Google Cloud SQL vs MariaDB comparison

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Google Cloud SQL

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Google Cloud SQL and MariaDB based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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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:

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud SQL

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database as a Service (DBaaS) (6th), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (9th)

MariaDB

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (7th), Relational Databases Tools (5th)

Featured Reviews

Prathap Sankar

Analytics Delivery Manager at Tredence Inc.

Gain control and flexibility with customizable tools but has slower performance

I am majorly working in Google Cloud SQL for building my applications Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed. The deployment model allows for…

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Anand Bandi

Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd

Has supported web application data needs but requires design adjustments to manage complex queries efficiently

Complex queries in MariaDB where the query needs to parse thousands of lines or data values face some performance issues. For small and medium-size volume, it is pretty good. If it goes beyond certain data and complex queries, we see performance issues. We tried the advanced replication feature between different regions, replicating data specifically residing on MariaDB to two different regions of MariaDB data, and there were some technical snags in terms of slowness and longer processing time. Point-in-time recovery in MariaDB is good for small databases. When data volume increases beyond 5 GB or 10 GB per day or runs into double-digit GBs, we found some performance issues. For data below 10 GB, it works fine. Performance is the primary focus area for MariaDB, particularly during transactions or complex query jobs where slow performance is observed. MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.

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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

"From a database management perspective, it provides services without the need for me to worry about backups, scaling, or other operational issues."

"Its most valuable feature is that it's scalable. I can start off with a base of a lot of data and move as much as I want and it's the same as if asked to do a lot of infrastructure changes."

"The implementation part of the product was easy."

"The solution is easy to use. I am impressed with the tool's features and functionality."

"The setup was straightforward. Just a couple of clicks, and we were done."

"The deployment model allows for significant control and flexibility."

"It supports different databases, like Postgres and MySQL."

"The valuable feature of Google Cloud SQL is its high availability option. The product is stable."

More Google Cloud SQL pros

"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is that it is open-source and we can easily migrate from other databases, such as Oracle to MariaDB."

"From the user's perspective, the performance of the columnar queries is very good in terms of the database when comparing it to the Oracle, and MySQL."

"The product has been stable and reliable."

"Configuration, setup, and schema design are good features in MariaDB, and typical database features we have used include backup, configuration, recovery, archiving, and ETL."

"MariaDB is scalable."

"The integration with other products is seamless."

"This solution is user-friendly."

"The stability of MariaDB is good, it has high availability."

More MariaDB pros

Cons

"The purging of the data could be better."

"To create a seamless data integration, the title integration of these databases with the data integration platforms is essential. This is what we would like to have in a future release."

"The only thing that could be better is the pricing."

"For data analysis, the AI area of the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"Google's technical support is good, but they tend to never reopen a case and to send us snippets from the publicly available documentation. It's not as helpful as you would expect, not just for Google Cloud SQL but for all of Google Cloud products."

"Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations."

"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."

"The performance compared to AWS is not as fast, and the technical support could be better as they don't have a dedicated team, but mostly AI handles the support now."

More Google Cloud SQL cons

"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."

"In the next release, I would like to see improvements in the scalability and redundancy features."

"Master-master replication is something that needs to be simplified."

"We'd like more data intelligence."

"The product needs more features and more functionality. It's imperative that it supports more platforms, and supports more operating systems."

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

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

"MariaDB could be improved by adding more automation."

More MariaDB cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."

"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."

"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."

"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."

"The solution is affordable."

"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."

"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."

"This is an open source solution with no licensing fees."

"It's an open-source solution."

"When it comes to MariaDB, it should have a more cost-effective license."

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

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

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

"MariaDB is available for free."

"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."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

University

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	25

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud SQL?

The implementation part of the product was easy.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?

We have set up automated patch management for Google Cloud SQL, and it does on a daily basis what needs to be done, so it is pretty good overall for maintaining our database security.

What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?

Sometimes the sharing with third parties or configuring that in Google Cloud SQL is not the most intuitive. From a user perspective, if Google Cloud SQL integrated AI directly into the query so tha...

What do you like most about MariaDB?

The integration with other products is seamless.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?

MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the volume of data and different features enabled during configuration, such as backup ...

What needs improvement with MariaDB?

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Google Cloud SQL

Comparisons

Compared 32% of the time

Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 29% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 16% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 6% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 5% of the time

More Google Cloud SQL Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 22% of the time

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 17% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 12% of the time

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 6% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Product Reports

Download Google Cloud SQL product report

Google Cloud SQL

December 2025

Download MariaDB product report

December 2025

Overview

Google Cloud SQL is a fully-managed database service that makes it easy to set up, maintain, manage, and administer your relational PostgreSQL and MySQL databases in the cloud. Google Cloud SQL offers high performance, scalability, and convenience. Hosted on Google Cloud Platform, Cloud SQL provides a database infrastructure for applications running anywhere.

Google

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.”

Sample Customers

BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities