MariaDB vs PostgreSQL comparison

MariaDB and PostgreSQL are both solutions in the Open Source Databases category. MariaDB is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9, while PostgreSQL is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. MariaDB holds a 6.6% mindshare in OSD, compared to PostgreSQL’s 18.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of PostgreSQL users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

4,450 Views
4,106 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

PostgreSQL

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

9,248 Views
7,989 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

MariaDB

PostgreSQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

PostgreSQL and MariaDB are prominent in the open-source database sector. PostgreSQL seems to have the upper hand with its comprehensive features and SQL compliance compared to MariaDB's focus on performance and integration.

Features: PostgreSQL excels with full SQL standard compliance, ACID compliance, and advanced data integrity. It provides robust support for complex queries and stored procedures. In contrast, MariaDB offers a pluggable storage engine architecture and performs well in read-heavy operations.

Room for Improvement: PostgreSQL users suggest enhancements in replication, partitioning, and query handling for COUNT(*). MariaDB could improve in write-intensive application support, clustering capabilities, and handling complex queries.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both PostgreSQL and MariaDB offer flexibility in deployment from on-premises to cloud environments. PostgreSQL has strong community support and documentation but lacks structured professional support, whereas MariaDB offers direct support options heavily reliant on community assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Both PostgreSQL and MariaDB are cost-effective open-source solutions. PostgreSQL's licensing cost reduction leads to high ROI, while MariaDB provides a favorable cost-benefit ratio with the community edition being a competitive alternative to proprietary databases.

To learn more, read our detailed MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL

March 2025

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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

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Relational Databases Tools (5th)

PostgreSQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.6%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 18.4%, down from 21.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

KumarManish

Senior Technical Manager at Johnson Controls, Inc.

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.

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AdityaSharma3

Vice President Business at Techmagnate: Digital Marketing Agency

Transaction processes are fast and good replication capability

Use cases include querying data warehouses and databases to fetch data for clients already working on PostgreSQL. We also use Postgres for building reports It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping. The query speed is fast, and the…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"MariaDB has a straightforward initial setup with easy-to-understand documentation."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."

"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."

"There is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."

"MariaDB is scalable."

"Visual Studio offers unit testing integration and extensive searching capabilities."

"The solution is very easy to implement."

"From the user's perspective, the performance of the columnar queries is very good in terms of the database when comparing it to the Oracle, and MySQL."

More MariaDB pros

"Scalable, stable, and easy to manage database system, with a straightforward installation."

"I like that you can move any relational database from Oracle to PostgreSQL. I also like that it's pretty stable."

"The solution has many valuable features such as it easy to use and the interface is intuitive."

"The product is easy to use and works fast for relational databases."

"The solution is open-source and free to use."

"It has completely met our needs. It works, and it is robust. We haven't had any problems with what PostgreSQL does for us and the way it does it. That's why we've been using it for so long. We understand it, and it does the job."

"What I like is that it's quite powerful in terms of performance."

"This is an open-source solution, operates at a high speed, and supports more than one SQL language."

Cons

"Data continuity could be improved."

"MariaDB could improve by adding support for non-relational structures and new data types."

"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server. It would make things a lot easier. You need to have that replication server, but not in the same server farm. Then there will be a bit of latency between both because you should have one in one city and another one in a different city. That kind of solution should be more baked into every single database today. Mirroring the database in a live environment where any record written on the production server replicates instantly across the fiber on the other server wasn't easy. Many people don't even bother with that, and they just run one server."

"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."

"We'd like more data intelligence."

"MariaDB could be improved by adding more automation."

"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."

"MariaDB should provide HA and archive logging... I haven't had the opportunity to use the features provided by the solution since I don't know how to see them."

More MariaDB cons

"The interface could be much better."

"They need to have a better graphical interface. There is a tool called pgAdmin 4 that they use, which is free. It is written in Java, and it is slow. They need to have a better product that is similar to Toad for Oracle, but, of course, it is hard to get something that's really great and free. Other than that, it is great."

"If it was free to use, it would be the perfect solution."

"It needs more integration."

"It still needs to be more mature and have some backup feature. We are normally dealing with Oracle's data, and we have very strong online tools to back up the data and do other things. PostgreSQL still needs to do more in this area as well as in the high availability area. There are many external tools that you can use for PostgreSQL's high availability, but there is no embedded tool within PostgreSQL for high availability. It could have a feature similar to Oracle for working on a distributed system. It can have some scripts to improve the monitoring and some tools to do performance analysis. We have a workaround for most of such requirements except for the support for a distributed system, which is very difficult to have. This area should be included in the core of the database itself."

