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MariaDB vs SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 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)
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 March 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 7.2%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 19.3%, down from 23.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

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.
Azizul Haque - PeerSpot reviewer
It has eliminated all kinds of inconsistencies, and it is reliable, secure, and fast
I don't know whether SQL Server can support large organizations where the database size is more than 100 GB. It might be because of SQL Server, or it might be because of the programming of the software vendor, but a lot of people think that it is a problem with SQL Server. It can't handle a large amount of data or large data size. In terms of its usage, about 90% of our applications are running on the SQL Server database. We have around 1,600 users for our software, and all the applications are connected to the SQL Server database.

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."
"MariaDB performs well as the backend database for our cloud-based telephony solution."
"MariaDB is a user-friendly solution. Performance wise, it's better than SQL. With SQL, I would need to write a number of queries. In contrast, MariaDB is light."
"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a cloud-based tool, so it is pretty fast."
"MariaDB can solve things better than MySQL. Maria DB has better performance than MySQL."
"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 initial setup of MariaDB is simple enough."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the replication mode."
"If we want to expand to other servers and create an extra node, it's expandable."
"SQL Server is a very mature solution."
"We like business integration, database, and analysis."
"SQL Server and their offers are very good. You can switch over, export, and do other things."
"I value the ability it gives me to test on small machines and easily scale up to larger devices for live applications."
"can extract data from the server and store it in a local data source for BI purposes."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"SQL Server stands out due to its robust parallel processing capabilities."
 

Cons

"The solution is not scalable."
"The dashboard and pricing need improvement."
"Integration with AWS could be improved."
"I would like to see a better user interface which would make the tool less complex."
"I would like to see more compatibility going forward. This would help if there is a need to change databases."
"The customer service and support are okay. But the response time is slow. Moreover, the material is not available freely."
"The configuration could be improved. It should be easier."
"An improvement would be scaling it up to the levels of Oracle, especially when it comes to resilience, so that we can do higher transactions for two databases or power our operation."
"Improvement in SQL Server should focus on lowering the high cost, especially for environments requiring extensive CPU and memory usage like data warehousing"
"The upgrades are unstable."
"It would be better if it had more integration with other systems."
"It will be very useful to have high-level database monitoring. It should also have built-in business intelligence reporting."
"The installation process should be simplified."
"Their datatypes need improvement."
"I would appreciate a dark theme for SQL Server Management Studio and ability to add databases with TDE enabled into availability groups."
"Technical support could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"The price could be less expensive."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"It's an open-source solution."
"The product is not expensive."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"The price could be cheaper."
"There is no licensing cost for SQL Server."
"It is annual."
"Currently, almost all of my machines are in Azure and I think it is the best way of licensing now (VM+software)."
"There is a subscription that needs to be purchased to use the solution."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"Synapse is a bit costly. If I compare it with different databases, I think it's a reasonable price"
"It costs a lot."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
53%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

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.
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...
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

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.
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,161 professionals have used our research since 2012.