CockroachDB vs MySQL comparison

Cockroach and Oracle are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. Cockroach is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.4, while Oracle is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. Cockroach holds a 3.7% mindshare in SQL, compared to Oracle’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Cockroach users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

CockroachDB

Read 12 CockroachDB reviews

2,677 Views
1,856 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

MySQL

Read 148 MySQL reviews

7,193 Views
5,585 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

CockroachDB

MySQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

MySQL and CockroachDB are both prominent contenders in the database solutions category. MySQL stands out for its platform support and ease of use in small to medium applications, while CockroachDB showcases its strength in distributed architecture and multi-region deployment resilience.

Features: MySQL's features include multi-threaded architecture, exceptional support for replication, and cross-platform compatibility that makes it appealing for small to medium applications. CockroachDB offers high fault tolerance, a robust distributed architecture, and valuable geospatial capabilities, specifically beneficial for geo-partitioning and data residency solutions.

Room for Improvement: MySQL needs simplification in InnoDB complexity, better transaction management, and improved active directory integration. Enhancements are also required in scaling and backup processes. CockroachDB should enhance its PostgreSQL compatibility, disaster recovery features, and serverless environment handling. Improvements in enterprise features for MySQL and seamless integrations for CockroachDB are necessary.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MySQL, adaptable across various infrastructures, benefits from a substantial open-source community, although its official support can be costly. It mainly sees on-premises and hybrid implementations. CockroachDB predominantly operates in public cloud environments with solid community backing but requires better official support services. Community support thrives for both platforms, but the budget for technical support varies.

Pricing and ROI: MySQL is cost-effective, especially in its open-source form, offering a high ROI as it is free in most usage scenarios, aside from some enterprise-level features. CockroachDB's pricing, though high, is justified for users prioritizing high availability and distributed systems, offering flexible pricing models. Both databases provide free entry-level options, with more expensive enterprise editions delivering additional benefits.

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

Buyer's Guide

CockroachDB vs. MySQL

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

CockroachDB

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MySQL

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

148

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of CockroachDB is 3.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 8.5%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

Antonio Tringali

Software Engineer at a consultancy with self employed

Open source with extensive documentation and a University for training

I am a freelancer. A client of mine wanted a solution that would allow them to scale yet not abandon the familiar PostgreSQL front-end (and rewrite a part of their source code). Scalability aside, CockroachDB is a fine way forward from PostgreSQL and is not changing the client source code part of the system. If you are lucky and you do not use newer features from recent versions of PostgreSQL or PostgreSQL extensions, it's fine. There are nice-to-have features for big organizations like regional tables. At the moment, my client simply does not use these. However, the serverless offer from CockroachDB is reacting well as data grows.

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Muzzamil Hussain

Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan

Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment

The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.

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

"The tool's most valuable feature is node syncing, which takes only 0.54 milliseconds."

"CockroachDB is highly reliable."

"The availability and the easy to use feature is the most valuable. The documentation is also good."

"The product has valuable security features."

"The most valuable features of the solution are its resiliency features and the geo-partitioning capabilities."

"The initial setup and deployment are simple."

"The best feature of CockroachDB is the ability to keep the nodes in different locations."

"The most valuable feature is that CockroachDB is a distributed database, which can deploy nodes running in different regions."

More CockroachDB pros

"The solution is very stable."

"MySQL has cross-platform support for multiple operating systems. The backups on a Linux machine can be restored on a Windows machine, and vice versa."

"The initial setup was easy. I work in an agile way, which means coding and deploying quickly."

"It is easy to use."

"This specific version of this MySQL has been battle tested for a long time. Any issues are known issues and we pretty much don't have any problems when they're in production. So it's very stable."

"The replication feature is the most valuable. We are replicating our servers."

"MySQL is the best option for the Laravel PHP framework."

"The solution is free to use, which is its most valuable aspect."

More MySQL pros

Cons

"The closer they can make CockroachDB to being completely compatible with Postgres, the better. It's almost compatible, but not completely. If it was, it would be nice to just be able to use Postgres libraries without any fiddling."

"We are looking for more features to support distributed high availability and geo-partitioning."

"I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and technical integrations."

"The platform could be more extensible."

"The initial setup and pricing could be improved."

"I think the engine itself could be improved. If you miss a partition key, it should be able to be modeled. This is where AI could be really helpful. For example, if a user is from Australia, the system should know to look for their data there first instead of searching in the US or another continent."

"The product must improve its disaster recovery features."

"I find the serverless offer a bit confusing."

More CockroachDB cons

"It can have better monitoring. In addition, the enterprise manager should be able to cater to more than one virtual machine. Currently, you need one license per server. It seems a bit too much to get one license for one enterprise manager. I hope the enterprise manager for MySQL can accommodate more virtual machines for MySQL."

"The integration with other systems can be improved as can the integration between other databases."

"MySQL tutorials and guides could be improved. Often they are too complex for someone with no database experience to understand."

