Full-stack Javascript frameworks like Angular and Next.js make it simpler to get the benefits of server-side rendering (improved SEO, faster initial load times) with the ease and familiarity of the tools we use to build frontends. However, because these frameworks need a server, deploying an app isn’t as simple as throwing a couple of static HTML, CSS, and JS files up on a CDN. And, with these full-stack frameworks blurring the lines between frontend and backend code, figuring out what infrastructure is needed, when it’s needed, and how to build it, can be a headache.

Today, we’re excited to introduce the public preview of Firebase App Hosting: the next generation of serverless web hosting with Google, designed specifically for server-rendered web apps!

Firebase App Hosting is a secure, serverless web hosting product that manages everything from the build, to the CDN, to server-side rendering.

App Hosting streamlines Angular and Next.js deployments from GitHub, automatically building static assets in Cloud Build, deploying dynamic content to Cloud Run, and serving cached content on Cloud CDN. You push to GitHub, App Hosting figures out the rest.

Optimized for modern, full-stack web apps

No-config-needed build support for Angular and Next.js

Firebase App Hosting has built-in, no-config-needed adapters for popular full-stack web frameworks like Next.js and Angular. This means that App Hosting can figure out how to build and run your web app without requiring any manual configuration.

The Firebase and Angular teams have been collaborating closely to make App Hosting the new home for Angular apps. In fact, due to this teamwork, the Angular team has made the latest versions of Angular easier to deploy on any hosting provider! Curious about the details? See “add JSON build logs when using the application builder” in the Angular 17.2 release notes.

App Hosting also supports advanced framework features that optimize your app’s performance, like streaming for Next.js and defer (lazy loading) for Angular.

Scalable, serverless backends

Not only does App Hosting create your backend, it manages your backend’s services– Cloud Build, Cloud Run, and Cloud CDN– for you. App Hosting abstracts away the orchestration of these services, and automatically scales them up and down with demand, so that you can get to market faster and grow your app’s engagement worldwide.

Cloud Run is extremely customizable, but App Hosting starts with a default configuration so that you can just deploy an app. When you’re ready, you can still customize aspects of your app’s runtime environment– things like CPU, concurrency, and minimum instances– to reduce cold starts, improve performance, and limit costs.

Automated, reproducible builds from GitHub

A git merge is all that’s needed to roll out a new version of your web app. App Hosting is fully integrated with Developer Connect, a new Google Cloud product for handling connections to third-party source code management platforms. The integration lets you seamlessly connect with your GitHub repositories via the new Firebase GitHub App while creating your App Hosting backend.

Here’s how it works:

When you create your App Hosting backend in the Firebase console or CLI, you authorize and install the new Firebase GitHub app on your repository.

Then, you specify your live branch for continuous deployment. When you push to your app’s live branch, App Hosting automatically builds and rolls those changes out to production.

In the Firebase console, you can track each version of your web app to the exact git commit it was built with, so that you know which changes were live at a certain time.

With App Hosting, your builds happen in the cloud, which means they’re also reproducible from one teammate to the other. When it’s time to deploy, App Hosting spins up a Cloud Build job to generate your app’s static assets, setting up the environment based on your app’s framework, runtime, and dependencies.

A solution that scales with you as your business grows

App Hosting makes it easy to go from zero to having a production app up and running in minutes, while future-proofing your app for success. As your business grows and your app evolves, your hosting needs may change. Things that weren’t your top priority when you got started (but really, are very important)— like security, access control, scalability, and terms of service– become more of a concern.

App Hosting combines the opinionated Firebase developer experience with the extensibility of Google Cloud to support this natural evolution of priorities.

Just the right level of abstraction

While we streamline many scenarios to meet the needs of most web developers, we know you might need more control. That’s why we give you visibility into the underlying Google Cloud services installed in your project through the Google Cloud console. App Hosting gives you transparency into what’s happening behind the scenes, enabling you to tailor those configurations to your evolving needs – whether it’s customizing service account roles to access other Google services, adjusting runtime settings to optimize performance, or managing granular access to environment variables and secrets.

Scalable, secure Google Cloud foundation

Since App Hosting is built on Google Cloud, you can trust that the services powering your web app have automatic scaling and high availability worldwide. Cloud Run automatically scales up and down with demand, ensuring your app can handle a large influx of new users overnight. Cloud CDN serves cached content across the globe, so that visitors to your site access content close to them for faster load times.

App Hosting’s Google Cloud foundation also helps to ensure your app follows Google’s security best practices from the very start. App Hosting is governed by the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service (subject to the Pre-GA offering terms while in Preview).

To streamline protecting API keys and sensitive information, App Hosting integrates with Cloud Secret Manager. Create secrets with a single CLI command, and leverage enterprise-grade security features like versioning, rotation, and secret-level IAM in the Google Cloud console.

Cross-Firebase integration

The Firebase JavaScript SDK and AngularFire, its Angular-specific wrapper, have been updated to make them easier to use in server-rendered apps. That means you can easily build any Firebase product you already love into your web app on App Hosting, or you can try something new with the recently-announced Firebase Data Connect and Genkit!

Another hosting product?

If you’ve used Firebase before, you know we already offered a web hosting product, the original Firebase Hosting.

When we built Firebase Hosting in 2014, single page apps were all the rage. Hosting was designed for easy, local deployment of static web apps, and it still does that very well. If you’re building a static web app that doesn’t require a backend, we recommend using the original Firebase Hosting.

App Hosting is not a drop-in replacement for Firebase Hosting - it fills a specific gap. It’s optimized for modern, server-rendered web apps. If you’re building a modern Angular or Next.js app that uses server-side rendering, use App Hosting.

Read the product comparison to learn more about the differences between the original Firebase Hosting and App Hosting.

Get started with Firebase App Hosting

Check out our technical documentation to learn more about App Hosting. Follow the quickstart to get started deploying a basic app to App Hosting.

For a more in-depth example, walk through our Next.js and Angular Codelabs, which now include AI features powered by the Gemini API.

This is just the beginning of Firebase App Hosting. We have a long road ahead and we’d love to hear from you! Upvote feature requests on User Voice to help us prioritize our roadmap.