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Citus Data vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Citus Data
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
29th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MariaDB
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of Citus Data is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 3.4%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MariaDB3.4%
Citus Data2.1%
Other94.5%
Relational Databases Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Arucy Lionel - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder at Afriziki
Efficiently handles high-traffic scenarios and compatible with PostgreSQL extensions, offering flexibility in database management
There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward. Currently, setting up a multi-node environment is challenging. It's a bit tricky. Installation on each PostgreSQL node can lead to communication issues between nodes. An automatic rebalancing feature would be a significant improvement. Currently, I have to manually command the rebalance. It would be more convenient if it was rebalanced automatically. The dashboard and monitoring capabilities are good, but it would be helpful to have an integrated availability dashboard.
AB
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Has supported web application data needs but requires design adjustments to manage complex queries efficiently
Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond certain data and complex queries, we see performance issues. We tried the advanced replication feature between different regions, replicating data specifically residing on MariaDB to two different regions of MariaDB data, and there were some technical snags in terms of slowness and longer processing time. Point-in-time recovery in MariaDB is good for small databases. When data volume increases beyond 5 GB or 10 GB per day or runs into double-digit GBs, we found some performance issues. For data below 10 GB, it works fine. Performance is the primary focus area for MariaDB, particularly during transactions or complex query jobs where slow performance is observed. MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very straightforward to implement the solution. It took us two days to set up everything."
"You can use Citus Data to write complex scripts. I like its version upgrades and disaster recovery as well."
"Its distributed processing capabilities are a standout feature. It requires minimal changes to get up and running if you already have a system on PostgreSQL. Citus can run in its natural state."
"The solution is competitive with Mongo, MySQL, and maybe even Oracle."
"Configuration, setup, and schema design are good features in MariaDB, and typical database features we have used include backup, configuration, recovery, archiving, and ETL."
"The performance is very good."
"The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect."
"The technical support of MariaDB is very helpful, and they came and tuned our queries with one-to-one assistance."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."
"MariaDB has positively impacted our organization in terms of reliability; it has been incredibly stable, and from an operational standpoint, it has drastically improved our deployment workflows since we can run the exact same MariaDB community version locally in Docker containers as we do on our staging and production servers."
"If you want a reliable, easy to maintain database solution, I think that MariaDB on RedHat/CentOS is an option that every DBA should consider."
 

Cons

"There are many areas of improvement , especially in terms of DDL query routing. Even though it's masterless, DDL queries need to be sent to the coordinator node. Also, setting up a multi-node environment could be more straightforward."
"More features in monitoring and the reporting could make it better."
"Citus Data needs to improve its stability. Do not consider this product if you have the budget. It is still developing and has a lot of issues."
"The features available are very basic."
"The GUI could be improved a bit. The user interface needs to be improved."
"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server."
"I’m not sure if it can scale."
"MariaDB doesn't handle long or complex SQL queries quite as well as Oracle Database."
"The stability of the solution isn't perfect."
"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."
"The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a bit cheaper."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Citus Data is an open-source product."
"The price could be less expensive."
"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"We use the solution's free version."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"MariaDB is available for free."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the volume of data and different features enabled during configuration, such as backup ...
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
The key area where MariaDB could be improved is its native GUI tooling; while the command-line interface works perfectly fine, the built-in visual tools for administration, management, and query de...
What is your primary use case for MariaDB?
My main use case for MariaDB was web applications, and I have been using MariaDB for just about a year now as I was in the development team. A specific web application where I used MariaDB is a hea...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cloud Flare, Agari, Mix Rank, Heap
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Citus Data vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.