"I am looking for the Temporal SQL feature, which basically means that there is complete history for each table. This feature is currently available in MariaDB. PostgreSQL has something called a foreign-data wrapper, which is another way to access external data from inside. MySQL could have a similar feature."

"Its performance should be better. When we use big data, it is slow in performance. We should be able to use mirroring for improved performance."

"Sometimes, not because the version is not the latest version, there are some issues with it. Sometimes there's an issue with the server which creates issues with it."

"The auto-tuning and NDB cluster has some limitations regarding foreign keys."

"We require more ease of use, scalability, and high availability. These are some of the critical features that we use and look for in a product. It should be easier to manage clusters. Scalability is very important for us because our projects and concurrency requirements are quite big. We also require high availability of the server, application, and other things. It should also have more performance-based features or enhancements from the performance point of view. When we divide a database, it should be able to handle the queries very fast."

More MySQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I've used CockroachDB at a small scale on the free accounts because we are only testing."

"The pricing is good but can be made cheaper. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution's pricing is not cheap. However, the good thing is that customers are willing to pay for it if they want it."

"The product's price depends on the user's company and the contract model they enter into with CockroachDB. Depending on the contract model one enters into with CockroachDB, the product may or may not be expensive."

"The platform is affordable even for the enterprise version. It provides value for investment in terms of performance."

"There is no licensing fee."

"We pay a yearly subscription fee."

"The pricing falls within the moderate range."

"There is no cost involved, no licensing fees."

"The pricing is not much expensive, it's cheap."

"MySQL is free."

"MySQL is a cheap solution."

"We are using the licensed version of MySQL."

More MySQL pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

38%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about CockroachDB?

The subset of SQL that my client is using is completely supported.

See all answers

What needs improvement with CockroachDB?

I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and technical integrations.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CockroachDB?

I am studying how to deploy CockroachDB and YugaByteDB, and learning some basic information about them. I am testing these databases as part of my school application to find a suitable database for...

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Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?

MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...

See all answers

Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?

I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...

See all answers

What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?

One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...

See all answers

Comparisons

Neon vs CockroachDB

Compared 20% of the time

Citus Data vs CockroachDB

Compared 17% of the time

Oracle Database vs CockroachDB

Compared 11% of the time

YugabyteDB vs CockroachDB

Compared 10% of the time

SQL Server vs CockroachDB

Compared 8% of the time

More CockroachDB Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

Compared 28% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Compared 16% of the time

SAP HANA vs MySQL

Compared 8% of the time

MariaDB vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

SurrealDB vs MySQL

Compared 2% of the time

More MySQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CockroachDB

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

MySQL

March 2025

Download MySQL product report

Overview

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database built on a transactional and strongly-consistent key-value store. It scales horizontally; survives disk, machine, rack, and even datacenter failures with minimal latency disruption and no manual intervention; supports strongly-consistent ACID transactions; and provides a familiar SQL API for structuring, manipulating, and querying data.

CockroachDB is inspired by Google’s Spanner and F1 technologies, and it’s completely open source.

Cockroach

MySQL is a cost-efficient and scalable relational database management system widely used in web, mobile applications, and academic projects.

MySQL is utilized for backend operations, data analysis, reporting, financial transactions, and ERP databases. It supports deployment on local servers, Cloud, and Kubernetes. Its free, open-source nature along with strong community support make it popular among companies. MySQL's compatibility with multiple platforms and programming languages enhances its appeal. While it remains stable and easy to use, areas such as replication, clustering, and backup require improvement to better serve enterprise applications. Enhanced security, error messages, and monitoring tools are also desired for a better user experience.

What are the most important features of MySQL?

Free and Open-Source: No licensing costs, perfect for budget-conscious projects.
Compatibility: Works with multiple platforms and programming languages.
High Performance: Efficient performance across large datasets.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business needs.
Clustering and Replication: Ensures data availability and redundancy.
Easy Installation: Quick setup process on various operating systems.
Community Support: Extensive resources and community assistance.
Cross-Platform: Operates seamlessly on different operating systems.
Data Management Interface: Simplifies data handling and manipulation.

What are the benefits of using MySQL?

Cost Efficiency: Reduce expenses with a free, open-source database.
Scalability: Adapt to increasing data demands effortlessly.
Performance: Handle large datasets with ease and speed.
Community Support: Access a vast pool of knowledge and resources.
Flexibility: Integrate with various platforms and languages for diverse use cases.
Data Reliability: Clustering and replication for high data availability.

In multiple industries, MySQL supports internal applications, billing systems, academic teaching purposes, and ERP databases. Companies leverage MySQL for Cloud and local deployments, ensuring effective data manipulation and backend operations in diverse projects. Its role in financial transactions and reporting further emphasizes its versatility.

Oracle

Sample Customers

Baidu, Kindred, Tierion, Heroic Labs, Gorgias

Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.

Buyer's Guide

CockroachDB vs. MySQL

March 2025

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