Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

CockroachDB vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

CockroachDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of CockroachDB is 3.5%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 7.6%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Tringali - PeerSpot reviewer
Open source with extensive documentation and a University for training
I am a freelancer. A client of mine wanted a solution that would allow them to scale yet not abandon the familiar PostgreSQL front-end (and rewrite a part of their source code). Scalability aside, CockroachDB is a fine way forward from PostgreSQL and is not changing the client source code part of the system. If you are lucky and you do not use newer features from recent versions of PostgreSQL or PostgreSQL extensions, it's fine. There are nice-to-have features for big organizations like regional tables. At the moment, my client simply does not use these. However, the serverless offer from CockroachDB is reacting well as data grows.
KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products
We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The initial setup and deployment are simple."
"The tool's most valuable feature is node syncing, which takes only 0.54 milliseconds."
"The best feature of CockroachDB is the ability to keep the nodes in different locations."
"The product has valuable security features."
"The availability and the easy to use feature is the most valuable. The documentation is also good."
"CockroachDB is highly reliable."
"The most valuable feature is that CockroachDB is a distributed database, which can deploy nodes running in different regions."
"I use CockroachDB to test big data samples and to create the best structure for databases. We have four users and required 10 people for deployment and maintenance."
"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."
"The documentation is quite straightforward."
"Installation is straightforward."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"MariaDB has a straightforward initial setup with easy-to-understand documentation."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is that it is open-source and we can easily migrate from other databases, such as Oracle to MariaDB."
"There is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."
"For non-production purposes. I'm just using it for my personal project, so it works quite well. I haven't faced any errors yet."
 

Cons

"The initial setup and pricing could be improved."
"Cockroach does not support all types of protocols. I need to improve it myself to support a CouchDB on my network."
"I find the serverless offer a bit confusing."
"I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and technical integrations."
"The closer they can make CockroachDB to being completely compatible with Postgres, the better. It's almost compatible, but not completely. If it was, it would be nice to just be able to use Postgres libraries without any fiddling."
"We are looking for more features to support distributed high availability and geo-partitioning."
"I think the engine itself could be improved. If you miss a partition key, it should be able to be modeled. This is where AI could be really helpful. For example, if a user is from Australia, the system should know to look for their data there first instead of searching in the US or another continent."
"The platform could be more extensible."
"Integration with AWS could be improved."
"It should work across all fields like SQLite, as it is the basis of any application, even apps for phones and the like."
"It would be good if they can maybe improve the mass import in the database. Currently, for importing a large number of data, we create a CSV file and upload all the things in the system. The system does not activate them by default. We have to do this manually. This may be due to the version we are using, but this is something we would like to see improved."
"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."
"In the next release, I would like to see improvements in the scalability and redundancy features."
"The difficult part related to the product stems not from the tool itself but is related to learning how to implement the product in the right way without creating any wrong configuration that could cause security issues or performance issues."
"There is not much support available."
"Maria DB has to improve from a management perspective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's price depends on the user's company and the contract model they enter into with CockroachDB. Depending on the contract model one enters into with CockroachDB, the product may or may not be expensive."
"The pricing is good but can be made cheaper. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"I've used CockroachDB at a small scale on the free accounts because we are only testing."
"The platform is affordable even for the enterprise version. It provides value for investment in terms of performance."
"The solution's pricing is not cheap. However, the good thing is that customers are willing to pay for it if they want it."
"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"The solution is free, but if you want the enterprise version you will need to pay for some licenses but the cost is less than other solutions, such as Oracle."
"It's an open-source solution."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"The product is not expensive."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
39%
Computer Software Company
13%
Retailer
5%
University
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about CockroachDB?
The subset of SQL that my client is using is completely supported.
What needs improvement with CockroachDB?
I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and technical integrations.
What is your primary use case for CockroachDB?
I am studying how to deploy CockroachDB and YugaByteDB, and learning some basic information about them. I am testing these databases as part of my school application to find a suitable database for...
What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baidu, Kindred, Tierion, Heroic Labs, Gorgias
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about CockroachDB vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.