MariaDB vs MySQL vs PostgreSQL comparison

MariaDB and Oracle are both solutions in the Open Source Databases category. MariaDB is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8, while Oracle is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. MariaDB holds a 6.7% mindshare in OSD, compared to Oracle’s 9.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 59 MariaDB reviews

6,650 Views
2,926 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

MySQL

Read 149 MySQL reviews

10,016 Views
5,609 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

PostgreSQL

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

7,703 Views
7,087 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

MariaDB

MySQL

PostgreSQL

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between MariaDB, MySQL, and PostgreSQL based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Firebird, Oracle, PostgreSQL and others in Open Source Databases.

To learn more, read our detailed Open Source Databases Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Open Source Databases

July 2025

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Helped 864,574 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.7%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 9.4%, down from 15.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 17.1%, down from 20.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

KumarManish

Senior Technical Manager at Johnson Controls, Inc.

Easy to deploy, cost-effective, and integrates seamlessly with other products

We had planned for an RDBMS version and not NoSQL. We use MariaDB Galera Cluster. It's a good product. It is cheap, scalable, performs well, and is efficient. We use GCP’s BigQuery for machine learning. We must follow the best practices of the tool. We missed some best practices like the storage engine and InnoDB. It was very difficult to identify why we were having performance issues. Then, we realized that some of our tables were still on MyISAM, the default storage engine. When we switched it back to the InnoDB, it was very smooth. InnoDB is the recommended one. We must follow the best practices given in the documentation during the initial setup. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

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Muzzamil Hussain

Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan

Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment

The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.

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PavithrarajShetty

Software Architect at Tetherfi

Offers simplicity and is cheaply priced

I haven't gone through the scalability aspect since I was using MySQL Server. I haven't worked to a high level in PostgreSQL, but with MySQL Server, I have managed clustering and partitioning. I think I haven't put much focus on PostgreSQL, so I am not sure how it behaves or how it works.

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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

"The solution is very stable. It was originally built under MySQL. It has a similar level of stability."

"The product has good documentation and you can find many examples online."

"The most valuable features of the solution stem from the fact that it is an open-source product and offers its users great online community support."

"MariaDB performs well as the backend database for our cloud-based telephony solution."

"I am editing."

"MariaDB is stable and the initial setup is straightforward."

"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."

"The solution has PL/SQL compatibility."

More MariaDB pros

"The most valuable feature of MySQL is the informative error outputs of command line interface."

"MySQL gives us a very user-friendly workspace in which to query the database."

"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."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The solution is great for small applications in particular."

"MySQL gives us all of the critical features that we need in a database, but without the costs."

"The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features."

"The deployment process is pretty fast."

More MySQL pros

"The most valuable feature is the performance."

"The solution provides complete support in terms of the SQL dialect and behaves nicely when it comes to transactions."

"The main value is that it is open source, which means it is free. Our organization has the initiative to go to open source to cut down on cost. Oracle costs us $6 million a year right now, which is killing us, and Postgres costs nothing. So, there is a big push to go to Postgres."

"The initial setup is quick and easy."

"We are able to create many different types of jobs and items with this solution making it one of the most valuable features."

"PostgreSQL is stable. It's available, stable, and reliable."

"With the database, you can provide a multi-component at the same service with the same performance, scalability, or all those things."

"It is easy to install and easy to manage. There is no license on it, so it is free. There is high compatibility with Oracle, and there are many tools for the migration of data from Oracle to Postgre."

Cons

"MariaDB should provide HA and archive logging... I haven't had the opportunity to use the features provided by the solution since I don't know how to see them."

"MariaDB can improve by adding more features. There are a lot of features, which are available in Oracle, and which are not available in MariaDB. We hope they will introduce the features soon."

"The stability could always continue to be improved upon."

"A well-known issue for a lot of different users is associated with write-intensive applications."

"MariaDB's GUI is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server. It would make things a lot easier. You need to have that replication server, but not in the same server farm. Then there will be a bit of latency between both because you should have one in one city and another one in a different city. That kind of solution should be more baked into every single database today. Mirroring the database in a live environment where any record written on the production server replicates instantly across the fiber on the other server wasn't easy. Many people don't even bother with that, and they just run one server."

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

"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."

More MariaDB cons

"Its scalability can be better. It is probably not as scalable as Oracle. I had some issues with connectors. I used it from a C++ program, and it required some work to make it run, but finally, it worked."

"There should be more tools to manage the on-premises version and more automation features."

"MySQL is not easily scalable on cost effective consumer grade hardware."

"The GUI could improve to make MySQL better."

"I would like to have features that allow us to jump between the cloud and our on-premises system."

"MySQL doesn't have the auto-clustering and database clustering features that other competitors provide. They can include these features."

"While utilizing a comparable algorithm, is noted to be sensitive, especially when configuring the inner device."

"Scalability could be improved."

More MySQL cons

"The user interface for the clients could be easier to use as they are small businesses. From a technical support perspective, the documentation could be improved."

