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Firebird SQL vs MariaDB comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 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

Firebird SQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Embedded Database (4th)
MariaDB
Ranking in Open Source Databases
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 9.9%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 5.6%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Firebird SQL9.9%
MariaDB5.6%
Other84.5%
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Research and Development Project Manager at Sixense Monitoring
Efficient data storage with reliable and easy management
We are working on monitoring software that involves making a lot of measurements with sensors. We store all the data in Firebird, which is why we use It primarily for data storage It's difficult to describe how it has improved our organization because we have been using Firebird for a very long…
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

"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"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."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."
"The solution has worked perfectly; I've never run into issues or had to reach out to technical support for troubleshooting."
"I appreciate the fact that, once the database is embedded, it doesn't need to be administered, and removes the requirement for a specific server."
"The product was easy to use."
"It helps us in detecting all kinds of problems in the code, such as bad quality, unclear code, or any violation in the code or best practices."
"It is a scalable solution. It easily scales up and scales down."
"It is an absolutely stable solution."
"The solution runs very quickly. It's not slow at all."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is that it is open-source and we can easily migrate from other databases, such as Oracle to MariaDB."
"The technical support of MariaDB is very helpful, and they came and tuned our queries with one-to-one assistance."
"MariaDB is a fast and flexible tool."
"Installation is straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"It would be good to have more automation and integration with the tools from other vendors."
"I'd rate the solution five or six out of ten for the possibilities it has currently."
"It would be interesting if they added functionality with redundancy, reputation, and variability."
"They need to be more reactive and fast. Sometimes, they take too long to resolve some tickets."
"On large databases, we have some difficulties."
"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."
"I don't think the solution is very scalable, because the scalability of the performance when using more than one process is not very good."
"The solution can improve by having support for more integration. However, at this time it is working well for us."
"It's not very stable. It needs improvement."
"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."
"The PL/SQL performance is slow. If you have big batch jobs running in the middle of the night for a bank doing its end-of-day audits, then MariaDB will take three times longer than using Oracle."
"I would like to see more compatibility going forward. This would help if there is a need to change databases."
"An improvement would be scaling it up to the levels of Oracle, especially when it comes to resilience, so that we can do higher transactions for two databases or power our operation."
"There is room for improvement in terms of security."
"Integration with AWS could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's open-source and free."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."
"It is okay."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"It's an open-source solution."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"The product is not expensive."
"My company uses the free version of the solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"The price could be less expensive."
"MariaDB is available for free."
"We pay for a yearly license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
 

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 needs improvement with Firebird SQL?
We would like to improve the management of very large databases. We have databases up to three or four terabytes, and it's not so easy to manage such large databases.
What is your primary use case for Firebird SQL?
We are working on monitoring software that involves making a lot of measurements with sensors. We store all the data in Firebird, which is why we use It primarily for data storage.
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

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: September 2026.
914,394 professionals have used our research since 2012.