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MySQL on Ubuntu vs Windows Server 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
3.7
Organizations experienced faster processing, better compliance, and cost savings with MySQL on Ubuntu, benefiting from efficient data management.
Sentiment score
5.4
While complex, Windows Server offers efficiency, reliability, and integration benefits, enhancing competitiveness and delivering strong ROI through cost savings.
The audit trail MySQL provided also meant zero untracked data losses in production.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with MySQL on Ubuntu because I can say that everything we can do here is save money and time, and even we are using a small number of team to handle it.
Senior QA Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have indeed seen a return on investment, particularly in time saved, as using MySQL on Ubuntu has proven to be 15 to 20% quicker than building a Postgres database.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Overall, the gains in productivity, security, and operational efficiency have provided a strong return on investment.
IT at a retailer with 11-50 employees
You get a standard platform that is very secure and stable.
Manager, Information & Cloud Systems at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
The return on investment is evident as having efficient resources to manage our infrastructure means we are less dependent on costly external support from Microsoft.
Executive Vice President Technology at InfoEdge India Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.6
MySQL on Ubuntu support is community-driven, utilizing forums and resources, with high user satisfaction and optional paid support.
Sentiment score
6.3
Windows Server support varies, with some experiencing prompt service while others rely on forums and documentation for help.
I used AWS support, and they are very quick to respond.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Whenever we can, we call the support and they fix the problem right away.
IT Administrator at a university with 51-200 employees
GitHub Copilot provides substantial information that helps when encountering errors.
Erp Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They resolved our problems within the defined SLA.
Relationship Manager at Cognizant
When I had an issue with Hyper-V, the support was excellent.
Systems technician. IT Office at LNU
The technical support from Microsoft is one of the best, though there can be challenges when it comes to priority zero or critical issues, where the queue can be longer.
Executive Vice President Technology at InfoEdge India Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
MySQL on Ubuntu efficiently scales medium data volumes with indexing, supports partitioning, clustering, and offers cost-effective open-source solutions.
Sentiment score
7.4
Windows Server is highly scalable, supports diverse user needs, but has resource demands and improvement potential in cloud environments.
When running on EC2 instances, for example, I can scale it from zero to 10,000 machines or even higher.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Clustering is useful because that helps with high availability and scalability.
CEO at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
MySQL on Ubuntu provides excellent reliability for scalability needs.
Senior software engineer at Simplifyvms
I've worked in companies with 20,000 to 100,000 users, and it scales beautifully without issues.
Manager, Information & Cloud Systems at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Active Directory and Group Policy make it easy to manage a growing number of users and systems from a centralized platform.
IT at a retailer with 11-50 employees
We use it everywhere, and it serves approximately two thousand users in our company as a backend service.
System Engineer at Alnajat charity
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
MySQL on Ubuntu offers stable uptime, reliable transaction support, and efficient process management, enhancing database operations and replication.
Sentiment score
7.5
Windows Server is highly stable and reliable, praised for seamless performance and improvements over previous versions, despite update concerns.
MySQL on Ubuntu uses the InnoDB engine, which has ACID properties integrated.
Senior software engineer at Simplifyvms
In real-world production use, it has been consistently proven across startups, mid-sized companies, and large organizations as well.
Senior QA Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
MySQL on Ubuntu is stable; both the MySQL component and the Ubuntu component are very stable, popular, and actively maintained.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It provides reliable performance for critical services such as Active Directory, file service, DNS, and user authentication.
IT at a retailer with 11-50 employees
The stability is better with the newer versions like 2019.
System Engineer at Alnajat charity
Very rarely do I see any blue screens or crashes.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
 

Room For Improvement

MySQL on Ubuntu faces challenges with JSON handling, limited scalability, complex security, and inadequate full-text search optimization.
Windows Server needs improved security, stability, cloud integration, simpler UI, better pricing, easier configuration, and broader compatibility support.
Scaling out is much harder to do. Even though a master-slave setup can help maintain a real-time backup or offload queries, achieving true horizontal scaling with numerous nodes at once can be tricky with MySQL on Ubuntu.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
A more self-tuning approach to index optimization and query execution would reduce that burden, particularly for teams that focus more on application logic than database administration.
AI Engineer at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
The only area where I would say I have seen potential for improvement is occasional slowness, but I cannot really attribute it to the product; it could also be the design of the database and the queries.
CEO at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The support team is getting worse in terms of expertise.
Manager, IT Security at Averis Sdn Bhd
We can work with both virtual and physical setups.
AVP at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The current diagnostic logs have not seen much improvement in the last ten years and aren't very helpful in addressing network-related issues specific to individual customer locations.
Team Manager at Waters Corporation
 

