Description
The Firebase backend is proprietary so you can't run your own instance of the full stack.
At this stage, I would not trust myself with running a secure & reliable backend, so using Firebase is better for Mathdown end-users.
OTOH, there is little need to change anything about Firebase and being able to develop as a purely client-side code makes forking and testing much easier - a user can try any fork without exporting/importing user data.
"Running" a fork is as simple as loading the static HTML from anywhere - local checkout, github pages, cloud9 workspace etc.
Any free solution should preserve the ability to fork and use without migrating data.
Best free-backend alternatives to Firepad:
- https://github.com/Operational-Transformation/ot.js/ is mature, well documented, has CodeMirror binding.
Includes node.js server code; no persistence layer?! - https://github.com/share/ShareJS is simple and has (currently incomplete - ShareJS with Codemirror ? josephg/ShareJS#124)) CM binding.
Includes node.js server code, needs MongoDB.
For other firebase-like functionality (if we add any), meteor.com looks most similar in spirit, and even provides free hosting for server-side part of the app (arbitrary node.js?).