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MariaDB vs MySQL vs PostgreSQL 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 6.8%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 9.2%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 16.8%, down from 19.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MySQL9.2%
PostgreSQL16.8%
MariaDB6.8%
Other67.2%
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

KumarManish - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers robust security and availability with impressive replication capabilities
Regarding their documentation and interface, there is room for improvement. Documentation is definitely required when running multiple databases on a cluster system. The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation. When there are multiple application servers connecting to the MySQL cluster and going through the MySQL load balancer, the documentation is not user-friendly. It's there, but only technical persons with deep knowledge of the MySQL database can implement it. Most of the community users or ISVs who use MySQL don't have many technical persons or DBA experts, so they face some challenges for the high availability of connecting high available databases from high available applications. That documentation should be simplified.
PavithrarajShetty - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like best about MariaDB is that it is open-source and reliable."
"It delivers fast processing times, particularly for frequent select queries and insert/update operations."
"From a customer perspective, MariaDB is a good choice for cluster configuration. It's also easy to operate and cheap."
"This solution is user-friendly."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"The most valuable feature is that it uses multiple cores, which is better than some of the other databases."
"I would say that for most use cases it works fine."
"The solution runs very quickly. It's not slow at all."
"Fully scalable and stable SQL-based RDBMS, with a straightforward and easy setup."
"Table partitioning is most valuable. It is easy to use."
"MySQL is an open-source product and has good community support. If you encounter any problem, you can easily ask other members of the community to help. They help you a lot. On top of being free, MySQL is a cross-platform database, meaning it can work on both Windows and Linux. It is very good for us."
"The one interesting thing about this product is that it is open source. It comes from an open source product. MySQL has been positioned as open source, but it also provides support."
"What I really like about MySQL is the opportunity to search for information and organize it any way I like."
"It has a remote access feature to manage the database from a remote location. This enables in-work collaboration."
"It creates a unified view of the entire architecture and performance factor, helping to manage the network more easily."
"The solution is very stable."
"PostgreSQL is very easy to use. I have experience in Oracle SQL and PostgreSQL uses the same syntax which makes it is easy for me to develop."
"The community support and the open-source community for it are good."
"The most valuable feature is the performance."
"The solution has many valuable features such as it easy to use and the interface is intuitive."
"We often use PostgreSQL for operations monitoring because we are a manufacturing company."
"Clustering will be the number 1 feature. It is also open-source so it is free. It can also be clustered, to allow fault tolerance."
"Initial setup is simple."
"The initial setup is quick and easy."
 

Cons

"It's not very stable. It needs improvement."
"Maria DB has to improve from a management perspective."
"The configuration could be improved. It should be easier."
"The interface should be more user-friendly. It should be able to connect directly to the database and Interact with it without having to use commands. It needs better integration."
"It doesn't have the same level of maturity metrics as Postgres."
"We'd like more data intelligence."
"Document caching is an area of concern in the product, where improvements are required to help MariaDB improve on the previous queries as they are retained, and you can roll back to them."
"The performance could be a bit better."
"The availability of tools could be improved in the MySQL open-source platform. They can provide more analytical tools. I haven't had any particularly difficult issues to troubleshoot on MySQL, but in the past, on Microsoft SQL Server, I had to troubleshoot some difficult issues, and better tools were in place to see what was going on in real-time on the server. So, that's the bit that is lacking on the MySQL open-source platform."
"From a user perspective, the initial setup could be simplified a bit."
"In MySQL, we need to define every table beforehand."
"If the customer is already using or has already used Oracle for a long time they will know the look and feel and the character of this database that can fit into their business."
"MySQL could introduce more indexing strategies."
"The analytics features are in need of improvement."
"They should come up with a better solution than the NDB cluster for better scaling. If they could come up with a better solution for write scaling, apart from the NDB cluster, which is supported by all open source communities, that would be great. Although the NDB cluster, I believe, is an open-source tool, it's not widely supported as a solution."
"The auto-tuning and NDB cluster has some limitations regarding foreign keys."
"The solution could improve the integration."
"The solution needs to improve the query, documentation, and JSON data functionality."
"Sometimes, it becomes slow because of the network. So, there is room for improvement in performance."
"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."
"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."
"The price could be better."
"The interface could be much better."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We use the solution's free version."
"It's an open-source solution."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"We pay for a yearly license."
"The solution is free, but if you want the enterprise version you will need to pay for some licenses but the cost is less than other solutions, such as Oracle."
"It is free of charge."
"MariaDB is an open-source software, meaning I don't need to pay for the product."
"It is an open-source solution."
"I am not paying, but I am not sure about the exact licensing requirements."
"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."
"When you know the setup will continue to grow, make sure you have the paid support."
"It is open-source."
"The tool is open source."
"We are using the free community version of the solution."
"We are using the free version of MySQL. We prefer paying for a yearly license."
"I am using the Community Edition, which is available free of charge."
"Affordable solution."
"It is free. In terms of operating costs, it basically needs the same platform on which Oracle runs."
"The need for our customers to pay for licences is contingent on their projects and budgets."
"It could be much cheaper. If you would like to build an application on Amazon today, PostgreSQL is the standard database with Redshift. If you want other databases, you can add them, but PostgreSQL is the basis of everything. It's a question of money, that's it."
"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."
"We are using the free version of PostgreSQL."
"It is also open-source so it is free."
"It is open source. There is no licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business73
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise61
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business58
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about MariaDB?
The integration with other products is seamless.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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.
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 ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, PostgreSQL, Firebird and others in Open Source Databases. Updated: August 2025.
867,826 professionals have used our research since 2012.