We performed a comparison between MariaDB and SQL Server based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: MariaDB is the winner when it comes to ease of use, initial setup and price. SQL Server comes out on top when it comes to performance, scalability, and support.
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"The solution is very stable. It was originally built under MySQL. It has a similar level of stability."
"Great monitoring and performance stability."
"A valuable feature is that we can use it for quite a few things, all the things you'd expect from a server—along the lines of Linux's Lightweight Directory."
"MariaDB performs well as the backend database for our cloud-based telephony solution."
"There is the need for a robust IDE for MongoDB. The existing PHP admin console doesn't meet the client's requirements effectively."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."
"MariaDB is a fast and flexible tool."
"It is secure, and it is fast. For our present database size, we are using the Always-On feature on SQL Server so that our transactions are replicated among three servers. If one server goes down, we can find the data from other servers. We have benefited from this feature."
"The performance of SQL Server is perfect."
"SQL Server is a highly stable solution."
"The product’s most valuable features are flexibility and scalability."
"The documentation and manuals are very good."
"The solution can be used for a host of applications."
"SQL Server is similar to other Microsoft products, such as BI, they are easy to use. You do not need to have an expensive BD to maintain them. All the useful intuitive features you find in Microsoft solutions you will find in SQL Server."
"What I like most is the management, as it is very easy compared with other products."
"In the next release, I would like to see improvements in the scalability and redundancy features."
"Data continuity could be improved."
"We'd like more data intelligence."
"MariaDB could improve by adding support for non-relational structures and new data types."
"With respect to clustering and the master-slave configuration, sometimes the slave goes out of synch."
"The customer service and support are okay. But the response time is slow. Moreover, the material is not available freely."
"The license should be cheaper and closer to that offered by MySQL, Oracle and other products."
"The solution should do some fine-tuning on maybe the transaction per second so that users can get more than they can on the Microsoft SQL Server."
"The installation process should be simplified."
"The only item which I can list is application failure during Integration Services debugging, when restarting a process flow. In a number of instances the solutions fails. I have not given this much thought and simply stop and start the debugging service rather than restarting."
"Analysis services have a lot of room for improvement. Basically, manageability on the available tools. They should have improved them already. They are not very efficient. My main headache is with the analysis service, and it would be really good if Microsoft developed some additional tools that are more user-friendly to manage the analysis. This is both from the perspective of management, users' roles, and performance analysis. My main wish for SQL Server would be that management tools for analysis services grow and mature a bit."
"I have experience working with SQL Server 2016 and older versions, including handling JSON data. Initially, I found the JSON capabilities to be less helpful, but over time, they have greatly improved. SQL Server now offers extensive capabilities for working with various forms of data, particularly when communicating with text, such as in JSON format. I particularly prefer working with these features on Azure, as it provides numerous possibilities, especially in the field of business intelligence (BI). Additionally, the serverless platform offered by Azure is highly beneficial and makes tasks easier to manage."
"Their support could be better. There should be more visibility on the progress of the ticket, and their last line of support should be more knowledgeable. Other than that, we have nothing to complain about."
"There are a lot of improvements in the cloud space about which we open a case with Microsoft every now and then. These improvements are not in terms of features or functionality. They are more related to their own compatibility or connectivity on which they keep on working to improve the product."
"From a DB administrator perspective, I would like to see more space requirements and space capacity history, so that we are able to see which DBs are growing, and by how much per day or week."
"The solution could be better integrated with the SQL Server Studio tool."
MariaDB is ranked 5th in Relational Databases Tools with 51 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 260 reviews. MariaDB is rated 8.2, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of MariaDB writes "Simultaneously use active server capabilities but lacks the maturity ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "Easy to use and provides good speed and data recovery". MariaDB is most compared with Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, Firebird SQL, MySQL and Percona Server, whereas SQL Server is most compared with SAP HANA, Oracle Database, LocalDB, IBM Db2 Database and Teradata. See our MariaDB vs. SQL Server report.
See our list of best Relational Databases Tools vendors.
We monitor all Relational Databases Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
