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MariaDB vs SQL Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (4th)
SQL Server
Ranking in Relational Databases Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
270
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Relational Databases Tools category, the mindshare of MariaDB is 5.9%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQL Server is 15.8%, down from 22.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Relational Databases Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SQL Server15.8%
MariaDB5.9%
Other78.3%
Relational Databases Tools
 

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.
Gus Mtz - PeerSpot reviewer
Availability and financial reporting thrive with robust integration tools
The best features of SQL Server are availability and stability. We never have concerns about the database. The ability of SQL Server to integrate with other Microsoft services, such as Azure for supporting business intelligence or data analytics, is primarily through Power BI for analytics tools. We use Power BI, but not in the cloud. We have interfaces with other databases. We extensively use the ETL tools of SQL Server for integrating with other databases or text files. The ETL tools are excellent for making jobs that run daily or hourly. For disaster recovery features supporting mission-critical applications in our organization, we have implemented the high availability feature of SQL Server. The always-on feature provides high availability in SQL Server. We use this tool daily for our risk management application.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the great features of MariaDB is its scalability. It's easy to handle even with large databases."
"From a customer perspective, MariaDB is a good choice for cluster configuration. It's also easy to operate and cheap."
"It is a stable solution."
"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."
"MariaDB is easy to install and is stable and scalable."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is a relational database, which is fairly reliable...It is a stable solution."
"The solution runs very quickly. It's not slow at all."
"We have many users, between 50 and 100 using the SQL Server product."
"The solution is easy to set up."
"I've been using SQL Server for 20 years, and there is nothing that it can't do. It is awesome."
"SQL Server is very scalable because we use it across a couple of different types of applications, such as micro-infrastructure setup and server farm."
"It is one of the most stable relational databases out there."
"We've found it to basically be pretty problem-free."
"SQL Server is easy to manage because all our DevOps team are familiar with it and simple to access because it is cloud-based."
"It is a pretty good solution. The on-premise version 2019 has many features, and they had introduced a really good and stable environment in version 2019. It has very good integration with big data clusters and other things. It covers pretty much everything that you can do with a SQL server. You can use any language to connect to it, which is not there in other solutions. They have also introduced Python, and it also has ArcScale. PaaS is a modern, scalable database. You can use Power Automate and a lot of features in this. It is very easy, and you don't have to worry about versions and upgrades. Microsoft keeps on adding new features to this solution. Microsoft is improving its connectivity on an ongoing basis. It connects well with Office 365. If you see something not working, in a couple of weeks, it is going to work because there is a team working on it. You can vote for the things that are missing, and Microsoft can work on them depending on the product that they're launching."
 

Cons

"It would be good if they can maybe improve the mass import in the database. Currently, for importing a large number of data, we create a CSV file and upload all the things in the system. The system does not activate them by default. We have to do this manually. This may be due to the version we are using, but this is something we would like to see improved."
"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."
"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."
"The GUI could be improved a bit. The user interface needs to be improved."
"We'd like more data intelligence."
"The features available are very basic."
"I’m not sure if it can scale."
"The PL/SQL performance is slow if you have big batch jobs running overnight."
"The installation process should be simplified."
"Right now we don't get much technical support from Microsoft"
"Our biggest problem with SQL Server is latency. The communication between the cloud and the on-premises environment is slow. The data needs to be encrypted for security, and you have to exchange data certificates between environments. You can adjust the configuration to improve performance, but it would be nice if SQL Server had some templates to resolve problems."
"With so much data, things can get slow, which is why I would like to be able to understand how to better optimize queries."
"SQL Server database capacities could be further increased to be more accessible for larger data requirements."
"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."
"The licensing costs are very high."
"Price could be cheaper, and access to reporting tools should be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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's an open-source solution."
"MariaDB is open-source and self-hosted."
"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."
"There is a monthly subscription to use MariaDB."
"The product is not expensive."
"It is free of charge."
"I used the open-source version, which is available free of charge."
"There is a license required to use the solution and I am satisfied."
"SQL Server is a cost-effective solution for a small database."
"There is no licensing cost for SQL Server."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Pricing for this product is very reasonable."
"This solution is available at a much lower price point than Oracle."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"I know the SQL Server pricing model, I believe, is based on CPU cores that your database server has, but I don't know what the solution's prices are though."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

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 Business120
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise110
 

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 prefer the Community Edition because it's free.
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 bit cheaper.
Would you say the price of SQL Server is high compared to that of similar products?
SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the price...
Has using SQL Server helped your organization in any way?
SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a h...
Which authentication mode is best for SQL Server?
My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own pur...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Wikipedia, Tencent, Verizon, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica, Huatai Securities
Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Find out what your peers are saying about MariaDB vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
866,391 professionals have used our research since 2012.