"It could be improved by using parallelization. You want basically, distributed computing."

"We often find the solution's datetime datatype challenging."

"The pricing could be better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost is approximately $4000.00 per year and the licensing is based on the software and the number of posts that you make."

"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."

"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

"We pay for a yearly license."

"We use the solution's free version."

"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 is free of charge."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"It is open-source. If you use it on-premise, it is free. It also has enterprise or commercial versions. If you go for the cloud version, there will be a cost, but it is lower than Oracle or Microsoft."

"PostgreSQL is open-source, so if capable admins are available then the setup cost can be $0."

"It is free. In terms of operating costs, it basically needs the same platform on which Oracle runs."

"The solution requires a license."

"There is an annual license."

"The need for our customers to pay for licences is contingent on their projects and budgets."

"It is free. There is no license on it."

"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...

See all answers

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers willing to pay for support and other services. Most of my deployments are free.

See all answers

Comparisons

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 25% of the time

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 22% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 10% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Percona Server vs MariaDB

Compared 4% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 38% of the time

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 14% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 12% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 7% of the time

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Compared 3% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

March 2025

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

PostgreSQL

March 2025

Download PostgreSQL product report

Overview

MariaDB is an open source relational database created by the original founders of MySQL. It is considered one of the most popular and trusted database servers throughout the world. MariaDB is a valued component found in most cloud offerings and is the default in many Linux tools. It is also widely used by Wikipedia, WordPress, and Google, among other well-known sites. Maria DB easily melds data into concise information from a vast array of applications, such as banking, online shopping, websites, and more.

MariaDB was originally created to improve MySQL performance. It is the most widely chosen database server due to the solution being super fast, robust, user-friendly, and easily scalable. MariaDB also offers a substantial ecosystem of plugins, storage engines, and numerous other valuable tools that make it very attractive for a significant offering of use cases.

The solution’s newest functionalities include compatibility with Oracle Database and Temporal Data Tables, and advanced clustering with Galera Cluster 4, which make it easier for users to research data history from any point in the past. Additionally, the most recent versions include JSON and GIS features. MariaDB is committed to staying an open source solution.

MariaDB Features

More storage: MariaDB works with more storage engines than MySQL and most other database servers available. Some storage options include, but are not limited to ARCHIVE, MERGE, CSV, MEMORY, BLACKHOLE, MyISAM, ColumnStore, MyRocks, and Cassandra.
Super fast: MariaDB offers faster authentication checks. The FlushSSL permits SSL certificates to be reloaded without a server restart, resulting in huge time savings.
Improved testing: MariaDB offers an extending testing suite that runs faster and can test more than ever before. Bugs can be easily fixed and invalid tests removed.
Genuinely open source: Every code in MariaDB is GPL, LGPL, or BSD. Client libraries [for Windows (ODBC), Java (JDBC), or C] allow linking to closed source software. All fixed bug cases and development plans are completely public. MariaDB is a community-developed solution representing the true spirit of open source products.

Reviews from Real Users

Faustine C., Engineering Supervisor- Corporate Data Solutions and Services at TZ Telecoms Corporation, shares, “The software provides a lot of information on what is happening inside the database. For most performance parameters it is easy to know if something is not right in the configuration or optimization which helps engineers take remedial fine-tuning measures. For example, if the database is underperforming it is easy to know which performance parameter can be adjusted to handle the workload. It is difficult to troubleshoot database issues if many performance parameters can not be monitored or debugged which is the case with some database management systems. It provides great monitoring of data storage, processing, and performance stability which is really important for real-time data storage and processing. It's a user-friendly product.”

A PeerSpot user who is a Senior Engineer at a tech services company relates, “ The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect. We have found the product to be stable and the initial setup is pretty simple. I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. I'm very happy with it overall. I would recommend the solution to others. It's easy to find details about the product online and to learn about it.”

MariaDB

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

PostgreSQL

Sample Customers

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities

1. Apple 2. Cisco 3. Fujitsu 4. Instagram 5. Netflix 6. Red Hat 7. Sony 8. Uber 9. Cisco Systems 10. Skype 11. LinkedIn 12. Etsy 13. Yelp 14. Reddit 15. Dropbox 16. Slack 17. Twitch 18. WhatsApp 19. Snapchat 20. Shazam 21. SoundCloud 22. The New York Times 23. Cisco WebEx 24. Atlassian 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Heroku 27. GitLab 28. Zalando 29. OpenTable 30. Trello 31. Square Enix 32. Bloomberg

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL

March 2025

Free Report: MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL

Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. PostgreSQL and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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