Firebird SQL vs MariaDB vs PostgreSQL comparison

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

3,813 Views
3,495 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

8,229 Views
7,307 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 PostgreSQL, Oracle, Firebird and others in Open Source Databases.

To learn more, read our detailed Open Source Databases Report (Updated: April 2025).

Open Source Databases

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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 Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 17.9%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 18.0%, down from 20.6% 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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AdityaSharma3

Vice President Business at Techmagnate: Digital Marketing Agency

Transaction processes are fast and good replication capability

Use cases include querying data warehouses and databases to fetch data for clients already working on PostgreSQL. We also use Postgres for building reports It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping. The query speed is fast, and the…

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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

"The product was 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 solution is very useful for stock management."

"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."

"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."

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

More Firebird SQL pros

"The solution's high availability is its most valuable aspect."

"It is a scalable solution. It easily scales up and scales down."

"The solution is very stable. It was originally built under MySQL. It has a similar level of stability."

"It's easy to set up."

"This solution is user-friendly."

"The product has been stable and reliable."

"It is an absolutely stable solution."

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

More MariaDB pros

"The solution provides complete support in terms of the SQL dialect and behaves nicely when it comes to transactions."

"What I like is that it's quite powerful in terms of performance."

"The tool is user-friendly."

"It is a pretty comprehensive database system. Its performance is good, and it does what it is supposed to do. It also integrates very well."

"One of the most valuable features is real-time data capture; it optimizes database performance. I think using real-time data capture reduces job running time and the amount of data sent at once with batch loads."

"The product is quite flexible."

"PostgreSQL is very easy to use. I have experience in Oracle SQL and PostgreSQL uses the same syntax which makes it is easy for me to develop."

"The database has excellent performance."

Cons

"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."

"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."

"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."

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

"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."

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

"This solution isn't very user-friendly, or intuitive, which could be improved when it is developed."

More Firebird SQL cons

"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server. It would make things a lot easier. You need to have that replication server, but not in the same server farm. Then there will be a bit of latency between both because you should have one in one city and another one in a different city. That kind of solution should be more baked into every single database today. Mirroring the database in a live environment where any record written on the production server replicates instantly across the fiber on the other server wasn't easy. Many people don't even bother with that, and they just run one server."

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

"MariaDB could be improved by adding more automation."

"The interface should be more user-friendly. It should be able to connect directly to the database and Interact with it without having to use commands. It needs better integration."

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

"The price could be less expensive."

"The GUI could be improved a bit. The user interface needs to be improved."

"Maria DB has to improve from a management perspective."

More MariaDB cons

"I don't think PostgreSQL supports bulk databases, so it needs to have more capabilities in terms of managing the bulk data."

"PostgreSQL could improve by adding data warehousing tools."

"I'm not really able to customize it."

"The pricing could be better."

"I have noticed that user and access management should be improved."

"The user interface could be a bit better."

"PostgreSQL uses high memory compared to its counterparts when a highly demanding load is involved, especially one that makes many concurrent connections to the database."

"It still needs to be more mature and have some backup feature. We are normally dealing with Oracle's data, and we have very strong online tools to back up the data and do other things. PostgreSQL still needs to do more in this area as well as in the high availability area. There are many external tools that you can use for PostgreSQL's high availability, but there is no embedded tool within PostgreSQL for high availability. It could have a feature similar to Oracle for working on a distributed system. It can have some scripts to improve the monitoring and some tools to do performance analysis. We have a workaround for most of such requirements except for the support for a distributed system, which is very difficult to have. This area should be included in the core of the database itself."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's open-source and free."

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

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

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

"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."

"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."

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

"The tool is open source."

More Firebird SQL pricing and cost advice

"My company uses the free version of the solution."

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

"This is an open-source product, which can be used free of charge."

"The price could be less expensive."

"It is free of charge."

"We pay for a yearly license."

"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."

"It is an open-source solution."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"We are using the free version of PostgreSQL."

"Affordable solution."

"The need for our customers to pay for licences is contingent on their projects and budgets."

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

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

"It is also open-source so it is free."

"We do not pay for licensing."

"There is an annual license."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

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

MySQL vs Firebird SQL

Compared 26% of the time

SQLite vs Firebird SQL

Compared 16% of the time

DuckDB vs Firebird SQL

Compared 1% of the time

Compared 1% of the time

More Firebird SQL Competitors

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 24% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 10% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Percona Server vs MariaDB

Compared 5% of the time

SQLite vs MariaDB

Compared 3% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 12% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 11% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 8% of the time

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Compared 3% 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