If you want a very simple alternative to Angularfire you may create a firebase service very easily. I made this to avoid extra configuration when it comes to adding npm packages and configuring for bundling. This is done by downloading the scripts from Firebase CDN directly by using a dynamically created script tag. Once the service is initialized you'll find the database in the public database property, and you just use the regular Firebase API. (Example: this.fbservice.database.ref('someproperty').set(somevalue) - and remember to have fbservice : FireBaseService in your component constructor to inject the service. ) And here's the code for the service: import { Injectable } from '@angular/core' ; import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable' ; declare const firebase : any ; const config = { apiKey : " " , authDomain : " .firebaseapp.com" , databaseURL : " " , storageBucket : &