CockroachDB vs MariaDB vs MySQL comparison

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

5,633 Views
5,187 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

MySQL

Read 149 MySQL reviews

6,546 Views
5,078 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

CockroachDB

MySQL

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between CockroachDB, MariaDB, and MySQL based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and others in Relational Databases Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Relational Databases Tools Report (Updated: May 2025).

Relational Databases Tools

May 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:

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of CockroachDB is 3.8%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.8%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 8.4%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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Featured Reviews

Antonio Tringali

Software Engineer at a consultancy with self employed

Open source with extensive documentation and a University for training

I am a freelancer. A client of mine wanted a solution that would allow them to scale yet not abandon the familiar PostgreSQL front-end (and rewrite a part of their source code). Scalability aside, CockroachDB is a fine way forward from PostgreSQL and is not changing the client source code part of the system. If you are lucky and you do not use newer features from recent versions of PostgreSQL or PostgreSQL extensions, it's fine. There are nice-to-have features for big organizations like regional tables. At the moment, my client simply does not use these. However, the serverless offer from CockroachDB is reacting well as data grows.

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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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Muzzamil Hussain

Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan

Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment

The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The availability and the easy to use feature is the most valuable. The documentation is also good."

"The initial setup and deployment are simple."

"CockroachDB is highly reliable."

"The product has valuable security features."

"The most valuable feature is that CockroachDB is a distributed database, which can deploy nodes running in different regions."

"The subset of SQL that my client is using is completely supported."

"The best feature of CockroachDB is the ability to keep the nodes in different locations."

"The tool's most valuable feature is node syncing, which takes only 0.54 milliseconds."

More CockroachDB pros

"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."

"We like the easy way that we can collect data from other databases."

"Visual Studio offers unit testing integration and extensive searching capabilities."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."

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

"MariaDB has a straightforward initial setup with easy-to-understand documentation."

"There is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."

"It's open source."

More MariaDB pros

"It is a stable solution."

"MySQL is open-source. There are a lot of open-source communities trying to come up with their own patches, and to come up with their own features, which help MySQL develop faster than traditional databases like Oracle, which is closed source."

"I find MySQL's relational data storage format very useful for data management. Our structure is well-defined and easy for end users and business stakeholders to read. I appreciate the tool's simplicity and ability to integrate with our backend tools."

"However, it is easy to scale MySQL using the functions provided with the product."

"The installation process for the most scalable solution is remarkably quick, taking only a short amount of time."

"MySQL is easy and convenient for me. I don't need to rely on anyone. I can write the code and extract the information. It is fast if you know how to use it. The solution is not expensive, and most of the developers know how to use it. It is easy to create tables. The solution is stable and has good performance. The connection with AWS gives regular updates, which is manual otherwise and a nightmare."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The relations in the database, the dynamic workflow, and the ability to connect with all columns. It's useful for e-commerce."

More MySQL pros

Cons

"The initial setup and pricing could be improved."

"The platform could be more extensible."

"I find the serverless offer a bit confusing."

"I think the engine itself could be improved. If you miss a partition key, it should be able to be modeled. This is where AI could be really helpful. For example, if a user is from Australia, the system should know to look for their data there first instead of searching in the US or another continent."

"We are looking for more features to support distributed high availability and geo-partitioning."

"I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and technical integrations."

"The closer they can make CockroachDB to being completely compatible with Postgres, the better. It's almost compatible, but not completely. If it was, it would be nice to just be able to use Postgres libraries without any fiddling."

"Cockroach does not support all types of protocols. I need to improve it myself to support a CouchDB on my network."

More CockroachDB cons

"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."

"The product needs more features and more functionality. It's imperative that it supports more platforms, and supports more operating systems."

"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."

"It would be helpful if I could specify multiple drives for the database storage."

"It doesn't have the same level of maturity metrics as Postgres."

"In future releases, mainly the addition of security features would be beneficial for MariaDB."

"It should work across all fields like SQLite, as it is the basis of any application, even apps for phones and the like."

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

More MariaDB cons

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

"At times, the autoscaling does not happen when there is a surge in load."

"It could be a little bit simpler to use."

"We want high availability and replication features, which are currently missing in this solution. It would be great if they can provide an in-built replication feature, similar to Oracle RAC, in MySQL."

"The availability of tools could be improved in the MySQL open-source platform. They can provide more analytical tools. I haven't had any particularly difficult issues to troubleshoot on MySQL, but in the past, on Microsoft SQL Server, I had to troubleshoot some difficult issues, and better tools were in place to see what was going on in real-time on the server. So, that's the bit that is lacking on the MySQL open-source platform."

