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MariaDB vs PlanetScale comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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 Relational Databases Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
PlanetScale
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
Neeraj Sameer Allu - PeerSpot reviewer
Manages databases in serverless environments and easy to get started with
The main thing I didn't like about PlanetScale was that we couldn't run analytical queries on it. They bill based on the number of rows read, so even a simple count query could easily use up our allocated resources. Apart from that, I actually loved it. It's based on MySQL, so it doesn't have foreign key constraints or cascades. We have to delete manually or use an ORM. As it's based on MySQL, we can use log posters for complex queries, but it only supports MySQL. I feel like Postgres is more useful for custom or complex queries.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Visual Studio offers unit testing integration and extensive searching capabilities."
"This solution is user-friendly."
"Great monitoring and performance stability."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is an open-source product and offers its users great online community support."
"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."
"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."
"A valuable feature is that we can use it for quite a few things, all the things you'd expect from a server—along the lines of Linux's Lightweight Directory."
"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."
"The solution is beginner-friendly. Like any new platform, it can be a bit confusing at first. But after spending about an hour with it, you can get a clear idea of what everything is for. It's not very confusing; I think they've improved it recently."
"I like the solution's developer experience. When you deploy changes to the database in the portal, you can use different deployment strategies and see how things work. You can put changes into different branches, like deployment and staging. This is built into the product, allowing you to navigate changes through different branches."
"The database is accessible 24/7, ensuring my project runs smoothly without interruptions."
"I did not face any downtime when using the product."
"The branching feature is also good for developer experience."
 

Cons

"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."
"Could have more integration with user platforms."
"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."
"Document caching is an area of concern in the product, where improvements are required to help MariaDB improve on the previous queries as they are retained, and you can roll back to them."
"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."
"The price could be less expensive."
"The scaling for database online transactions needs improvement."
"It would be helpful if I could specify multiple drives for the database storage."
"We encountered some initial issues during the product deployment, which required me to search for solutions on forums."
"When I tried to integrate the solution with Firebase for authentication, I faced some interruptions. Also, when using it with Next.js and NextAuth.js for Google and social logins, I had some troubles."
"I am not sure, but I think recently, the tool removed the free version."
"I used PlanetScale for hobby projects, so my perspective differs from someone using it commercially. Unfortunately, they've removed the free tier in recent months and pivoted to a business-to-business model. This is sad for hobby developers like me because it's a great product, but I understand they have costs to cover."
"The main thing I didn't like about PlanetScale was that we couldn't run analytical queries on it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"It is 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."
"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"The solution is expensive for beginners. That's why I wasn't motivated to use it more. But they were already providing many features for free for beginners, which was great."
"Last time, when I wanted to use the tool in a project, I could see it was only paid, so I didn't use the service."
"I am currently using the product's free version, which has been sufficient for my portfolio project."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
No data available
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PlanetScale?
I am currently using the product's free version, which has been sufficient for my portfolio project. The paid version ranges from $39 to $1,000, depending on the features and scale required.
What needs improvement with PlanetScale?
I would like PlanetScale to have a feature where the database can be accessed in the cloud with a link, allowing for a more user-friendly interface compared to the terminal. This would make it easi...
What is your primary use case for PlanetScale?
I have used PlanetScale as it is an advanced version of MySQL. It functions as a platform where MySQL is live, similar to AWS. I use PlanetScale to store data in a live environment where queries ca...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. PlanetScale and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
846,617 professionals have used our research since 2012.