MariaDB vs PlanetScale comparison

MariaDB and PlanetScale are both solutions in the Relational Databases Tools category. MariaDB is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.4, while PlanetScale is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.4. MariaDB holds a 3.4% mindshare in SQL, compared to PlanetScale’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of MariaDB users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of PlanetScale users who would recommend it.

MariaDB

Read 62 MariaDB reviews

7,193 Views
4,028 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

PlanetScale

Read 8 PlanetScale reviews

1,088 Views
1,077 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

MariaDB

PlanetScale

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

MariaDB and PlanetScale compete in the database market. MariaDB has an edge in traditional support and pricing, while PlanetScale offers cutting-edge features for advanced functionality.

Features: MariaDB is recognized for robust security, broad SQL database compatibility, and dynamic scaling. PlanetScale focuses on distributed relational database architecture, real-time scalability, and advanced cloud-based functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: MariaDB provides flexibility for self-hosted environments with comprehensive support, favorable for businesses with in-house IT teams. PlanetScale offers a seamless cloud-based deployment process, excellent documentation, and customer support, suitable for cloud-native users.

Pricing and ROI: MariaDB offers competitive pricing with various packages that include enterprise support, making it cost-effective for traditional RDBMS features. PlanetScale's pay-as-you-grow model might seem higher initially but offers attractive ROI for growth-focused businesses with scalable needs.

To learn more, read our detailed MariaDB vs. PlanetScale Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. PlanetScale

August 2026

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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

MariaDB

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (9th)

PlanetScale

Ranking in Relational Databases Tools

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 3.4%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PlanetScale is 1.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Relational Databases Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
MariaDB	3.4%
PlanetScale	1.1%
Other	95.5%

Relational Databases Tools

Featured Reviews

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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Shrikant S

Consultant at RanceLab

Query insights have cut infrastructure costs and let full‑stack teams manage databases independently

In my opinion, the best features PlanetScale offers are recommendations and statistics on queries. Insights on queries have helped me and my teams significantly. For example, once while I was a CTO at Commutech, I received insights from a query that showed one specific query which checked permissions was selecting all permissions for a user instead of selecting a specific row. This increased the load on the database. Receiving that one insight helped me rewrite that query to only select the permission that needed to be checked, which made scaling possible. Such insights that pinpoint exact problems help in resolving scaling issues. PlanetScale positively impacts my organization by greatly improving productivity and saving significant costs. Typically, if I were to manage my own database, I would need someone to manage that infrastructure, keep updating things, and maintain backups. PlanetScale handles all of that, including backups. We can restore to a point in time using PlanetScale. All these things would normally require a specially skilled person to manage a database. Instead of that, we can have the full-stack developer developing the product manage the database themselves instead of hiring a specialized person just for management. Rather than spending on a DevOps person, we can spend that budget on a developer and build more features instead of spending money on just maintaining infrastructure.

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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

"There are no problems with MariaDB and it works fine."

"MariaDB has positively impacted our organization in terms of reliability; it has been incredibly stable, and from an operational standpoint, it has drastically improved our deployment workflows since we can run the exact same MariaDB community version locally in Docker containers as we do on our staging and production servers."

"The solution's features have effectively met our operational requirements as a standard SQL database."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the query speed it offers."

"The integration with other products is seamless."

"The speed and functionality are the most valuable features."

"It is a stable solution."

"MariaDB can solve things better than MySQL, and MariaDB has better performance than MySQL."

More MariaDB pros

"One feature I appreciate about PlanetScale is its ability to handle migrations and commands without the need to run them manually in the database."

"The solution is beginner-friendly. Like any new platform, it can be a bit confusing at first. But after spending about an hour with it, you can get a clear idea of what everything is for. It's not very confusing; I think they've improved it recently."

"I like the solution's developer experience. When you deploy changes to the database in the portal, you can use different deployment strategies and see how things work. You can put changes into different branches, like deployment and staging. This is built into the product, allowing you to navigate changes through different branches."

"In my opinion, one of the best features PlanetScale offers is the ability to lock all changes to the database, so no particular developer can do changes that could break things for others."

"The branching feature is also good for developer experience."

"I recommend using PlanetScale as it provides ease of access and control over database changes using commands from the local terminal."

"PlanetScale positively impacts my organization by greatly improving productivity and saving significant costs."

"The database is accessible 24/7, ensuring my project runs smoothly without interruptions."

More PlanetScale pros

Cons

"It should work across all fields like SQLite, as it is the basis of any application, even apps for phones and the like."

"It would be good if they can maybe improve the mass import in the database."

"The connect engine is still a bit clunky, but it’s useful and fairly versatile."

"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server."

"The dashboard and pricing need improvement."

"I would like to see more compatibility going forward. This would help if there is a need to change databases."

"The solution is not scalable."

"The ability to create stored procedures in MariaDB is an area where the tool lacks a bit."

More MariaDB cons

"I used PlanetScale for hobby projects, so my perspective differs from someone using it commercially. Unfortunately, they've removed the free tier in recent months and pivoted to a business-to-business model. This is sad for hobby developers like me because it's a great product, but I understand they have costs to cover."

"I would like PlanetScale to have a feature where the database can be accessed in the cloud with a link, allowing for a more user-friendly interface compared to the terminal."

"Regarding needed improvements, I wish PlanetScale would have a free tier so that startups could try it and then opt in for a paid feature."

"I am not sure, but I think recently, the tool removed the free version."

"We encountered some initial issues during the product deployment, which required me to search for solutions on forums."

"When I tried to integrate the solution with Firebase for authentication, I faced some interruptions. Also, when using it with Next.js and NextAuth.js for Google and social logins, I had some troubles."