"The licensing cost of the solution is expensive, which MySQL needs to consider improving."

"On the database side, it should be really lightweight, and the data structure should be like MongoDB."

"Scalability could be improved."

More MySQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is good but can be made cheaper. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution's pricing is not cheap. However, the good thing is that customers are willing to pay for it if they want it."

"I've used CockroachDB at a small scale on the free accounts because we are only testing."

"The product's price depends on the user's company and the contract model they enter into with CockroachDB. Depending on the contract model one enters into with CockroachDB, the product may or may not be expensive."

"The platform is affordable even for the enterprise version. It provides value for investment in terms of performance."

"The product is not expensive."

"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."

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."

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

"It is free of charge."

"MariaDB is a free-to-use solution."

"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."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"We are using the free community edition of MySQL."

"The pricing is not much expensive, it's cheap."

"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."

"I am using the Community Edition, which is available free of charge."

"We do have a couple of clients who choose to use the paid, enterprise version of the solution and who take full advantage of it."

"I don't pay for a license."

"We've never bought a commercial license. We just use the open-source community edition."

"Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. "

More MySQL pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

37%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

Retailer

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about CockroachDB?

The subset of SQL that my client is using is completely supported.

What needs improvement with CockroachDB?

I would like CockroachDB to have more compatibility with PostgreSQL, especially with the connection string and techni...

What is your primary use case for CockroachDB?

I am studying how to deploy CockroachDB and YugaByteDB, and learning some basic information about them. I am testing ...

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 pref...

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...

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 y...

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 version...

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 ...

Citus Data vs CockroachDB

Comparisons

Neon vs CockroachDB

Compared 22% of the time

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle Database vs CockroachDB

Compared 11% of the time

YugabyteDB vs CockroachDB

Compared 10% of the time

SAP HANA vs CockroachDB

Compared 4% of the time

More CockroachDB Competitors

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 24% of the time

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 10% of the time

SurrealDB vs MariaDB

Compared 1% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

Compared 27% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Compared 14% of the time

SAP HANA vs MySQL

Compared 9% of the time

Teradata vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Java DB vs MySQL

Compared 1% of the time

More MySQL Competitors

Product Reports

Download CockroachDB product report

CockroachDB

May 2025

Download MariaDB product report

April 2025

Download MySQL product report

MySQL

April 2025

Overview

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database built on a transactional and strongly-consistent key-value store. It scales horizontally; survives disk, machine, rack, and even datacenter failures with minimal latency disruption and no manual intervention; supports strongly-consistent ACID transactions; and provides a familiar SQL API for structuring, manipulating, and querying data.

CockroachDB is inspired by Google’s Spanner and F1 technologies, and it’s completely open source.

Cockroach

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.”

MySQL is a cost-efficient and scalable relational database management system widely used in web, mobile applications, and academic projects.

MySQL is utilized for backend operations, data analysis, reporting, financial transactions, and ERP databases. It supports deployment on local servers, Cloud, and Kubernetes. Its free, open-source nature along with strong community support make it popular among companies. MySQL's compatibility with multiple platforms and programming languages enhances its appeal. While it remains stable and easy to use, areas such as replication, clustering, and backup require improvement to better serve enterprise applications. Enhanced security, error messages, and monitoring tools are also desired for a better user experience.

What are the most important features of MySQL?

Free and Open-Source: No licensing costs, perfect for budget-conscious projects.
Compatibility: Works with multiple platforms and programming languages.
High Performance: Efficient performance across large datasets.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business needs.
Clustering and Replication: Ensures data availability and redundancy.
Easy Installation: Quick setup process on various operating systems.
Community Support: Extensive resources and community assistance.
Cross-Platform: Operates seamlessly on different operating systems.
Data Management Interface: Simplifies data handling and manipulation.

What are the benefits of using MySQL?

Cost Efficiency: Reduce expenses with a free, open-source database.
Scalability: Adapt to increasing data demands effortlessly.
Performance: Handle large datasets with ease and speed.
Community Support: Access a vast pool of knowledge and resources.
Flexibility: Integrate with various platforms and languages for diverse use cases.
Data Reliability: Clustering and replication for high data availability.

In multiple industries, MySQL supports internal applications, billing systems, academic teaching purposes, and ERP databases. Companies leverage MySQL for Cloud and local deployments, ensuring effective data manipulation and backend operations in diverse projects. Its role in financial transactions and reporting further emphasizes its versatility.

Oracle

Sample Customers

Baidu, Kindred, Tierion, Heroic Labs, Gorgias

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.