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Firebird SQL vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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

Firebird SQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (1st)
MariaDB
Ranking in Open Source Databases
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 17.9%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Doug Meuross - PeerSpot reviewer
A reliable tool that offers good performance and is easy to use
I have had no issues with the stability of the product since it has always been a 100 percent reliable product and much better than the other databases available in the market. The multi-platform part is not good, especially when locked into things like Windows. You can judge your platform with Linux or Unix or whatever since they are good.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"I find the ease of deployment to be the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"I appreciate the fact that, once the database is embedded, it doesn't need to be administered, and removes the requirement for a specific server."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is reliable, offers good performance, and is easy to use."
"I can deploy it on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows — it's very easy."
"It helps us in detecting all kinds of problems in the code, such as bad quality, unclear code, or any violation in the code or best practices."
"The documentation is very well written."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution."
"The solution's features have effectively met our operational requirements as a standard SQL database."
"We like the easy way that we can collect data from other databases."
"Easy to use and available in most environments."
"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."
"Installation is straightforward."
"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."
"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."
"The performance is very good."
 

Cons

"Firebird SQL's performance has slowed since Firebird SQL 3 or 3.5 versions, where they developed over-the-wire encryption."
"It would be good to have more automation and integration with the tools from other vendors."
"The solution could improve by providing partitioning and encryption. It is not at the higher level of database solution but it could be with some upgrades."
"It would be nice to have a graphical user interface to handle the product."
"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"On large databases, we have some difficulties."
"This solution isn't very user-friendly, or intuitive, which could be improved when it is developed."
"The main feature I expect is to be able to work with different databases at the same time because that's a wishlist item for me."
"The solution should do some fine-tuning on maybe the transaction per second so that users can get more than they can on the Microsoft SQL Server."
"The PL/SQL performance is slow if you have big batch jobs running overnight."
"The difficult part related to the product stems not from the tool itself but is related to learning how to implement the product in the right way without creating any wrong configuration that could cause security issues or performance issues."
"I'd like to see improved materialized views, like the ability to save select queries. This feature is missing in MariaDB compared to other relational databases like Oracle and SQL Server."
"With respect to clustering and the master-slave configuration, sometimes the slave goes out of synch."
"While MariaDB is a good relational database, it can be inflexible for complex use cases."
"MariaDB doesn't handle long or complex SQL queries quite as well as Oracle Database."
"It's not very stable. It needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"It's open-source and free."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."
"The tool is open source."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"It is okay."
"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."
"It is free of charge."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"The product is not expensive."
"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."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"It's an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...
What do you like most about Firebird SQL?
Firebird SQL is an open-source solution.
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elekt Labs, Streamsoft, wobe-systems GmbH, DRB Systems, Moscow City Hospital #31
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird SQL vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.