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LocalDB vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 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

LocalDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
14th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of LocalDB is 2.0%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
The database always has structured data, like rows, columns, and bases
LocalDB is an excellent solution for learners, beginners, and projects of negligible size; it is very good. Any startup can use a local database to start. Once they grow beyond its limits, they can migrate to a MS SQL server that's also available on-premises. I rate it ten out of ten.
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

"The solution is fast."
"The initial setup was simple."
"The initial setup is very straightforward. The guidelines are very easy to follow. Maintenance is very easy and requires very little manpower."
"The most valuable feature of LocalDBis the connection between the application and DB."
"LocalDB is an excellent solution for learners, beginners, and projects of negligible size; it is very good."
"The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect."
"MariaDB performs well as the backend database for our cloud-based telephony solution."
"The solution has PL/SQL compatibility."
"It is a scalable solution. It easily scales up and scales down."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."
"The solution runs very quickly. It's not slow at all."
"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."
"It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"The ALM features can be improved, but the database by itself is reliable."
"The solution needs to create a management tool. Right now, the solution has tools for creating a local installation, but it's too simplistic. We need something that's a bit more complex so that we can extend the tools with our scripts."
"The initial setup is complex and requires a skilled person."
"The internal connection features of LocalDB could improve."
"It is only for a small amount of data. Local DB is made for the purpose of small-volume optics."
"I am editing."
"Lacks time series data and additional driving support would be helpful."
"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."
"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."
"There could be a command-line prompt for repairing the database and fixing indexes, similar to what was available in the old MyISAM storage engine."
"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."
"The stability could always continue to be improved upon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The fees are fair."
"The licensing cost is too high for LocalDB."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"It's an open-source solution."
"The tool is open-source."
"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."
"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."
"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."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"MariaDB is available for free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with LocalDB?
Technically speaking, you don't need to get any updates because it's not online. It's on-premise. So once it is installed, then you get a desktop-grade version. But the purpose of LocalDB is not th...
What is your primary use case for LocalDB?
There were multiple systems, some planned, like the mainframe, the gold database, a website, and a manual Excel spreadsheet. These were the various data sources, and we wanted to bring everything i...
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

AstraZeneca, Kienzle Automotive GmbH, Kodak Alaris, Unilever, Floatel International and Kongsberg Maritime, MyHero
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about LocalDB vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.