KavachOS vs Firebase Auth
Firebase Auth is a solid human-login service tied to Google Cloud. KavachOS was built for the AI era — agent identity, MCP OAuth 2.1, and human auth all without vendor lock-in.
14
unique features
7
shared
MIT
open source
Why switch
No agent identity in Firebase
Firebase Auth has no concept of AI agent tokens, delegation chains, or MCP OAuth 2.1. KavachOS ships these as first-class primitives so agents get their own identity, scoped permissions, and a full audit trail.
You cannot self-host Firebase
Firebase is Google Cloud-only. There is no way to run it on your own infrastructure. KavachOS is MIT-licensed and runs on Node.js, Deno, Bun, and Cloudflare Workers — your data stays where you put it.
Firebase pricing punishes phone auth at scale
Most Firebase auth is free, but SMS verification costs $0.0055 per SMS after 50,000/month, and the broader Blaze pay-as-you-go model makes budgeting unpredictable. KavachOS uses flat monthly tiers.
Feature comparison
| Feature | KavachOS | Firebase Auth |
|---|---|---|
| AI agent identity Firebase has no agent token primitive | ||
| MCP OAuth 2.1 KavachOS is spec-compliant; Firebase has no MCP support | ||
| Agent delegation chains | ||
| Agent permission scoping | ||
| Agent audit log | ||
| Self-hosting Firebase is Google Cloud-only | ||
| Open source (MIT) Firebase is proprietary | ||
| Social / OAuth providers (27+) | ||
| Passkeys / WebAuthn Firebase has no native passkey support | ||
| Magic link Firebase calls it email link sign-in | ||
| Multi-factor authentication Firebase MFA is SMS-only | ||
| Enterprise SSO (SAML, OIDC) Firebase has no SAML support | ||
| SCIM provisioning | ||
| Organizations / multi-tenancy Firebase multi-tenancy requires Identity Platform upgrade | ||
| Machine-to-machine tokens | ||
| Custom domains Firebase hosted auth uses firebaseapp.com domain | ||
| Custom email templates | ||
| Brute force protection | ||
| Breach password detection | ||
| Free tier Firebase free tier is generous but tightly coupled to Google Cloud | ||
| Cloudflare Workers runtime |
Pricing
Firebase Auth is free for most sign-in methods on the Spark (free) plan. Phone authentication costs $0.0055 per SMS after 50,000 verifications per month. Moving to Blaze (pay-as-you-go) unlocks multi-tenancy and Identity Platform features but introduces unpredictable billing across the entire Firebase suite.
KavachOS Cloud uses flat monthly tiers with no surprise overages for SMS, organizations, or enterprise SSO.
Migration
Export your Firebase users using the Firebase CLI (`firebase auth:export users.json`). KavachOS accepts this format with a one-time import command that preserves existing password hashes.
Replace the Firebase Auth SDK calls with the `kavachos` npm package. The token verification pattern is similar — swap `admin.auth().verifyIdToken()` for the KavachOS token verify function.
Update your environment variables — remove `FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID` and friends and add the KavachOS API URL and project key from the dashboard.
Re-create your social provider configurations (Google, GitHub, etc.) in the KavachOS dashboard. Redirect URIs follow the same OAuth 2.0 conventions you already have.
Test your auth flows end-to-end, then cut over DNS or swap the SDK config — no forced user password resets required.
FAQ
MIT licensed. Self-hostable. Runs anywhere Node runs.