MySQL vs. MariaDB

MySQL: The World's Most Popular Open Source Database

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database because of its reliability, high-performance, and ease of use. MySQL combines the benefits of a widely adopted open source database with high quality, 24x7 support, training and consulting services delivered by Oracle, the world's leader in database technology. As a result, MySQL users benefit from both a strong ecosystem, with millions of users, as well as the backing of the world's leading database company that has the proven ability to support its customers' mission critical database applications worldwide.

MariaDB is NOT MySQL! MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and is not compatible with MySQL. Since MariaDB 10.0, MariaDB has diverged significantly and none of the modern innovations in MySQL, such as the Transactional Data Dictionary, Group Replication, InnoDB Cluster, Shell, DocStore, or XProtocol are available in any version of MariaDB. By choosing MariaDB, customers risk being locked into a downstream fork of MySQL, whose future is at risk.

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According to DB-Engines, MySQL is the world's most popular open source database. In fact, the world's #1 and #2 most popular databases are developed at Oracle. On the other hand, MariaDB is not in the Top 10 most popular databases.

Market Share

MySQL is Financially Secure

MySQL is part of Oracle, a publicly traded company with stable revenue and recognized for delivering decades of database innovations. Oracle continues to make major investments in MySQL Engineering Development and Support.

MariaDB Corporation is experiencing major financial difficulties. Their IPO was a SPACtacular failure. In 2023, MariaDB went IPO via a SPAC acquisition while losing millions of dollars a year:

MySQL is Upstream and Drives the MySQL Product Roadmap

MySQL develops and maintains its own database technology. The upstream MySQL Product Roadmap is controlled and defined by MySQL Engineering & Product Management, in concert with MySQL Support, MySQL Customers, and users.

MariaDB chose to diverge from MySQL and can no longer deliver drop-in compatibility. None of the modern advances in MySQL are available in any version of MariaDB. Due to their choice to diverge from upstream MySQL and its lack of engineering resources, MariaDB must rely on small 3rd party technology provides for its core database technology. For example, MySQL provides InnoDB Cluster and InnoDB ClusterSet based on Group Replication, built natively into the MySQL Server. MariaDB does not provide its own native HA database technology but instead relies on a 3rd party. That means that MariaDB is not in control of its high availability roadmap, bug fixes, or version compatibility.

MySQL Core Technology is 100% developed by MySQL

MySQL core technology, such as InnoDB, the core transactional database engine, is developed by the MySQL team. MySQL delivers enhancements, bug fixes, and ensures compatibility between versions.

MariaDB relies on the goodwill of third parties for its core technology, including from companies it competes with, e.g., Percona (XtraBackup), Codership (Galera), Spider Engine, etc. What will happen when some of these third parties are acquired or change priorities?

Backed by the MySQL Engineering Team

Oracle has made significant investments in MySQL Engineering and Support. MySQL has more engineers for R&D and more Support Engineers to help customers.

The size of MariaDB's engineering team is much smaller and shrinking. After its failed IPO, MariaDB was forced to cut its workforce by 28% and stop selling strategic products including the SkySQL database service. What will MariaDB cut next?

MySQL is “NoSQL + SQL”

With MySQL, developers can use a single database for SQL and NoSQL database applications. Rather than rely on separate databases for SQL relational and schema-less JSON documents, MySQL Document Store enables organizations to use MySQL to consolidate their relational and document database workloads.

While MariaDB has support for the JSON document type, it does not have Document Store or XProtocol capabilities, forcing customer look elsewhere for their NoSQL document database applications.

HeatWave Database Service: OLTP, OLAP, Machine Learning, GenAI

HeatWave is a fully managed database service from the MySQL Team, that includes:

  • HeatWave GenAI for integrated and automated generative AI
  • HeatWave AutoML to automate the machine learning pipeline 
  • HeatWave Lakehouse to query data in object storage and MySQL
  • HeatWave MySQL to accelerate query performance

MariaDB SkySQL was a strategic database cloud service released in 2020. After its failed IPO, MariaDB was forced to cut its workforce by 28%, stop selling the SkySQL database service, and issue a "going concern" warning over its financial viability.

How can organizations trust MariaDB Corporation given their ongoing financial instability and uncertainty?

Additional Resources