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Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (8th)
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)
 

Featured Reviews

Daniel Amini - PeerSpot reviewer
An incredibly powerful industry leader that enabled us to build critical pieces of national infrastructure
Azure Database is simple and easy to use. We followed the prescribed training and upskilled 10 engineers. They think it's straightforward. They've already got PostgreSQL skills to optimize the solution, so they know what to do. It was easy to get started quickly and become effective. My team speaks highly of the platform's observability and monitoring features. It's as efficient as an enterprise needs it to be and. has all of the tooling and telemetry necessary to run an enterprise database. We take security seriously. The team has looked at the security features, and nothing has been flagged to us. My takeaway as a CTO is that they're comfortable with the security posture, the features, the observability, alerts, and now it integrates into the rest of the Azure landscape. The OpenAI integration and extensions have massively simplified integrating AI into a database. PostgreSQL's native vector capabilities are also incredibly powerful.
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

"It is easy to use and optimize. It is very easy for us to understand how a chopped chunk can be translated into embedding."
"The effective integration of Postgres with Microsoft products, especially with the inclusion of AI features in Azure AI, is significant for our applications."
"I rate Azure Database for PostgreSQL 10 out of 10."
"I rate Azure Database for PostgreSQL 10 out of 10."
"Overall, Azure Database for PostgreSQL has been good for us."
"Our organization's database uptime has improved after implementing Azure Database for PostgreSQL, particularly with the flexible server's redundant configuration capabilities, which allow for failovers and read-only configurations."
"In terms of integration, we already have SharePoint online, and we're starting to explore PowerApps and PowerFlow. It's all seamless. The ease of integrating SQL and licensing purposes plays a significant role, making it a comfortable choice for the organization."
"Azure Database has become easier to use over time."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the query speed it offers."
"From a customer perspective, MariaDB is a good choice for cluster configuration. It's also easy to operate and cheap."
"The solution's features have effectively met our operational requirements as a standard SQL database."
"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."
"I like the global transaction IDs (GTIDs) feature. It's quite reliable for replication between a master and a replica server, and it's a feature that MySQL also has but implemented differently."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"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."
 

Cons

"They can offer more RAG extensions. Currently, it only has the vector search. It does not presently support knowledge graph functionalities as Neo4j does. It also does not offer some tools to improve indexing the way other vector databases offer."
"Support at best is a five out of ten."
"While the flexibility of the server for financial reasons is understandable, better switching between primary and backup would make transitions smoother."
"Support can certainly get better."
"The critical service is the Azure OpenAI service. It would help to make it simpler and easier to integrate with that or cognitive services."
"They can offer more RAG extensions. Currently, it only has the vector search."
"Perhaps a minor improvement could be made in simplifying user additions, allowing for an easier process rather than scripting it out. However, scripting is not a significant issue."
"Performance is one area that has constraints for our customers. I believe there could be improvements in the mirroring part and Change Data Capture (CDC)."
"While MariaDB is a good relational database, it can be inflexible for complex use cases."
"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."
"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."
"There is room for improvement in terms of security."
"I would like to see a better user interface which would make the tool less complex."
"There is not much support available."
"The customer service and support are okay. But the response time is slow. Moreover, the material is not available freely."
"Integration with AWS could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pay-as-you-go pricing model plays a critical role in managing database-related costs and resource allocation. We build using Infrastructure as Code (IAC) and maintain a focus on FinOps to control Azure service costs. Some clients are pushy on price. It's critical to automate it, so we're just using it when appropriate and switching it off in certain scenarios."
"We do not pay for a full-year subscription because our usage is still at the beginning phase and not much. The pay-as-you-go model works well for us."
"The pricing experience is positive. Azure Database for PostgreSQL reduces the need for hardware investments, and the pay-as-you-go pricing model positively affects database-related costs by allowing us to start small and scale as needed."
"There aren't any notable areas for improvement that I could see. PostgreSQL was self-sufficient with no need for additional database knowledge to maintain it."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"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."
"The price could be less expensive."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"We use the solution's free version."
"The solution is free, but if you want the enterprise version you will need to pay for some licenses but the cost is less than other solutions, such as Oracle."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
20%
Marketing Services Firm
17%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
Pricing is affordable for us. PostgreSQL is good and affordable for our needs.
What needs improvement with Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
While the flexibility of the server for financial reasons is understandable, better switching between primary and backup would make transitions smoother. I noticed an issue where the primary refuse...
What is your primary use case for Azure Database for PostgreSQL?
We started using Azure Database for PostgreSQL ( /products/azure-database-for-postgresql-reviews ) about five to six years ago. Initially, we were doing an on-premises Kubernetes ( /products/kubern...
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.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Database for PostgreSQL vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.