MariaDB vs SQL Server comparison

MariaDB and Microsoft are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. MariaDB is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. MariaDB holds a 6.8% mindshare in SQL, compared to Microsoft’s 17.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

5,633 Views
5,187 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SQL Server

Read 268 SQL Server reviews

16,970 Views
12,982 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

MariaDB

SQL Server

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

SQL Server and MariaDB compete in the database management systems category. Based on the data, SQL Server seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive features and reliability, despite its higher costs compared to the open-source model of MariaDB.

Features: SQL Server offers high availability, scalability, and user-friendliness. It integrates seamlessly with cloud services and supports easy setup and deployment. MariaDB is valued for being open-source, stable, and cost-effective, offering strong performance in complex relationships, columnar queries, and flexibility.

Room for Improvement: SQL Server could enhance integration with other platforms and improve its indexing and performance tools. The cost can be a barrier for small businesses. MariaDB should enhance its error handling, clustering, and replication capabilities. Better support for large-scale transactions and broader integration tools would be an improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SQL Server is versatile across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments with generally satisfactory Microsoft support, varying by issue complexity. MariaDB excels in on-premises and hybrid setups, relying on community-based troubleshooting due to limited corporate support, which poses challenges in complex deployments.

Pricing and ROI: SQL Server has high enterprise licensing fees but provides good ROI through its features and performance, with manageable costs in smaller setups. Conversely, MariaDB leverages a free open-source model, offering cost savings and quicker ROI, especially appealing to budget-conscious users who do not need extensive service support.

To learn more, read our detailed MariaDB vs. SQL Server Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. SQL Server

April 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 Relational Databases Tools

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (4th)

SQL Server

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

268

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.8%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 17.9%, down from 23.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools

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.

Read full review

Kapil Dev Khatri

Database administrator at K electric

Helps monitor queries and identify which indexes need to be created in the databases

SQL Server is very simple due to its GUI, which is available for users. It allows for modifications and has execution plans available, along with options such as activity monitoring. This helps monitor queries and identify which indexes need to be created in the databases, tables, or columns to improve performance.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"The solution is very easy to implement."

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

"It is an absolutely stable solution."

"Great monitoring and performance stability."

"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."

"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."

"What I like best about MariaDB is that it is open-source and reliable."

More MariaDB pros

"SQL Server scales well."

"For me, the initial setup is very easy as I have years of experience with the product."

"The most valuable aspect is the ability to utilize jobs and various functions to accomplish specific tasks, which cannot be achieved with standard procedures alone. This allows for a combination of features and functionalities to be employed."

"It is easy to use and easy to perform a backup."

"The latest version supports for big data analytics. SQL Server's vector processing-based batch execution mode is now available to the entire execution of R or Python code. Since much of the work that tends to be done in R and Python involves aggregation, batch mode - which processes rows of data several at a time, can be very helpful."

"SQL Server is very good, it can be used as a transactional database and used to support the data warehouse. Additionally, the ANSI-compliant satisfies our database properties."

"It is easy to use for a BI specialist."

"The most valuable feature of SQL Server is that it is easy to set up."

More SQL Server pros

Cons

"MariaDB can improve by adding more features. There are a lot of features, which are available in Oracle, and which are not available in MariaDB. We hope they will introduce the features soon."

"There could be a command-line prompt for repairing the database and fixing indexes, similar to what was available in the old MyISAM storage engine."

"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."

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

"There is not much support available."

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

"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."

"There is room for improvement in terms of security."

More MariaDB cons

"If this solution could provide an automatic indexing feature it would be very useful."

"On the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) side, I have noticed more bugs in terms of being able to connect to our SQL servers. I can't tell how many times my recent server list got dropped or cleaned out. It is a pain, and it would be nice to have that recent connect list when you connect in. For whatever reason, once in a while, I get a hard error, and it'll close. When I go back in, everything is cleared out. It is annoying when you are working with more than a hundred database instances."

"Performance could be improved."

"Indexing, as well as integration, are areas of this product that need improvement."

"The documentation could be much better. It's lacking right now. If there are better help pages, for even complicated queries and stuff like that that would be quite a help for users."

"SQL Server could improve by increase the performance, it cannot handle large amounts of data. I did not find any additional features compared to others solutions."

"In some cases it is quite difficult, like the lack of ease of the replication and other issues. They have to improve on that. They do not have features like "always on," which is complicated."

"The way SQL Server pivots data could be improved. For example, I would like built-in comma-separated pivot and unpivot functions."

More SQL Server cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."

"It is an open-source solution."

"The tool is open-source."

"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."

"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"SQL Server's pricing has proven satisfactory for our market range."

"The licensing is on an annual basis."

"As compared to Oracle Database, SQL Server is less expensive. For mid-sized organizations, SQL Server is completely all right, but people say it can't support large organizations with more than 2,000 users."

"SQL Server is expensive if you use the advanced SQL version, but if you use the standard version, it's not expensive."

"We're looking at alternative solutions because we think Microsoft's licensing costs have been expensive."

"SQL Server has the best licensing price."

"The price could always be lower."

"I don't need a license for it as I will be migrating to Office 365."

More SQL Server pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

47%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

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

Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?

SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...

See all answers

Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?

SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...

See all answers

Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?

My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...

See all answers

Comparisons

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 13% 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 5% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

SAP HANA vs SQL Server

Compared 14% of the time

IBM Db2 Database vs SQL Server

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Database vs SQL Server

Compared 9% of the time

LocalDB vs SQL Server

Compared 8% of the time

Teradata vs SQL Server

Compared 8% of the time

More SQL Server Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

May 2025

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

SQL Server

March 2025

Download SQL Server product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL

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

SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.

The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.

The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:

SQL Server Developer
SQL Server Expression
SQL Server Standard
SQL Server Enterprise

The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.

The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:

Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.
Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.
Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.
String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.
System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.

SQL Server Services

SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:

Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.
Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication.
Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.
Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.
Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.
Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.
Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.
Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.
Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.

SQL Server Benefits

The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:

The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.
Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.
The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.
SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.
SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.
The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.

Reviews from Real Users

A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature.

Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. SQL Server

April 2025

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