The company is going all-in on Antigravity and Google AI Studio.
In March, Google announced it was “sunsetting” Firebase Studio, its online integrated development environment (IDE), in favor of coding tools that put AI at the center. The company’s preference for Antigravity and Google AI Studio serves its broader push around Gemini, but it also leaves anyone who liked Firebase Studio’s approach in the lurch.
The ability to create new workspaces and sign up to use Firebase Studio ended on June 22, and developers have until March 22, 2027 to export their work to another IDE before it’s shut down completely and all remaining data is deleted. Until then, Firebase Studio is in limbo, and deciding on an alternative largely comes down to how developers want AI to be incorporated into their development process.
Retiring Firebase Studio streamlines Google’s development workflow
Google conceived of Firebase Studio as a coding tool that could connect directly to Firebase, backend services it provides to developers that cover everything from databases to web hosting. From the launch of the IDE in 2025, Google has imagined that AI agents would play a role in development. What’s changed since then is how central AI has become. Firebase Studio offers an AI chatbot experience that can prototype and tweak apps and handle other development tasks, but the bulk of Firebase Studio is still devoted to editing code. In 2026, a growing number of coding projects start with a prompt, and thanks to the popularity of vibe coding, some users never even deal with the raw code.
Both of Google’s newer coding tools, Antigravity and Google AI Studio, are designed for that reality, and since Firebase itself is sticking around and either tool can connect to it, a separate Firebase-focused IDE isn’t essential. Google more or less framed its decision that way when it announced it was retiring the tool. “To streamline your workflow and make it clearer where you should start building, we’re beginning the process of sunsetting Firebase Studio,” the company wrote in March.
Firebase Studio alternatives
If you’d prefer to stay in Google’s ecosystem, you can either switch to Google AI Studio or Antigravity. Google AI Studio is “the fastest path from prompt to full-stack production app,” according to Google, which means its interface prioritizes prompts and chatting with AI. Like Firebase Studio, it’s also web-based, so you can access it from any browser. In comparison, Antigravity is a desktop app that’s meant to run locally on your computer. Its interface is designed for users to directly interact with their code, while also directing multiple AI agents that can work on their own. Notably, it also supports AI models other than Google’s own.
Most other coding tools tend to follow a similar logic, where the coder is a team leader for agents that handle the first pass. Cursor, now owned by SpaceX, is a popular option. Both Anthropic and OpenAI also have their own AI-focused coding tools in Claude Code and Codex, respectively. Using AI in projects can come with associated costs, either in the form of subscriptions, paying for tokens, or both. Which tools developers migrate to after Firebase Studio shuts down will likely be determined as much by price as by the interface and each tool’s future.
