Citus Data vs MariaDB comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

MariaDB and Citus Data are competitive products in the realm of database solutions. MariaDB stands out due to its robust feature set and attractive pricing, offering significant versatility with advanced security options and wide compatibility across platforms. Conversely, Citus Data offers superior scalability and performance, making it particularly appealing for environments requiring distributed database solutions.

Features: MariaDB provides high compatibility with MySQL, integrates advanced security protocols, and supports hybrid cloud environments. Citus Data delivers horizontal scalability, distributed transaction capabilities, and seamless integration with PostgreSQL. These features underscore MariaDB's emphasis on adaptability and security, contrasting with Citus Data's focus on large-scale data management and PostgreSQL integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MariaDB ensures straightforward deployment with hybrid cloud support and robust customer service. Citus Data targets large-scale, distributed settings with consultative support tailored to optimize its architecture, focusing on ensuring efficient deployment in complex environments. This highlights MariaDB's dedication to flexibility and comprehensive support, while Citus Data's approach suits extensive, distributed applications.

Pricing and ROI: MariaDB offers competitive initial costs with appealing ROI, attributed to its inclusive feature set and flexible deployment. Citus Data, although incurring higher initial costs, provides considerable ROI through enhanced scalability and performance, particularly in distributed database settings. The comparative analysis indicates MariaDB's cost-effectiveness with moderate ROI, whereas Citus Data delivers substantial ROI potential in scalable deployments despite higher upfront investments.

To learn more, read our detailed Citus Data vs. MariaDB Report (Updated: September 2025).

Citus Data vs. MariaDB

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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

Citus Data

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

18th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MariaDB

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Citus Data is 2.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 5.7%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MariaDB	5.7%
Citus Data	2.7%
Other	91.6%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Arucy Lionel

Co-Founder at Afriziki

Efficiently handles high-traffic scenarios and compatible with PostgreSQL extensions, offering flexibility in database management

There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward. Currently, setting up a multi-node environment is challenging. It's a bit tricky. Installation on each PostgreSQL node can lead to communication issues between nodes. An automatic rebalancing feature would be a significant improvement. Currently, I have to manually command the rebalance. It would be more convenient if it was rebalanced automatically. The dashboard and monitoring capabilities are good, but it would be helpful to have an integrated availability dashboard.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very straightforward to implement the solution. It took us two days to set up everything."

"Its distributed processing capabilities are a standout feature. It requires minimal changes to get up and running if you already have a system on PostgreSQL. Citus can run in its natural state."

"You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well."

"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."

"The documentation is quite straightforward."

"Easy to use and available in most environments."

"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."

"We like the easy way that we can collect data from other databases."

"The solution's features have effectively met our operational requirements as a standard SQL database."

"It is a stable solution."

More MariaDB pros

Cons

"There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward."

"Citus Data needs to improve its stability. Do not consider this product if you have the budget. It is still developing and has a lot of issues."

"More features in monitoring and the reporting could make it better."

"It doesn't have the same level of maturity metrics as Postgres."

"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."

"Data continuity could be improved."

"In future releases, mainly the addition of security features would be beneficial for MariaDB."

"The ability to create stored procedures in MariaDB is an area where the tool lacks a bit."

"MariaDB doesn't handle long or complex SQL queries quite as well as Oracle Database."

"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."

"It's not very stable. It needs improvement."

More MariaDB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citus Data is an open-source product."

"The tool is open-source."

"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 price could be less expensive."

"We use the solution's free version."

"MariaDB is available for free."

"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

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

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Consumer Goods Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citus Data?

You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well.

What needs improvement with Citus Data?

Citus Data needs to improve its stability. Do not consider this product if you have the budget. It is still developing and has a lot of issues.

What advice do you have for others considering Citus Data?

I rate the product a seven out of ten.

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.

CockroachDB vs Citus Data

Comparisons

Compared 28% of the time

Neon vs Citus Data

Compared 21% of the time

YugabyteDB vs Citus Data

Compared 18% of the time

SQL Server vs Citus Data

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon Aurora vs Citus Data

Compared 7% of the time

More Citus Data Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 25% of the time

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 21% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 13% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 7% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Product Reports

Relational Databases Tools

Download Citus Data product report

Download MariaDB product report

Overview

Citus is a distributed database that extends PostgreSQL, allowing you to continue using all the powerful Postgres features while still scaling.

Whether you're running into a ceiling on a single node, or need more performance for real-time analytical queries Citus can help.

Citus Data

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.”

Sample Customers

Cloud Flare, Agari, Mix Rank, Heap

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

Citus Data vs. MariaDB