One of the shortcomings of Firebase is that you can't self host. Self-hosting is still relevant for developers and opens up the device market where cloud connectivity isn't appropriate. Great timing on Etebase.

You don't have to self-host Etebase, you can also use the hosted version on etebase.com if you wish. However, what we are offering here is an alternative to the Firebase APIs, rather than the fact that it's cloud hosted.