Firebird SQL vs MariaDB vs PostgreSQL comparison

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

7,230 Views
3,181 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

8,020 Views
7,459 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Firebird SQL

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Firebird SQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird, Oracle, PostgreSQL and others in Open Source Databases.

To learn more, read our detailed Open Source Databases Report (Updated: June 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 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. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 17.7%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

Doug Meuross

Strategic Advisor at TradeWindow

A reliable tool that offers good performance and is easy to use

I have had no issues with the stability of the product since it has always been a 100 percent reliable product and much better than the other databases available in the market. The multi-platform part is not good, especially when locked into things like Windows. You can judge your platform with Linux or Unix or whatever since they are good.

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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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PavithrarajShetty

Software Architect at Tetherfi

Offers simplicity and is cheaply priced

I haven't gone through the scalability aspect since I was using MySQL Server. I haven't worked to a high level in PostgreSQL, but with MySQL Server, I have managed clustering and partitioning. I think I haven't put much focus on PostgreSQL, so I am not sure how it behaves or how it works.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Robustness is the absolutely main feature."

"The documentation is very well written."

"The product was easy to use."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is reliable, offers good performance, and is 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."

"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."

"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."

"The reliability and ease of management are very valuable."

More Firebird SQL pros

"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the replication mode."

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

"What I like best about MariaDB is that it is open-source and reliable."

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

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is a cloud-based tool, so it is pretty fast."

"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the power it provides. It is a powerful solution."

"We use MariaDB for identity provider services. Most of the things that we are doing are deployed in the container mode. All such solutions require a database, and MariaDB is easier to use for these kinds of deployments."

"The solution's features have effectively met our operational requirements as a standard SQL database."

More MariaDB pros

"We managed to reduce the storage space needed to 10% of the original size, without affecting data integrity, and we significantly improved the performance."

"The solution is quite stable."

"The community support and the open-source community for it are good."

"Scalable, stable, and easy to manage database system, with a straightforward installation."

"The product is easy to use and works fast for relational databases."

"It has completely met our needs. It works, and it is robust. We haven't had any problems with what PostgreSQL does for us and the way it does it. That's why we've been using it for so long. We understand it, and it does the job."

"The product is very similar to the SQL Server."

"It is easy to install and easy to manage. There is no license on it, so it is free. There is high compatibility with Oracle, and there are many tools for the migration of data from Oracle to Postgre."

Cons

"Database sharing is a capability that Firebird SQL lacks."

"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."

"The security of the users could improve in Firebird SQL."

"It would be interesting if they added functionality with redundancy, reputation, and variability."

"It would be good to have more automation and integration with the tools from other vendors."

"The solution could improve by providing partitioning and encryption. It is not at the higher level of database solution but it could be with some upgrades."

"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."

More Firebird SQL cons

"The configuration could be improved. It should be easier."

"Lacks time series data and additional driving support would be helpful."

"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."

"With respect to clustering and the master-slave configuration, sometimes the slave goes out of synch."

"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."

"The scaling for database online transactions needs improvement."

"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."

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

More MariaDB cons

"The interface could be much better."

"I'd like to see better memory management. I think that that's one of the few areas that Postgres does not handle as well as MySQL does or did."

"It would be good to have machine learning functionality in this solution, similar to Microsoft SQL Server and other solutions. Machine learning capability for a basic level or a common user would be useful. It can also have good reporting capabilities."

"Integration with other platforms could be improved."

"The price could be better."

"PostgreSQL could improve by providing a geographical solution for tracking trucks and people in the field. They might already have features similar to this and I have not found them. I haven't done research about this topic."

"We have to set up event API, which takes a lot of events from the user."

"We often find the solution's datetime datatype challenging."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."

"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."

"The tool is open source."

"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."

"It's open-source and free."

"It is okay."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."

"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."

More Firebird SQL pricing and cost advice

"We use the solution's free version."

"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."

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

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

"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 price of this solution represents a very good compromise between the cost and what it offers."

"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."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"Affordable solution."

