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Kali Linux vs MySQL on Ubuntu comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Kali Linux
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MySQL on Ubuntu
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
28th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Ciyagi Ciyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Architect & Delivery Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Runs efficiently across devices and streamlines penetration testing workflows
Kali Linux could be improved by including more tools. I would personally like to see improvements in Kali Linux, particularly regarding Grub issues that sometimes occur when installing the VM. Additionally, I have experienced problems when updating Kali Linux from a higher version to a lower version, which resulted in crashes. These Grub issues should be resolved. I face significant challenges with Kali Linux regarding a major issue with the Grub loader becoming corrupted, which makes it very difficult to recover data.
NP
Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Database platform has supported secure ecommerce growth but still needs simpler scaling and monitoring
MySQL on Ubuntu can be improved in a couple of things in my mind. I can consider performance-wise, scalability-wise, reliability, availability, security, and operational simplicity. Right now it is good enough for ourselves or our organization. But if it is considered from a scalability perspective, currently, MySQL on Ubuntu scales fairly well. Write scaling is hard and manual sharding is required. In that case, what we can improve is native sharding support, better distributed write handling, and easier multi-primary setups. For performance optimization, I can say currently the limitation is the required expert tuning. The default configuration is conservative. What we need to do in that is auto-tuning based on the hardware, better index recommendations, and smarter query optimization. Another point is high availability. Currently, what happens is that replication setup is complex. If you make the setup but if you want to replicate it, it will be complex. What we have to do is build in automatic failover, easier cluster setup, and faster recovery time. The fourth thing is security enhancements. Currently, whatever security is set up is manual. Misconfiguration risk is there. What we can improve in that is secure-by-default configuration and mandatory SSL in production because SSL is very important nowadays. This thing we can improve. Stronger password policy by default. For the security perspective, we can provide a stronger password policy by default. For recovery and backup simplicity, I can say that currently, we need scripting for the backups and recovery testing is a manual thing. What we can do here is built-in backup scheduler. We can run one scheduler and every day it will take the backups. If we can have it, it will be great. One-click restore and automated recovery validation. Those things we can improve. Another thing is observability and monitoring. Currently, what happens is limited built-in visibility and external tools required for that. What we can do here is provide native performance dashboard, query heat maps, and bottleneck detection. Those things we can improve. Another thing I can consider is at the Ubuntu level. Because if you consider, the OS and DB configuration is disconnected and kernel tuning is also manual. What we can improve in that is DB-aware kernel tuning, better file system defaults for the DB workloads, and pre-tuned DB server profiles. I can say cloud-native enhancements. Right now we are working on a traditional architecture and manual cloud optimization. It would be better to have Kubernetes native auto-scaling and storage-aware tuning. Those can improve my area for that. Another thing is developer experience. Debugging a query is hard. Currently, if we are running on Ubuntu and code something, there are no other tools we are using. Debugging is very hard. Also, error guidance is limited. We can say that a clearer error message, query rewrite suggestions, and schema change safety checks by default. Those kinds of improvements we can do. I can say I mostly covered the improvements needed for MySQL on Ubuntu, but one thing I can say is that there is also some limitation on the governance and compliance base. Auditing needs configuration. Some configuration we need to read. Compliance reporting also is manual right now. We can improve that with built-in audit templates, compliance-ready modes we can provide, and easier data masking we can do. Those things we can add also.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution's stability is very good."
"Kali Linux has helped me learn faster and understand concepts better; you get a sense of appreciation when completing tasks on your own machine without help or hints from available tools or operating systems, with minimal guidance."
"Kali Linux has helped me significantly in simulating penetration testing and other activities, and since all the tools are open source, I can easily modify and customize them based on my needs."
"Kali Linux has positively impacted my organization significantly as it aids in red team work and penetration testing."
"Kali Linux is much better than other OS because it gives you a good set of tools. It is preferred for vulnerability assessments and cybersecurity."
"Kali Linux has impacted my organization positively because it has allowed for the better security of my applications."
"Kali Linux offers excellent features including being lightweight with low memory usage, easy installation, portability, and multiple architectures such as ARM architecture and server architecture."
