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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
MariaDB users experience varied ROI, with savings and efficiency gains, plus benefits like support, flexibility, and open-source enhancements.
Sentiment score
6.2
MySQL offers cost benefits with open-source use, achieving up to 60% ROI, despite challenges in precise financial calculations.
Sentiment score
7.4
PostgreSQL offers cost-effective benefits with high ROI, thanks to its open source nature and improved performance for businesses.
I have seen a return on investment with MySQL, as it allows us to manage with fewer employees, focusing on business logic rather than database management.
Software Developer at 8 Gallery India
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
MariaDB offers responsive support, but users often rely on in-house teams and community resources due to strong documentation.
Sentiment score
6.8
MySQL users primarily rely on community resources for support, with official Oracle support noted as costly but effective.
Sentiment score
6.7
PostgreSQL's global community offers robust support and documentation, though more detailed guidance for non-specialists is needed.
They came and tuned our queries with one-to-one assistance.
Architect at LTIMindtree
Compared to MongoDB, there are some platform deficiencies, but the support team shouldn't bear that burden.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
I would rate the documentation and online support a 10 out of 10.
Student at a university with 10,001+ employees
We have no issues and usually receive timely responses.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
If PostgreSQL is hosted on cloud services such as Amazon RDS or Google Cloud SQL, the support is handled by the cloud provider, who provides automated backups, monitoring, infrastructure management, and technical support tickets.
Software developer at Student
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
MariaDB is scalable, reliable for various applications, but may require configuration and enhancements for large datasets and cloud integration.
Sentiment score
6.7
MySQL scalability depends on the specific environment, with challenges arising in larger applications and benefits from cloud solutions.
Sentiment score
7.5
PostgreSQL is a preferred scalable database solution, effectively handling large workloads and offering seamless cloud platform scalability.
Meeting scalability requirements through cloud computing is an expensive affair.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
MySQL's scalability is currently adequate, as we have increased operations from ten thousand to twelve thousand devices, and it is working fine for us.
Software Developer at 8 Gallery India
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
MariaDB is highly rated for stability, handling thousands without downtime, needing minimal maintenance but precise tuning for large instances.
Sentiment score
7.7
MySQL is generally stable and reliable but faces issues with large data operations and server overload, needing regular maintenance.
Sentiment score
8.0
PostgreSQL is stable and reliable when properly configured, outperforming alternatives, but requires best practices for optimal performance.
We haven't found issues with the stability of MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
We face certain integration issues, especially when we integrate the database with security solutions like IBM QRadar.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
From my experience, MySQL was pretty stable.
Student at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

MariaDB needs better integration, scalability, UI, stability, support, replication, compatibility, and cost-effective licensing to enhance enterprise functionality.
MySQL needs improved scalability, performance, integration, replication, user interface, security, monitoring tools, documentation, backup, and clustering.
PostgreSQL needs improvements in user-friendliness, scalability, memory management, replication, integration, JSON, GUI, parallelism, and data handling.
MariaDB is scalable and easy to scale.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Oracle is very advanced compared to MariaDB, and those advanced features are not available in MariaDB.
Architect at LTIMindtree
It could be more beneficial if MySQL can enhance its data masking functionality in the same way it has improved data encryption.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
Oracle could improve on scalability.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The load balancer, MySQL LB, which is used to connect to the application, lacks clear documentation.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
Query optimization improves slow queries by using proper indexes, avoiding unnecessary joins, and using EXPLAIN ANALYZE to inspect query plans.
Software developer at Student
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers praise MariaDB for its cost-effectiveness and flexibility, often choosing the free version to avoid licensing fees.
MySQL's free community edition is popular, while the paid Enterprise edition offers advanced features and lower costs than competitors.
PostgreSQL's open-source nature offers cost-effectiveness and high ROI, attractive for enterprises, with optional paid support available.
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
Oracle has different components, so if you need security, you have to procure a different license, but here everything is inbuilt and it's not costly.
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
 

Valuable Features

MariaDB is a reliable, scalable open-source database excelling in performance, compatibility, and support for diverse environments and analytics.
MySQL offers fast performance, open-source adaptability, reliability, scalability, and excels in web applications with strong community support.
PostgreSQL excels with features like robust indexing, scalability, geo-spatial support, and seamless integration, ensuring high performance and adaptability.
Encryption is available in MariaDB, so we are secure for transmitting data without concern about moving over networks.
Architect at LTIMindtree
Configuration, setup, and schema design are good features in MariaDB.
Co-Founder at Vsigma IT Labs Pvt Ltd
With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment.
Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan
The main feature we utilize in MySQL is the view, and I can say that it is the most valuable feature for our needs.
Software Developer at 8 Gallery India
It allows programming, writing stored procedures, creating views, constraints, and triggers easily.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
PostgreSQL improves reliability, performance, and scalability in production. Since it is ACID compliant, it ensures that database transactions are safe and consistent, preventing partial data updates, maintaining data integrity, and allowing multiple users to read or write data simultaneously using MVCC.
Software developer at Student
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 5.9%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MySQL is 10.3%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 14.4%, down from 18.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Open Source Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MySQL10.3%
PostgreSQL14.4%
MariaDB5.9%
Other69.4%
Open Source Databases
 

Featured Reviews

AB
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.
Prabir Kumar Kundu - PeerSpot reviewer
SR AVP–Presales Cloud & Platform Management Services at Path Infotech ltd
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.
Ece Ece - PeerSpot reviewer
Software developer at Student
Reliable transactions and rich features have powered real time collaboration and faster development
PostgreSQL fully supports ACID transactions, including atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability, which are some of the best features it offers in my experience. It also supports multiple index types, such as B-tree, Gin, Gist, and BRIN, and provides JSON and JSONB support, which is used to query semi-structured data. PostgreSQL uses Multi-Version Concurrency Control, which allows multiple users to read and write simultaneously. For extensibility, PostgreSQL allows extensions such as PostGIS and pg_trgm, which are truly useful. PostgreSQL improves reliability, performance, and scalability in production. Since it is ACID compliant, it ensures that database transactions are safe and consistent, preventing partial data updates, maintaining data integrity, and allowing multiple users to read or write data simultaneously using MVCC. Features such as foreign keys, constraints, and triggers impact data consistency by preventing invalid data. It supports read replicas, partitioning, and horizontal scaling for scalability. PostgreSQL has been very stable in my experience, handling concurrent requests reliably while maintaining data consistency with ACID transactions and accommodating concurrent users with strong data integrity, making it mature and widely used in production systems. Using PostgreSQL with Prisma allows faster development because schema migrations are automated and type-safe queries reduce the time I spend fixing database bugs, allowing me to focus more on building features while improving collaboration between developers due to a well-defined relational schema. Migration tools keep everyone's database schema synchronized, which allows multiple developers to work on backend features without conflicts. It has a rich feature set, supporting advanced features such as window functions, common table expressions (CTEs), and full-text search, with the flexibility of supporting both JSON and relational data, meaning it can behave as both a relational database and a document database. Extensibility allows PostgreSQL to add new capabilities while maintaining a strong ecosystem that integrates easily with modern backend stacks such as Node.js, Docker, and Prisma.
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise61
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise46
 

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?
MariaDB is in the pricey range, especially for huge databases handling terabytes of data. The cost depends on the vol...
What needs improvement with MariaDB?
Sometimes, complex queries that were supported in Oracle are not available in MariaDB. Advanced indexing is not avail...
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, ClickHouse and others in Open Source Databases. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.