"It could be much cheaper. If you would like to build an application on Amazon today, PostgreSQL is the standard database with Redshift. If you want other databases, you can add them, but PostgreSQL is the basis of everything. It's a question of money, that's it."

"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."

"There is an annual license."

"PostgreSQL is open-source, so if capable admins are available then the setup cost can be $0."

"We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition."

"The community version of Postgre is basically free."

"This solution can offer a cheaper choice for customers since it is open-source."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

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 c...

What do you like most about Firebird SQL?

Firebird SQL is an open-source solution.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Firebird SQL?

It's open-source and free.

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...

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers ...

What needs improvement with PostgreSQL?

Postgres should focus on building a stronger knowledge base. They also need to expand their integration capabilities,...

Oracle MySQL Cloud Service vs Firebird SQL

Comparisons

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DuckDB vs Firebird SQL

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InterBase vs Firebird SQL

Compared 0% of the time

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SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Percona Server vs MariaDB

Compared 5% of the time

ClickHouse vs MariaDB

Compared 4% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 11% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 10% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 8% of the time

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

Product Reports

Embedded Database

Download Firebird SQL product report

Download MariaDB product report

Download PostgreSQL product report

Overview

Firebird SQL is an open-source, cross-platform relational database management system that offers an enterprise-level database solution. The solution is designed to be highly secure, efficient, and compatible with various platforms and programming languages. Firebird can operate in both embedded and server modes.

Firebird is an open-source project with an active community of developers and users. It is released under the Initial Developer's Public License (IDPL) and the InterBase Public License, allowing for free use, modification, and distribution.

The Firebird solution requires minimal configuration and its architecture allows it to efficiently handle databases ranging from a few KB to multiple terabytes. It is available for various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and several Unix-like platforms.

What are the key features of Firebird SQL?

ACID Compliance: Firebird provides full support for ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions, ensuring data integrity and consistency, even in the event of system failures or concurrent access.
SQL Language Support: Firebird SQL provides extensive support for ANSI SQL, which is the standard SQL language, making it compatible with a wide range of applications and tools.
Multi-Generational Architecture: Firebird employs a multi-generational architecture, which allows multiple versions of the same data to coexist within the database.
Concurrency and Performance: Firebird offers efficient concurrency control mechanisms, including multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), which allows multiple transactions to access and modify data simultaneously without locking or blocking each other, improving overall performance.
Embedded mode: In the embedded mode, the database engine is integrated directly into the application.
Security Features: Firebird provides user authentication, role-based access control, and encryption capabilities. It supports various authentication methods, such as native Firebird user accounts, external authentication sources (e.g., Windows domains), and single sign-on (SSO) mechanisms.
Backup and Restore: Firebird offers built-in backup and restore utilities, allowing users to create full or incremental backups of the database, as well as restore from these backups when needed.

As part of being a commonly used open-sourced solution, Firebird boasts a vibrant community of developers and users. The community provides extensive documentation, third-party tools, and active forums for support. Businesses can also opt for professional support services offered by third-party vendors for added assurance.

To summarize, Firebird SQL is a robust, scalable, and cost-effective database solution suitable for a wide range of applications and business sizes. Its comprehensive SQL support, security features, and cross-platform compatibility, combined with the active community support, make it a compelling choice for businesses looking to leverage the power of open-source software without compromising on performance or security.

Firebird

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.”

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

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

1. Apple 2. Cisco 3. Fujitsu 4. Instagram 5. Netflix 6. Red Hat 7. Sony 8. Uber 9. Cisco Systems 10. Skype 11. LinkedIn 12. Etsy 13. Yelp 14. Reddit 15. Dropbox 16. Slack 17. Twitch 18. WhatsApp 19. Snapchat 20. Shazam 21. SoundCloud 22. The New York Times 23. Cisco WebEx 24. Atlassian 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Heroku 27. GitLab 28. Zalando 29. OpenTable 30. Trello 31. Square Enix 32. Bloomberg

Open Source Databases