Setup Cost

MySQL on Ubuntu provides a cost-effective, efficient solution with low setup, maintenance, and operational costs for businesses of all sizes.
Enterprise users find Windows Server costly and complex to license, preferring simpler, more competitive pricing compared to Linux.
Since MySQL on Ubuntu is quite lean, it results in low operational costs, making it favorable from a pricing perspective.
Cloud Ops Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
We can reduce licensing cost saving with MySQL on Ubuntu because there is no cost.
Senior QA Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most expensive, I rate it ten out of ten.
Manager, IT Security at Averis Sdn Bhd
Microsoft offers product pricing with licenses per processor and CAL licenses for accessing.
Manager, Information & Cloud Systems at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost associated with Windows Server—considering pricing, licensing, and setup—is expensive, no doubt.
Executive Vice President Technology at InfoEdge India Ltd
 

Valuable Features

MySQL on Ubuntu offers reliable, scalable performance with strong security, resource efficiency, and community support for various applications.
Windows Server excels in integration, ease of use, security, scalability, and supports enterprise applications with features like Hyper-V and PowerShell.
It extends with volume very well. Most RDBMS don't scale very well, but this one scales very well and has been very reliable and highly available.
CEO at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
By putting it in MySQL on Ubuntu, even if the node went down, the database would come back up.
Chief Data Strategy and Governance Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Since our EC2 instance is deployed in a virtual private network with MySQL on Ubuntu installed, it is protected from unauthorized access and use, and we have also encrypted the data in MySQL.
Senior Data Engineer at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
I can manage the firewalls on the server easily, open or close ports to manage security traffic, and use encryption on the hard disk to keep data secure.
Systems technician. IT Office at LNU
If you need to include an email server, you can't ask about features individually since all features are necessary.
Manager, IT Security at Averis Sdn Bhd
We use it to connect to client systems and are happy with the performance and its features.
Relationship Manager at Cognizant
 

Categories and Ranking

MySQL on Ubuntu
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows Server
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of MySQL on Ubuntu is 0.3%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Server is 6.7%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Windows Server6.7%
MySQL on Ubuntu0.3%
Other93.0%
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Pranay Jain - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior software engineer at Simplifyvms
Reliable data platform has improved uptime and reduced infrastructure and licensing costs
MySQL on Ubuntu is an open-source relational database management system that stores data in tables and columns. It is free, open-source, and very stable for servers with easy installation for our production application. MySQL on Ubuntu demonstrates excellent stability and works very effectively with our Node.js backend. It is memory and disk efficient while providing regular security and bug updates. From an organizational perspective, MySQL on Ubuntu offers significant advantages. The cost is excellent since it is open-source with no licensing fees. The reliability it provides is outstanding with minimal crashes and exceptional stability. The improved application performance is notable with fast query searches and superior indexing properties. MySQL on Ubuntu saves considerable time and reduces operational costs through decreased database licensing fees as an open-source solution. We achieve a thirty to sixty percent reduction in infrastructure costs. System uptime is excellent in our stable Linux environment, reaching 99.9 percent uptime. Application performance improvements are substantial, delivering twenty-five to forty percent faster API responses when queries are optimized according to our needs.
reviewer2848875 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Centralized controls have improved security and simplify user management across our environment
One area where Windows Server could be improved is in simplifying administration and troubleshooting. While Windows Server is powerful, diagnosing issues related to group policy, DNS, replication, and authentication can sometimes be complex and time-consuming. I would prefer to see more intuitive management dashboards, better built-in monitoring and reporting tools, and integration with cloud service-enhanced automation features for routine administrative tasks. This would further reduce manual effort and improve efficiency. Overall, Windows Server is a reliable platform, but making management and troubleshooting more streamlined would help IT teams save time and improve productivity. Another area for improvement is documentation and update management. While Microsoft provides extensive documentation, finding the most relevant troubleshooting information can sometimes be challenging for complex issues involving Active Directory, DNS, or group policy. Updates are important for security, but some updates require careful testing and planning to avoid unexpected impacts on production environments. More detailed pre-update impact analysis and simplified rollback options would be beneficial. Overall, Windows Server is a robust platform, but improvements in documentation, troubleshooting guidance, update management, and administrative automation would further enhance the experience for IT professionals.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business79
Midsize Enterprise41
Large Enterprise89
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MySQL on Ubuntu?
Regarding pricing and licensing, I use the free tier, so I don't know much about pricing.
What needs improvement with MySQL on Ubuntu?
There are several areas where MySQL on Ubuntu can be improved. First, the initial configuration out of the box is not always optimal for production workloads. When MySQL on Ubuntu is first installe...
What is your primary use case for MySQL on Ubuntu?
MySQL on Ubuntu is used mainly for backend database management for our web applications. We handle a fair amount of transactional data, so we need something stable and fast. MySQL on Ubuntu fits th...
What needs improvement with Windows Server?
One area where Windows Server could be improved is in simplifying administration and troubleshooting. While Windows Server is powerful, diagnosing issues related to group policy, DNS, replication, ...
What is your primary use case for Windows Server?
Windows Server serves the primary use case of Active Directory administrator, user and groups management, file and print service, management service, maintenance, and IT infrastructure support.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows Server?
I think the licensing model of Microsoft products, including Windows Server, is not cheap. Microsoft has been guiding us for all the products toward a subscription model instead of a buying model. ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rakuten, Rackspace, Tyco
Find out what your peers are saying about MySQL on Ubuntu vs. Windows Server and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.