, any of these fully ai dev tools doesn't seem to be ready, unless you really know the stack really well. However, for MVP validation, prototypes, or if you're just into vibe-coding, these tools it’s worth a try.

That said, if you’re comparing platforms, you might want to stick with the more polished ones like Replit or Cursor or Lovable — at least for now.