"Recently we started noticing that because of the distance between the database and the server and our particular field, there may be some lagging and that may not be acceptable."

"The main thing I didn't like about PlanetScale was that we couldn't run analytical queries on it."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"MariaDB is available for free."

"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."

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

"It is an open-source solution."

"The licensing cost is approximately $4000.00 per year and the licensing is based on the software and the number of posts that you make."

"The price could be less expensive."

"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."

More MariaDB pricing and cost advice

"I am currently using the product's free version, which has been sufficient for my portfolio project."

"The solution is expensive for beginners. That's why I wasn't motivated to use it more. But they were already providing many features for free for beginners, which was great."

"Last time, when I wanted to use the tool in a project, I could see it was only paid, so I didn't use the service."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

University

Computer Software Company

33%

Construction Company

20%

Comms Service Provider

16%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	28
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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 ...

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What needs improvement with MariaDB?

The key area where MariaDB could be improved is its native GUI tooling; while the command-line interface works perfectly fine, the built-in visual tools for administration, management, and query de...

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What is your primary use case for MariaDB?

My main use case for MariaDB was web applications, and I have been using MariaDB for just about a year now as I was in the development team. A specific web application where I used MariaDB is a hea...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PlanetScale?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that pricing is good enough to be used at enterprise level. It is not cheap, but it is appropriately priced. I do not find it costly at all.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PlanetScale?

Regarding how PlanetScale could be improved, especially considering my experience so far, if it were possible to handle the lagging problem, I suppose it is something that cannot really be changed ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for PlanetScale?

My main use case for PlanetScale is that currently, in the company, we are considering changing our current local database to PlanetScale for stability and other benefits, but it has not been deplo...

See all answers

Comparisons

MySQL vs MariaDB

Compared 13% of the time

PostgreSQL vs MariaDB

Compared 11% of the time

Firebird SQL vs MariaDB

Compared 9% of the time

SQL Server vs MariaDB

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Database vs MariaDB

Compared 5% of the time

More MariaDB Competitors

Amazon Aurora Serverless vs PlanetScale

Compared 43% of the time

Citus Data vs PlanetScale

Compared 19% of the time

Google Cloud SQL vs PlanetScale

Compared 8% of the time

SQL Server vs PlanetScale

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon Aurora vs PlanetScale

Compared 5% of the time

More PlanetScale Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB

August 2026

Download MariaDB product report

Buyer's Guide

PlanetScale

August 2026

Download PlanetScale product report

Overview

MariaDB is a robust database solution known for its scalability, speed, and user-friendliness. It supports seamless integration and provides reliable performance in handling large datasets, offering strong community backing alongside its open-source nature.

MariaDB is renowned for efficiently managing large databases and complex relationships while being stable and easy to integrate. With advanced features like replication, encryption, and SQL compatibility, it offers fast query processing. Its straightforward installation and management processes facilitate seamless enterprise integrations and ensure high performance in real-time data scenarios. However, enhancements in enterprise integration, clustering, and scalability are necessary. Addressing challenges with complex queries, security, and user experience would be advantageous, alongside offering robust technical support and a competitive pricing model.

What are the key features of MariaDB?

Scalability: Handles large databases and complex relationships effectively.
User-Friendliness: Offers easy integration and management.
Speed: Provides fast query processing using multi-core processing efficiently.
Advanced Features: Includes replication, encryption, and SQL compatibility.
Open-Source: Encourages strong community support and continuous improvement.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating MariaDB?

Performance: High performance in real-time data processing.
Integration: Seamless integration with enterprise systems and SaaS applications.
Community Support: Strong open-source community for troubleshooting and development.
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive pricing compared to proprietary databases.
Compatibility: MySQL compatibility for easier transitions and migrations.

MariaDB is extensively utilized in backend support for cloud telephony platforms, ERP systems, and financial software, being crucial for web application development and data storage. Entities favor its compatibility with MySQL for complex join queries and its support for structured data management in SaaS applications.

MariaDB

PlanetScale offers seamless database management for Postgres and MySQL with features tailored for modern development environments, enabling enhanced project operations through efficient integration and ease of use.

PlanetScale is designed to support modern developer workflows through features like PgBouncer connection pooling and constant availability, making it ideal for serverless applications. Its integration with tools like Cloudflare and DrizzleORM enhances the developer experience, allowing fast setup and effortless database interactions.

What are the most important features of PlanetScale?

PgBouncer connection pooling: Optimizes database connections for serverless environments.
Constant availability: Ensures uninterrupted operations and workflow efficiency.
Developer-friendly: Integrates seamlessly with Cloudflare hyperdrive and DrizzleORM for enhanced project management.
Quick setup: Simplifies setup processes in corporate environments, allowing immediate use.
Local NVMe storage: PlanetScale Metal lets your database run with locally attached NVMe storage, giving you faster reads and writes.
Database branching: Teams can set up independent branches for CICD tests and staging environments, simplifying the development process.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating PlanetScale?

Uninterrupted project operations: Facilitates constant availability for high-performance applications.
Enhanced developer experience: Offers intuitive integrations and project management capabilities.
Ease of integration: Works well with popular tools like Cloudflare hyperdrive and DrizzleORM for efficient workflows.

PlanetScale finds significant use in hosting databases for enterprise companies, other infrastructure providers, chat applications, and hobby projects. Its compatibility with DrizzleORM facilitates seamless MySQL and Postgres database management online. Users leverage its capabilities for OLTP workloads and manage data environments effectively.

PlanetScale

Sample Customers

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

Block, Intercom, Convex, MyFitnessPal

Buyer's Guide

MariaDB vs. PlanetScale

August 2026

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