It's going to be a tough comparison between the two. A lot depends on your budget. I've been using an 828mkII for a couple of months and I've been extremely happy both with its quality and usability. It also seems that Motu is very committed to the product. I didn't have any problems with the drivers shipped with the unit, but since I purchased it, Motu has twice released updated drivers and control panel software for it, fixing bugs and adding new features. The latest update adds support for assigning inputs and outputs to be used as talkback/listenback channels.
Ultimately, the Motu unit will be more flexible and extensible. It only has 2 onboard mic preamps, with its remaining inputs being line level inputs. This requires an extra 8 channel offboard preamp (or several single-channel or stereo preamps) to have access to the extra channels, but this also allows you to use preamps of your choice. The Motu also supports 8 additional inputs via ADAT LightPipe. This can be supplied from a preamp like the Presonus Digimax series (I use a Digimax LT). Adding in the SPDIF inputs, the grand total comes to 20 inputs and 22 outputs, far beyond the FirePod.
The FirePod allows separate main and cue mixes while the Motu has 4 separate mix busses that can be assigned to any purpose (recorded mix, headphone mix, main mix, etc). The Motu also has level meters on the front panel, which the FirePod lacks, and (while a lot of changes can be a pain in the ass) all of the Motu's settings can be accessed from the front panel.
In the short run, the FirePod would be cheaper, because it has 8 mic preamps onboard, but those come at the expense of expandability. If you'll never need more than 8 channels, you would probably be fine with it.
Just my $0.02