"Kali Linux stands out compared to other operating systems I have used for security work because it is a specific distribution of Linux that has all the required tools pre-loaded and configured."
"MySQL on Ubuntu offers very good performance, it is secure, and it is easy to use."
"MySQL on Ubuntu has positively impacted my organization by enabling me to use a database that is very easy to use, quick to set up, and inexpensive; this database provides business value because every web application nowadays needs some type of database, so for those that require SQL databases, MySQL on Ubuntu is a great way to do it."
"I have saved a significant amount of time because it's faster to create features with machine learning since it's very fast, and so we get the result in a few seconds."
"MySQL on Ubuntu is very simple, easy, and quick to use for people with database expertise."
"MySQL on Ubuntu combination handles it in a very efficient way."
"MySQL on Ubuntu is the base for most of our applications that are based on Linux, so it is wonderful."
"The primary aspect of MySQL on Ubuntu that I appreciate is that it is extremely reliable among the RDBMS that I have used, and another important quality is that it extends with volume very well as most RDBMS don't scale very well, but this one scales very well and has been very reliable and highly available."
"I appreciate MySQL on Ubuntu for its relational tables which are faster to read, contributing to the performance in simple applications."
 

Cons

"The only real limitation I can see with Kali Linux is the steep learning curve of using it."
"The product should integrate AI and GPT capabilities."
"From an improvement perspective, it should be made possible for users to learn about the product easily."
"There are areas for improvement in Kali Linux, particularly regarding its use of the Linux kernel, which requires external additional patching, and the fact that network services are disabled by default, which complicates usage; enhancing user-friendliness through more GUI-based tools and better integration could be beneficial."
"Any new user or someone without deep expertise won't be able to understand how to scale or manage it"
"I would like for them to offer more features for the free version in order for users to test them in their internal environment before purchasing."
"Some tools in Kali Linux lack documentation and details on how to use them, which is one area where it can be improved."
"The installation process of Kali Linux can be slow, particularly when installing and upgrading packages within virtualized environments."
"Currently, what happens is that replication setup is complex; if you make the setup but if you want to replicate it, it will be complex."
"I cannot answer regarding improvements. As I said, I am not watching, and I don't know what is in between the application and the database."
"Sometimes, if the indexing is not done very well, I have noticed slowness, but largely, it has performed pretty well."
"I would say that MySQL on Ubuntu can be improved particularly in its scaling capabilities."
"Despite some issues such as security concerns when changing passwords which compromised the database, it remains a very good database engine."
"MySQL on Ubuntu can be improved because it has limited analytics query capabilities rather than other competitors."
"Integration is always important regarding operating systems and these types of products, so being able to integrate and export or import from JSON structures is very critical."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is open-source."
"I have used the free version."
"The price is good because Kali Linux already provides a good bundle of tools."
"It is an open-source tool."
"The licensing fee is expensive compared to other products."
"There is no need to make any payments towards the licensing costs since it is a solution that is available for free."
"I use it free of charge."
"Kali Linux is open source."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
14%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Kali Linux?
I use the tool with Nmap to perform network audits. We use it to find vulnerabilities in our network through attacks. It's for those who want to launch or create viruses or perform attacks on syste...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kali Linux?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Kali Linux has been that it was free to use.
What needs improvement with Kali Linux?
I think Kali Linux is good, but there is a widespread misunderstanding related to Kali Linux because many people believe Kali Linux is a tool for hackers and that anything can be hacked using it. T...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MySQL on Ubuntu?
My experience with the pricing is that we are using free.
What needs improvement with MySQL on Ubuntu?
I believe there could be improvements for MySQL on Ubuntu, particularly with AI integration in scripting tools such as GitHub Copilot, which provides examples and solutions for errors encountered d...
What is your primary use case for MySQL on Ubuntu?
I have used MySQL on Ubuntu over the years, and I am currently working with some Docker products, but most of my experience with Docker is over Windows, not Linux. Currently, I am not using MySQL o...
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Kali Linux vs. MySQL on Ubuntu and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.