No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

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 June 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of Firebird SQL is 9.8%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 11.4%, up from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MySQL11.4%
Firebird SQL9.8%
Other78.8%
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 most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is reliable, offers good performance, and is easy to use."
"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."
"I can deploy it on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows — it's very easy."
"The product was easy to use."
"Combined with PHPMyAdmin, MySQL is an excellent database solution for small to medium sized businesses or installations."
"The solution is stable."
"For MySQL, in terms of the usage or as the end user, I don't have much to recommend, as long as the query latency meets your requirements, it will be great."
"The fact that it is free is what appeals to me the most."
"The performance is great, as this is a lightweight product that is not demanding on the resources, which is what I think gives it the edge."
"Table partitioning is most valuable. It is easy to use."
"ACID attributes are the most valuable feature, as data reliability is a top concern."
"The most valuable component for me is SQL Developer, it is pretty simple to use and I don't have anything really bad to say about it."
 

Cons

"They need to be more reactive and fast. Sometimes, they take too long to resolve some tickets."
"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"In the next release, it should support JSON, XML, and replication with third-party tools."
"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."
"The security of the users could improve in Firebird SQL."
"Technical support and performance could be better. We have some problems with this solution, but we don't know if the problem is with the database or the configuration. For example, sometimes, the users can't access the database."
"It would be good to have more automation and integration with the tools from other vendors."
"This solution isn't very user-friendly, or intuitive, which could be improved when it is developed."
"It can have better monitoring. In addition, the enterprise manager should be able to cater to more than one virtual machine. Currently, you need one license per server. It seems a bit too much to get one license for one enterprise manager. I hope the enterprise manager for MySQL can accommodate more virtual machines for MySQL."
"We did experience a few scalability issues, but we decided to rather go for a bigger server than creating a cluster and that worked out very well."
"When I run into issues, I really have to research how to fix them."
"The backup methods need improvement. MySQL needs to improve its backup methods so that you can actually do a backup without affecting products."
"We did encounter some scalability issues as it has limited clustering support, it requires scaling up rather than out to some degree."
"The work bench has some bugs that are mostly GUI related."
"Customer Service: 4/10 Technical Support: 7/10"
"As an open-source product, there isn't really any technical support available if you get into trouble or have issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 a yearly maintenance fee for the use of the solution."
"The tool is open source."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"It's open-source and free."
"There is no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"It is an open source platform."
"​Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. ​"
"The tool is open source."
"I use a free version at present."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten. The solution is not cheap but it’s a fair value. The pricing depends on the use cases of our customers. Some of our customers use the community edition which is license free and a good fit for their use cases. However, we encourage our bigger customers to sign up because of the scalability issues. The paid versions get direct technical support from Oracle."
"I use the open-source free community version."
"We are using the free version of MySQL. We prefer paying for a yearly license."
"Can range from free to quite expensive, depending on the environments and requirements, so better to really set goals ahead of setting it up."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Open Source Databases solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
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.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.