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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 April 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.9%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 18.6%, down from 23.1% 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

"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."
"The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect."
"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."
"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."
"MariaDB can solve things better than MySQL. Maria DB has better performance than MySQL."
"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."
"MariaDB is easy to install and is stable and scalable."
"Visual Studio offers unit testing integration and extensive searching capabilities."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"We use it for our on-premises solutions, virtual servers and SSAS, SSRS packages. Also, our applications are .NET based, so it made to use it."
"It's a good learning environment, it's easy enough to learn and understand. Anybody that picks up the language early on will be able to develop in it."
"Stability is one of the most valuable features."
"The most valuable features of SQL Server are the speed, great support, and it is from a known vendor."
"The fact that SQL Server fully integrates within the entire Microsoft ecosystem is a plus."
"The product has very good online documentation that can be used for troubleshooting."
"I find query optimization to be highly valuable for data management. Additionally, drag-and-drop query creation greatly facilitates data management tasks."
 

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."
"While MariaDB is a good relational database, it can be inflexible for complex use cases."
"The scaling for database online transactions needs improvement."
"The GUI could be improved a bit. The user interface needs to be improved."
"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."
"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."
"Lacks time series data and additional driving support would be helpful."
"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."
"The solution could be better when it comes to security."
"For small-scale businesses, Microsoft could improve by removing some limits in SQL Express."
"In terms of improvement, it could use more integration with other products."
"The product overall would benefit from the addition of better tutorials to help master the skills necessary to actually build a project database. Right now, what is available isn't sufficient."
"I would like to see more integration with other products and it needs to be more secure."
"The licensing costs are very high."
"The agility of the non-SQL-based features is relevant on the market."
"If you are a new user then this solution could be difficult, they could improve by making the overall usage easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"MariaDB is available for free."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"The price could be less expensive."
"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."
"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."
"The product is not expensive."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price since there are some support costs involved, even though it isn't an open-source solution."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"The price could be better. Aside from the basic features, if you need any additional features that can be extended, for example, if you want to connect with the heterogeneous databases, they are being managed as separate services and not included in the package. If you manage a database in Azure, it's not providing SFS and reporting services. However, on-premises, if you purchase the SQL Server license, it includes SFIS and SFRS services. If you take Postgre SQL and MySQL, they provide almost all the same features even though they are both open source databases."
"It's a bit expensive."
"We purchased our license and the pricing is fine for us."
"To scale the solution there are additional costs."
"I don't need a license for it as I will be migrating to Office 365."
"SQL Server is an expensive solution."
"​We are a Microsoft shop, so we use Active Directory. That integrates well with this product, but we did look at Oracle. We also looked at IBM. This was the best price point for us for what we were getting.​"
"Some of the licensing are very expensive, such as the Enterprise license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
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.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.