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Firebird SQL vs MariaDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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

Firebird SQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (2nd)
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 (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 17.2%, down from 20.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Nicolae Ancuta - PeerSpot reviewer
Strong event capabilities, allowing raising and displaying events in applications
On large databases, we have some difficulties. It is one of the areas of improvement. For example, under one gigabyte, it works perfectly. Between one and five gigabytes, you might experience some slight performance issues, but they are not significant. Beyond that, you have to index it, tier it, and perform some restore operations to free up space. It requires some effort, but it's manageable. It's quite challenging for the customer. Moreover, migrating from one firewall solution to another was a little bit difficult regarding the backup and restoring the other one. Since we have many databases, we didn't go forward with the latest versions.
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

"The documentation is very well written."
"I can deploy it on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows — it's very easy."
"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is reliable, offers good performance, and is easy to use."
"I like that we don't have to pay external fees to migrate this data. So, we are looking to relocate from Postgres or EDB."
"The product was easy to use."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution."
"The performance is very good."
"MariaDB is a fast and flexible tool."
"The solution has PL/SQL compatibility."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"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."
"Installation is straightforward."
"The solution is very easy to implement."
 

Cons

"It would be nice to have a graphical user interface to handle the product."
"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."
"On large databases, we have some difficulties."
"Database sharing is a capability that Firebird SQL lacks."
"It would be interesting if they added functionality with redundancy, reputation, and variability."
"Firebird SQL's performance has slowed since Firebird SQL 3 or 3.5 versions, where they developed over-the-wire encryption."
"The main feature I expect is to be able to work with different databases at the same time because that's a wishlist item for me."
"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"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 performance could be a bit better."
"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."
"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."
"MariaDB should provide HA and archive logging... I haven't had the opportunity to use the features provided by the solution since I don't know how to see them."
"I would like to see a better user interface which would make the tool less complex."
"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."
"While MariaDB is a good relational database, it can be inflexible for complex use cases."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"It is okay."
"The tool is open source."
"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."
"It's open-source and free."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"It is an open-source solution."
"It's an open-source 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."
"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."
"We use the solution's free version."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
"MariaDB is available for free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...
What do you like most about Firebird SQL?
Firebird SQL is an open-source solution.
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elekt Labs, Streamsoft, wobe-systems GmbH, DRB Systems, Moscow City Hospital #31
Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird SQL vs. MariaDB and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.