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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
7.1
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

"I can deploy it on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows — it's very easy."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution and can run on most operating systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Windows."
"I find the ease of deployment to be the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The most valuable feature of Firebird SQL is the creation of databases."
"We are happy with the event capabilities of Firebird SQL database. We can raise events from it and display them in our application."
"We are satisfied with Firebird SQL, and we will keep on using it."
"The solution has worked perfectly; I've never run into issues or had to reach out to technical support for troubleshooting."
"The product was easy to use."
"MySQL is indeed the world's most popular open source database."
"The deployment process is pretty fast."
"Now we use something where we can share the instances of the database which were created virtually, which is a very good feature, which I felt has improved our organization."
"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."
"The product is flexible and easy to use."
"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."
"Compared to other databases, MySQL is cheaper and we were using the community edition which was free of cost. ML is fully integrated with the database in HeatWave. It has also many other features. MySQL is a far better solution in terms of pricing."
"For sure, the solution is very stable."
 

Cons

"It would be nice to have a graphical user interface to handle the product."
"They need to be more reactive and fast. Sometimes, they take too long to resolve some tickets."
"There aren't a lot of people using this solution — it's not very popular in the marketplace."
"It is not easy to integrate the tool with Visual Studio."
"Firebird SQL's performance has slowed since Firebird SQL 3 or 3.5 versions, where they developed over-the-wire encryption."
"We would like to improve the management of very large databases."
"The security of the users could improve in Firebird SQL."
"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."
"MySQL could be improved by adding more automation."
"Its scalability can be better. It is probably not as scalable as Oracle."
"​MySQL needs improvements on its diagnostic features.​"
"DELETE and UPDATE statements that use a LIMIT clause without an ORDER BY are non deterministic."
"The solution could improve the monitoring. At the present time, you need to use third-party monitoring solutions."
"The version of the product with free licensing does not offer stellar scalability support."
"The performance, stability, and security are areas with shortcomings in MySQL, where improvements are required."
"When I run into issues, I really have to research how to fix them."
 

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 no licensing cost for this solution, as it is open-source."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is freely available."
"The tool is open source."
"We are using the free solution, so there is no cost involved."
"Firebird SQL is an open-source solution, which means it is a free product."
"I was using the free version of Firebird SQL."
"We are using the free community edition of MySQL."
"When you know the setup will continue to grow, make sure you have the paid support."
"The pricing falls within the moderate range."
"I rate the solution's pricing as four out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. For our basic needs, it's quite affordable. However, the cost increases when we need to scale up or require high availability. Our developer team of about 600 people uses MySQL without much issue. The pricing becomes more of a concern on the business side, as we have more end users and need constant database availability and scaling. In those cases, the solution gets a bit more expensive, even though it provides good value for the business."
"MySQL is a cheap solution."
"It's cheaper than other solutions."
"​Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. ​"
"I don't pay for a license."
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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%
Computer Software 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.
900,228 professionals have used our research since 2012.