"There are some products out there that have a slightly different method of implementation for the SQL language. Some of those are slightly better in some areas, and PostgreSQL is slightly better in some areas. I would probably like to match all of those products together. It is just down to the functionality. For example, Oracle has a number of options within SQL that are outside of what you would class as the SQL standard. PostgreSQL misses some of those, but PostgreSQL does other things that are better than what Oracle does. I would like to merge those two products so that there is a certain amount of functionality in a single product."

"The user interface could be a bit better."

"I don't think PostgreSQL supports bulk databases, so it needs to have more capabilities in terms of managing the bulk data."

"The interface climate could be better."

"It is possible that in the newer version this has been addressed, but I would like the deployment in microservices architecture could be improved."

"The solution needs to improve the query, documentation, and JSON data functionality."

"Sometimes, the views create problems. If you don't have the view, sometimes what happens is you need to have the drivers properly set up for PostgreSQL."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."

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

"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."

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

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

"It is free of charge."

"The cost is quite good. You can have the open source, free version, which has adequate capacity."

"It's an open-source solution."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"It has a community version."

"We do have a couple of clients who choose to use the paid, enterprise version of the solution and who take full advantage of it."

"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."

"My company uses MySQL's corporate licenses."

"It's cheaper than other solutions."

"MySQL is very cheap. It could be free. It also has a yearly licensing option."

"There is a licensing cost because we are going for a proprietary product. There are some other versions for which there is no licensing cost."

"MySQL is a free and open-source solution."

More MySQL pricing and cost advice

"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."

"Our company pays for it. There are free versions available, but for advanced features, you obviously have to pay."

"We are using the free version of PostgreSQL."

"This solution can offer a cheaper choice for customers since it is open-source."

"We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition."

"We do not pay for licensing."

"It is free. There is no license on it."

"The licensing model is good."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?

The integration with other products is seamless.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MariaDB?

I have found the price of commercial MariaDB to be pretty steep, although not as high as Oracle. Customers often pref...

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What needs improvement with MariaDB?

The only potential area for improvement could be the pricing model, which might benefit from being more flexible or a...

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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 y...

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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 version...

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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 ...

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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 c...

See all answers

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 8% of the time

Percona Server vs MariaDB

Compared 5% of the time

ClickHouse vs MariaDB

Compared 4% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

Compared 24% of the time

SAP HANA vs MySQL

Compared 8% of the time

SQL Server vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle Database vs MySQL

Compared 5% of the time

Teradata vs MySQL

Compared 4% of the time

More MySQL Competitors

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 33% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 10% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 8% of the time

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

July 2025

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

MySQL

July 2025

Download MySQL product report

Buyer's Guide

PostgreSQL

July 2025

Download PostgreSQL product report

Overview

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.”

MariaDB

MySQL is a cost-efficient and scalable relational database management system widely used in web, mobile applications, and academic projects.

MySQL is utilized for backend operations, data analysis, reporting, financial transactions, and ERP databases. It supports deployment on local servers, Cloud, and Kubernetes. Its free, open-source nature along with strong community support make it popular among companies. MySQL's compatibility with multiple platforms and programming languages enhances its appeal. While it remains stable and easy to use, areas such as replication, clustering, and backup require improvement to better serve enterprise applications. Enhanced security, error messages, and monitoring tools are also desired for a better user experience.

What are the most important features of MySQL?

Free and Open-Source: No licensing costs, perfect for budget-conscious projects.
Compatibility: Works with multiple platforms and programming languages.
High Performance: Efficient performance across large datasets.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business needs.
Clustering and Replication: Ensures data availability and redundancy.
Easy Installation: Quick setup process on various operating systems.
Community Support: Extensive resources and community assistance.
Cross-Platform: Operates seamlessly on different operating systems.
Data Management Interface: Simplifies data handling and manipulation.

What are the benefits of using MySQL?

Cost Efficiency: Reduce expenses with a free, open-source database.
Scalability: Adapt to increasing data demands effortlessly.
Performance: Handle large datasets with ease and speed.
Community Support: Access a vast pool of knowledge and resources.
Flexibility: Integrate with various platforms and languages for diverse use cases.
Data Reliability: Clustering and replication for high data availability.

In multiple industries, MySQL supports internal applications, billing systems, academic teaching purposes, and ERP databases. Companies leverage MySQL for Cloud and local deployments, ensuring effective data manipulation and backend operations in diverse projects. Its role in financial transactions and reporting further emphasizes its versatility.

Oracle

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

PostgreSQL

Sample Customers

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

Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.

1. Apple 2. Cisco 3. Fujitsu 4. Instagram 5. Netflix 6. Red Hat 7. Sony 8. Uber 9. Cisco Systems 10. Skype 11. LinkedIn 12. Etsy 13. Yelp 14. Reddit 15. Dropbox 16. Slack 17. Twitch 18. WhatsApp 19. Snapchat 20. Shazam 21. SoundCloud 22. The New York Times 23. Cisco WebEx 24. Atlassian 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Heroku 27. GitLab 28. Zalando 29. OpenTable 30. Trello 31. Square Enix 32. Bloomberg

Buyer's Guide

Open Source Databases

July 2025

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