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Firebird SQL vs MySQL comparison

 

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)
MySQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
152
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 9.5%, down from 17.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 11.9%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MySQL11.9%
Firebird SQL9.5%
Other78.6%
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…
Varuns Ug - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Developer at NIT
Reliable transactions have supported secure payments, refunds, and bookings at high volumes
Regarding MySQL improvements, a pain point is horizontal scalability. MySQL scales very well vertically and can support read replicas, but as a system grows significantly, sharding and distributed data management can become complex compared to databases that are designed to scale horizontally from the beginning. This is one of the areas where I think MySQL should work more. Another area is handling very large analytic workloads. MySQL is excellent for transactional systems, but for large-scale analytics or reporting, specialized analytic databases may sometimes be a better fit. Apart from that, one area is performance troubleshooting. As the database grows, diagnosing things such as slow queries, lock contention, and deadlocks becomes complex.

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."
"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."
"Robustness is the absolutely main feature."
"I like Firebird because it's very lightweight; it's very light and powerful, and I can do everything that I can with MS SQL Server and Oracle with Firebird, with very easy deployment on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows and great integration capabilities."
"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"The solution is very useful for stock management."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"The large user base and the amount of available plugins and modules."
"MySQL offers a simple, no frills, but effective DBMS solution with a very low hardware footprint, and since it has no licensing fees, it offers great TCO for our customers."
"I believe that it is the ideal solution for a variety of projects with a small learning curve compared to other solutions."
"The way that MySQL has improved my organization is that it comes free and also works fine on the technical side."
"MySQL is the best option for the Laravel PHP framework."
"The most valuable feature of MySQL is auto-scaling."
"The initial setup for the SQL database is not complex and it even integrates into the platform. You set up the recipe and then just follow the runbook, the build book. Then it works as long as you follow the procedures."
"It has more than enough support available for our needs."
 

Cons

"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."
"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."
"It would be nice to have a graphical user interface to handle the product."
"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."
"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."
"There aren't a lot of people using this solution — it's not very popular in the marketplace."
"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."
"It should have some code analytical functions. It can also have a monitoring tool."
"It does not scale well when there are concurrent requests."
"We did encounter some scalability issues as it has limited clustering support, it requires scaling up rather than out to some degree."
"I would like to improve the solution’s pricing for licenses."
"MySQL's performance needs to be improved for enterprise-level applications compared to Oracle and Postgres."
"I haven't really looked into the security of it, but it should be good. It could be more secure."
"MySQL tutorials and guides could be improved. Often they are too complex for someone with no database experience to understand."
"Regarding MySQL improvements, a pain point is horizontal scalability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"It is a public domain system as every customer can install it on their system without paying any license fee."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."
"It's open-source and free."
"It is okay."
"The tool is open source."
"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"For the on-premise version, no license is required."
"MySQL is released under an open-source license, so you have nothing to pay to use it."
"It is open source. We prefer it for POCs because it saves the license cost."
"This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge."
"There is not a license required for this solution."
"We are using the free community version of the solution."
"The pricing falls within the moderate range."
"MySQL Enterprise Support is not cheap, though might still be cheaper than Oracle or SQL Server. They may not have local support depending on where you’re based, but there are many smaller agencies out there that will readily provide support. You’ll need to spend some time looking around."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise63
 

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.
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 you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...
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 versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...
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 it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Elekt Labs, Streamsoft, wobe-systems GmbH, DRB Systems, Moscow City Hospital #31
Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.
Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird SQL vs. MySQL and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.