MariaDB vs MySQL comparison

MariaDB and Oracle are both solutions in the Open Source Databases category. MariaDB is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.9, while Oracle is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. MariaDB holds a 6.7% mindshare in OSD, compared to Oracle’s 8.9% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 60 MariaDB reviews

5,709 Views
2,683 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

MySQL

Read 150 MySQL reviews

8,912 Views
5,080 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

MariaDB

MySQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

MySQL and MariaDB are both contenders in the open-source database category. MariaDB holds an edge by offering improved performance and innovative features over MySQL in community-driven environments.

Features: MySQL is recognized for its multi-threaded architecture, compatibility with LAMP/WAMP stacks, and advanced features like replication and stored procedures, making it suitable for small to medium applications. MariaDB enhances performance with features like Galera Cluster for multi-master replication, offers better query optimization, and is appreciated for its community-driven innovations.

Room for Improvement: MySQL faces challenges with the complexity of InnoDB, weaker replication capabilities, and limited transactional support in MyISAM. MariaDB, although generally faster, struggles with long, complex queries and shows instability in some configurations. MySQL aims to improve transaction efficiency, while MariaDB focuses on flexible clustering and stability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both MySQL and MariaDB offer flexible deployment options across on-premises and cloud environments. MySQL integrates seamlessly in LAMP stacks, while MariaDB excels in hybrid setups thanks to enhancements over MySQL. Each product benefits from community support, but structured commercial support is stronger under Oracle for MySQL, whereas MariaDB offers optional paid assistance alongside community-driven support.

Pricing and ROI: MySQL is free under a GPL license, with enterprise editions requiring a commercial license, appealing to startups for its affordability. MariaDB, along with its community version being free, offers commercial licenses and subscriptions for enhanced features and support. Both deliver strong ROI due to their robust performance without significant upfront costs, with MariaDB's affordability and flexibility increasingly appealing to enterprises.

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

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. MySQL

September 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

MariaDB

Ranking in Open Source Databases

5th

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

MySQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

1st

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

150

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 8.9%, down from 14.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
MySQL	8.9%
MariaDB	6.7%
Other	84.4%

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

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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Prabir Kumar Kundu

SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd

Offers robust security and availability with impressive replication capabilities

Regarding their documentation and interface, there is room for improvement. Documentation is definitely required when running multiple databases on a cluster system. The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation. When there are multiple application servers connecting to the MySQL cluster and going through the MySQL load balancer, the documentation is not user-friendly. It's there, but only technical persons with deep knowledge of the MySQL database can implement it. Most of the community users or ISVs who use MySQL don't have many technical persons or DBA experts, so they face some challenges for the high availability of connecting high available databases from high available applications. That documentation should be simplified.

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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

"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."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the query speed it offers."

"We use MariaDB for identity provider services. Most of the things that we are doing are deployed in the container mode. All such solutions require a database, and MariaDB is easier to use for these kinds of deployments."

"One of the great features of MariaDB is its scalability. It's easy to handle even with large databases."

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a cloud-based tool, so it is pretty fast."

"It is very simple to install, and the commands are exactly the same as MySQL."

"MariaDB can solve things better than MySQL. Maria DB has better performance than MySQL."

More MariaDB pros

"The deployment process is pretty fast."

"One of the best features is this solution is easy to use."

"The solution has been very easy to scale so far."

"It has a remote access feature to manage the database from a remote location. This enables in-work collaboration."

"The solution is very simple. It's easy to use. That's the most important feature."

"I would use MySQL for a medium project, with around 1,00,000 hundred thousand users, because of the indexing and stored procedures."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features."

More MySQL pros

Cons

"It would be good if they can maybe improve the mass import in the database. Currently, for importing a large number of data, we create a CSV file and upload all the things in the system. The system does not activate them by default. We have to do this manually. This may be due to the version we are using, but this is something we would like to see improved."

"Document caching is an area of concern in the product, where improvements are required to help MariaDB improve on the previous queries as they are retained, and you can roll back to them."

"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."

"The maintenance and performance could be a bit better."

"The PL/SQL performance is slow if you have big batch jobs running overnight."

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

"The dashboard and pricing need improvement."

"The interface should be more user-friendly. It should be able to connect directly to the database and Interact with it without having to use commands. It needs better integration."

More MariaDB cons

"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."

"I would like to see some improvements in the solution’s integration aspects."

"When working with a cluster wide, I have to use the MySQL cluster version."

"From a user perspective, the initial setup could be simplified a bit."

"As an open-source product, there isn't really any technical support available if you get into trouble or have issues."

"MySQL's performance needs to be improved for enterprise-level applications compared to Oracle and Postgres."

"The user interface could be more user friendly. Mainly because most of the times we see black and white digital lines. Something like Python."

"Even for the best database, we always want the database to perform much better, so we wish MySQL would be much better, in terms of performance."

More MySQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."

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

"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."

"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."

"MariaDB is available for free."

"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."

"It is an open-source solution."

"The product is not expensive."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"It's free."

"It's cheaper than other solutions."

"My company uses MySQL's corporate licenses."

"I think that MySQL is a premium product."

"We are using the free community version of the solution."

"I don't pay for a license."

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

"I rate the solution's pricing as four out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. For our basic needs, it's quite affordable. However, the cost increases when we need to scale up or require high availability. Our developer team of about 600 people uses MySQL without much issue. The pricing becomes more of a concern on the business side, as we have more end users and need constant database availability and scaling. In those cases, the solution gets a bit more expensive, even though it provides good value for the business."

More MySQL pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	73
Midsize Enterprise	31
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?

The integration with other products is seamless.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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

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

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 7% of the time

Percona Server vs MariaDB

Compared 6% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

Compared 22% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Compared 14% of the time

SAP HANA vs MySQL

Compared 7% of the time

SQL Server vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Database vs MySQL

Compared 5% of the time

More MySQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

September 2025

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

MySQL

September 2025

Download MySQL product report

Overview

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.”

MariaDB

MySQL is an open-source database known for its ease of use and high performance. It offers features like replication and clustering, making it ideal for diverse applications. Its cost-effectiveness and LAMP integration are key advantages for businesses.

MySQL supports a variety of languages and platforms, providing reliable, scalable data management. Its graphical interface and LAMP architecture integration enhance its usability, while community support further strengthens its appeal. Challenges include scalability issues with large databases, lack of advanced clustering, and limited high-availability features. Complex queries may affect performance, and integration can pose difficulties. The outdated interface and insufficient documentation are also concerns, along with replication and backup reliability issues.

What are MySQL's key features?

Open-source nature: Freely available and customizable.
Cross-platform compatibility: Supports multiple operating systems.
Scalability: Capable of handling large volumes of data.
Replication and clustering: Ensure data redundancy and load balancing.
Full-text search: Provides powerful search capabilities.
LAMP integration: Seamlessly integrates with Linux, Apache, and PHP.

What benefits should users consider?

Cost-effectiveness: Reduces expenses due to its open-source nature.
High performance: Efficiently processes large volumes of data.
Active community support: Access to a wide range of resources and expertise.
Versatile use cases: Suitable for varied applications including web development and IoT.

MySQL is widely implemented in industries such as web development, e-commerce, and finance. It's used for managing dynamic websites, powering e-commerce platforms, and supporting financial applications. Its compatibility with PHP and cost-effectiveness make it suitable for CMS platforms like WordPress. With cloud services integration, MySQL is a backend choice for scalable applications in various sectors.

Oracle

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. MySQL

September 2025

Free Report: MariaDB vs. MySQL

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