Infrastructure & Hosting
Where everything runs, what it costs, and who provides it
Hosting Overview
MaxShipping runs almost entirely on Google Firebase (Blaze plan — pay-as-you-go). The only external paid services are Square for payments and Hostinger for email/website hosting. Workflow automation was migrated from Make.com (paid SaaS) to self-hosted n8n in March 2026, eliminating that recurring cost.
Google Firebase
Database, Functions, Hosting, Auth, Storage
+
Square
Payment processing
+
Hostinger
Email SMTP & website hosting
+
n8n (self-hosted)
Workflow automation
Firebase Project Details
| Property | Production | Development |
|---|
| Project Name | Max Inventory Scanner | Max Shipping Development |
| Project ID | max-inventory-scanner-b0b53 | max-shipping-development |
| Project Number | 2957698276 | — |
| Firebase Alias | default / max-production | maxshipping |
| Billing Plan | Blaze (pay-as-you-go) | Spark (free) |
| Created | June 25, 2024 | — |
The Blaze plan is required for Cloud Functions deployment. There is no monthly base fee — you only pay for what you use beyond the free tier limits.
Cloud Firestore (Database)
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Location | nam5 — US multi-region (Iowa + South Carolina) |
| Mode | Firestore Native |
| Edition | Standard |
| Free Tier | Yes — currently within free tier |
| Concurrency | Pessimistic |
| Point-in-Time Recovery | Disabled |
| Delete Protection | Disabled |
| Realtime Updates | Enabled |
Free Tier Limits (Firestore):
| Resource | Free Allowance (per day) |
|---|
| Document reads | 50,000 |
| Document writes | 20,000 |
| Document deletes | 20,000 |
| Stored data | 1 GiB total |
| Network egress | 10 GiB/month |
The database stores 7 main collections: Packages, Invoices, Clients, Containers, Users, WebLogs, Consolidated, and Notifications. Current usage stays within the free tier for normal daily operations.
Cloud Functions (Backend)
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Region | us-central1 (Iowa) |
| Runtime | Node.js 20 (1st Gen) |
| Total Functions | 54 |
| Billing | Pay-as-you-go (Blaze plan) |
Memory Allocation Breakdown:
| Memory | Count | Functions |
|---|
| 256 MB | 35 | Most triggers, HTTP endpoints, lightweight scheduled jobs |
| 4 GB | 1 | prepaidSendEmail (XLSX generation) |
| 8 GB | 18 | Heavy batch operations, PubSub handlers, daily checks, container tasks |
Free Tier Limits (Cloud Functions):
| Resource | Free Allowance (per month) |
|---|
| Invocations | 2,000,000 |
| Compute (GB-seconds) | 400,000 |
| Networking (egress) | 5 GB |
Runtime deprecation notice: Node.js 20 will be deprecated on 2026-04-30 and decommissioned on 2026-10-30. Upgrade to Node.js 22 should be planned before April 2026.
Firebase Hosting (Web App)
| Property | Value |
|---|
| What's Hosted | MaxTracks Web (Flutter Web compiled PWA) |
| URL | Firebase default URL (internal admin tool, not public-facing) |
| CDN | Google global CDN (automatic) |
| SSL | Automatic (Firebase-managed) |
| Billing | Free tier — 10 GB storage, 360 MB/day transfer |
The Flutter web build output (build/web/) is committed to the Git repo and deployed via firebase deploy --only hosting.
Firebase Authentication
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Provider | Email/Password |
| Used By | Staff (MaxTracks Web + Scanner), Customers (tracking portal) |
| Billing | Free — up to 50,000 MAUs |
Firebase Storage
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Used For | Package images, container report files (JSON, XLSX), Firestore backups |
| Backup Buckets | gs://maxproductionbackup/ (primary), plus weekly and daily buckets |
| Billing | Pay-as-you-go — 5 GB free, then $0.026/GB/month |
External Services
Square API External
Purpose: Invoice creation, payment processing, customer management
Cost: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction (standard Square processing fee)
API: REST API, called from Cloud Functions
Credentials: Stored in functions/.env
Hostinger SMTP Paid
Purpose: Email delivery (reports, alerts, client notifications, verification)
Cost: Included in Hostinger hosting plan
Server: Hostinger SMTP via Nodemailer
Credentials: Stored in functions/.env
Hostinger Web Hosting Paid
Purpose: maxshipping.info website + customer tracking portal
Cost: Hostinger shared hosting plan
Tech: Static HTML/CSS/JS with Firebase Auth
n8n Self-Hosted
Purpose: Workflow automation — Square customer creation, updates, welcome emails
Cost: Free (self-hosted on worker1.ipnoelp.com)
Replaced: Make.com (paid SaaS, expired March 2026)
Webhooks: 3 workflows for client CRUD
Google Cloud PubSub
| Topic | Publishers | Subscribers | Purpose |
|---|
| process-invoice |
enqueueInvoiceForProcessing |
processInvoiceFromQueue (max 3 instances) |
Queue invoices for Square API submission |
| process-container-tasks |
onContainerCreated |
3 consumers: JSON, XSL, JsonForApp |
Generate container reports after creation |
PubSub is included in the Blaze plan free tier: first 10 GB of messages per month are free.
Cloud Scheduler
| Property | Value |
|---|
| Total Scheduled Jobs | 14 |
| Billing | 3 jobs free, then $0.10/job/month (11 paid = ~$1.10/month) |
| Timezones Used | Asia/Manila (PH), America/New_York (ET), America/Tegucigalpa |
Cost Summary
| Service | Provider | Cost Model | Est. Monthly Cost |
|---|
| Cloud Firestore |
Google Firebase |
Free tier |
$0 (within limits) |
| Cloud Functions |
Google Firebase |
Pay-as-you-go |
Minimal (mostly within free tier) |
| Firebase Hosting |
Google Firebase |
Free tier |
$0 |
| Firebase Auth |
Google Firebase |
Free tier |
$0 |
| Cloud Scheduler |
Google Cloud |
$0.10/job after 3 free |
~$1.10 |
| Cloud PubSub |
Google Cloud |
Free tier |
$0 |
| Firebase Storage |
Google Firebase |
Pay-as-you-go |
Minimal (backups + images) |
| Square API |
Square |
2.9% + 30¢ per txn |
Per-transaction (paid by Max) |
| Website + Email |
Hostinger |
Hosting plan |
Included in Hostinger plan |
| n8n Automation |
Self-hosted |
Free |
$0 (runs on existing server) |
| Make.com |
Make.com |
Paid SaaS |
$0 (migrated to n8n, March 2026) |
Bottom line: The platform runs almost entirely on Firebase free tier + pay-as-you-go. The primary recurring costs are the Hostinger hosting plan and Square per-transaction fees. Cloud infrastructure costs are minimal due to efficient use of free tiers.
Architecture Diagram
Where Each Component Lives
Google Firebase / Google Cloud (Blaze Plan)
Region: us-central1 (Iowa) | Firestore: nam5 (US multi-region)
Cloud Firestore
Database (free tier)
Cloud Functions
54 functions, Node.js 20
Firebase Hosting
Flutter Web PWA
Firebase Auth
Email/Password
Cloud Storage
Images & backups
Cloud Scheduler
14 cron jobs
Hostinger
Web Host
maxshipping.info