Firestore Data Modeling Guide: Embedded Documents vs Referencing (with a Blog Case Study)

July 24, 2026 / #firestore Firestore Data Modeling Guide: Embedded Documents vs Referencing (with a Blog Case Study) Caleb Mintoumba When developers transition from the relational world (MySQL, PostgreSQL) to Firestore, Firebase's NoSQL document database, they often bring their old habits with them. They try to replicate tables, foreign keys, and joins. The result? Complex queries, skyrocketing read costs, and a database structure that becomes a nightmare to maintain after just a few features. To understand how Firestore works, we first need to look at our point of comparison: the relational model. Once we map out how SQL does things, we can see exactly where Firestore diverges, and how to structure NoSQL data correctly. In this guide, we'll cover NoSQL design principles, embedding vs.

…

Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at freeCodeCamp Programming Tutorials: Python, JavaScript, Git & More .