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MariaDB vs MySQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

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

MariaDB
Ranking in Open Source Databases
4th
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MySQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
2nd
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
149
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 9.7%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Muzzamil  Hussain - PeerSpot reviewer
Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment
The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."
"MariaDB performs well as the backend database for our cloud-based telephony solution."
"This solution is user-friendly."
"The documentation is quite straightforward."
"Installation is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the replication mode."
"The speed and functionality are the most valuable features."
"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."
"Fully scalable and stable SQL-based RDBMS, with a straightforward and easy setup."
"MySQL is easy and convenient for me. I don't need to rely on anyone. I can write the code and extract the information. It is fast if you know how to use it. The solution is not expensive, and most of the developers know how to use it. It is easy to create tables. The solution is stable and has good performance. The connection with AWS gives regular updates, which is manual otherwise and a nightmare."
"The most valuable feature of MySQL is auto-scaling."
"​We use MySQL for enterprise data storage as well as part of the back-end of websites and web applications.​"
"The solution is easy to use."
"MySQL is a popular database platform for businesses because it is extremely easy to use."
"It has a remote access feature to manage the database from a remote location. This enables in-work collaboration."
"I would use MySQL for a medium project, with around 1,00,000 hundred thousand users, because of the indexing and stored procedures."
 

Cons

"One feedback I can quickly provide is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."
"MariaDB's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The solution can improve by having support for more integration. However, at this time it is working well for us."
"The performance could be a bit better."
"There is room for improvement in terms of security."
"With respect to clustering and the master-slave configuration, sometimes the slave goes out of synch."
"We'd like more data intelligence."
"Data continuity could be improved."
"The workbench could be improved. In particular, error messages can be improved, which are horrific and completely unhelpful. I'd like to see improved parsing of errors. When you write SQL and it crashes, it usually is something completely irrelevant and not helpful. I've started to use GPT 3.5 for finding out how to do things. I got to do something a bit different, and that I found to be very useful. If there was some way to tie it into one of the new AI tools, that would probably be a good idea."
"The solution could improve the monitoring. At the present time, you need to use third-party monitoring solutions."
"I would like to have the ability to cancel a query in SQL Developer."
"I am looking for the Temporal SQL feature, which basically means that there is complete history for each table. This feature is currently available in MariaDB. PostgreSQL has something called a foreign-data wrapper, which is another way to access external data from inside. MySQL could have a similar feature."
"There are some issues with compatibility with Java environments that need to be improved. When Oracle bought this solution there were some driver changes that caused some issues with operations."
"It would be helpful if there were a graphical user interface to administer, configure, and tune it."
"The replication needs improvement. It's becoming a native cloud product like Oracle DB or Cockroach DB."
"The GUI could improve to make MySQL better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
"It is an open-source solution."
"MariaDB is available for free."
"The pricing falls within the moderate range."
"The solution is open source so is free."
"​Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. ​"
"The price of the solution is good because we have a good partner."
"MySQL Enterprise Support is not cheap, though might still be cheaper than Oracle or SQL Server. They may not have local support depending on where you’re based, but there are many smaller agencies out there that will readily provide support. You’ll need to spend some time looking around."
"MySQL is free."
"MySQL is released under an open-source license, so you have nothing to pay to use it."
"The solution’s pricing depends on customer requirements. A license is not required for the community edition."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...
Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...
What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. MySQL and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.