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MySQL vs SingleStore 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

MySQL
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
152
Ranking in other categories
Open Source Databases (1st), Relational Databases Tools (4th)
SingleStore
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (11th), Vector Databases (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Databases solutions, they serve different purposes. MySQL is designed for Open Source Databases and holds a mindshare of 9.0%, down 12.6% compared to last year.
SingleStore, on the other hand, focuses on Database as a Service (DBaaS), holds 3.0% mindshare, up 1.5% since last year.
Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
MySQL9.0%
PostgreSQL14.7%
Firebird SQL13.3%
Other63.0%
Open Source Databases
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SingleStore3.0%
Amazon RDS14.8%
MongoDB Atlas12.7%
Other69.5%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
VK
Solution Architect at Wipro Limited
An excellent choice for diverse data processing needs with exceptional in-memory capabilities, robust failover mechanisms, easy scalability and high performance
Scalability is its key strength. Adding servers for scalability is a straightforward process involving simply incorporating a few additional servers and recycling the cluster triggers automatic repartitioning and redistribution of data. For instance, if the initial database creation involved a hundred servers and later, four more servers are added, specific commands can be executed to increase the partitions to one hundred twenty. The data is then efficiently redistributed across the expanded partitions without the need for manual data movement, ensuring a seamless and efficient scalability process. In my current organization, approximately three projects involve the usage of SingleStore, with a team size ranging from ten to twenty individuals.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is a lightweight product that is not demanding on the resources, which is what I think gives it the edge."
"This specific version of this MySQL has been battle tested for a long time. Any issues are known issues and we pretty much don't have any problems when they're in production. So it's very stable."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is its ubiquity. MySQL is everywhere, so if I need to find a developer to do things to it that I don't know, it's very easy to find someone who has expertise in it."
"It is free, which is probably its most valuable feature. It is a pretty full-featured relational database. It really does everything we need it to do."
"MySQL is easy and convenient for me. I don't need to rely on anyone. I can write the code and extract the information. It is fast if you know how to use it. The solution is not expensive, and most of the developers know how to use it. It is easy to create tables. The solution is stable and has good performance. The connection with AWS gives regular updates, which is manual otherwise and a nightmare."
"MySQL is an open-source product and has good community support. If you encounter any problem, you can easily ask other members of the community to help. They help you a lot. On top of being free, MySQL is a cross-platform database, meaning it can work on both Windows and Linux. It is very good for us."
"The solution is easy to use."
"When comparing MySQL to other solutions it is easier to use and boots up faster. Additionally, when you want to query a lot of data, MySQL is better in performance."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to create pipelines, streamline and extract data from the pipelines."
"It's a distributed relational database, so it does not have a single server, it has multiple servers. Its architecture itself is fast because it has multiple nodes to distribute the workload and process large amounts of data."
"The product can automatically reinstall and reconfigure in case of a shutdown."
"The paramount advantage is the exceptional speed."
"The ability to store data in memory is a standout feature, enhanced by robust failover mechanisms."
"MemSQL supports the MySQL protocol, and many functions are similar, so the learning curve is very short."
 

Cons

"The tool needs to improve table visualization."
"The documentation is pretty weak and should be improved."
"I am looking for the Temporal SQL feature, which basically means that there is complete history for each table. This feature is currently available in MariaDB. PostgreSQL has something called a foreign-data wrapper, which is another way to access external data from inside. MySQL could have a similar feature."
"The only service which could be improved is its usability. The entire user experience needs to be revamped to meet the 2018 design standards."
"The workbench could be improved. In particular, error messages can be improved, which are horrific and completely unhelpful. I'd like to see improved parsing of errors. When you write SQL and it crashes, it usually is something completely irrelevant and not helpful. I've started to use GPT 3.5 for finding out how to do things. I got to do something a bit different, and that I found to be very useful. If there was some way to tie it into one of the new AI tools, that would probably be a good idea."
"Its scalability can be better. It is probably not as scalable as Oracle. I had some issues with connectors. I used it from a C++ program, and it required some work to make it run, but finally, it worked."
"The solution could improve the monitoring. At the present time, you need to use third-party monitoring solutions."
"We require more ease of use, scalability, and high availability. These are some of the critical features that we use and look for in a product. It should be easier to manage clusters. Scalability is very important for us because our projects and concurrency requirements are quite big. We also require high availability of the server, application, and other things. It should also have more performance-based features or enhancements from the performance point of view. When we divide a database, it should be able to handle the queries very fast."
"We don't get good discounts in Pakistan."
"It is not the optimal choice for direct data collection through queries, and it's more suited for aggregation tasks."
"There should be more pipelines available because I think that if MemSQL can connect to other services, that would be great."
"Having the ability to migrate servers using a single command would be extremely beneficial."
"For new customers, it's very tough to start. Their documentation isn't organized, and there's no online training available. SingleStore is working on it, but that's a major drawback."
"Poor key distribution can significantly impact performance, requiring a backward approach in design rather than adding tables incrementally."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​Enterprise editions and support are definitely needed for the heavy users who need direct support. ​"
"It is open source. We prefer it for POCs because it saves the license cost."
"Microsoft licensing for SQL Server is probably ten times more expensive. I used to work for the government, and I remember when we were looking into upgrading to the enterprise version of SQL Server 2019, the licensing was going to cost 350,000. To get the equivalent in the cloud, it was going to be about four grand to get the same processing power and everything else. With MySQL, it was going to be about 300 for the same licensing. Cost-wise, for sure, there is a huge difference. Would you prefer to pay 300 a month or 3,000 to have the same amount of data resources? You might lose a few options that you need, but it isn't worth the price difference."
"My company uses MySQL's corporate licenses."
"It's an open-source database management system that can be used free of charge."
"The price of the solution is good because we have a good partner."
"The tool is open source."
"MySQL is a cheap solution."
"Using it for analytical purposes can be cost-effective in the long run, especially in terms of infrastructure."
"They have two main options: cloud installation and bare-metal installation, each with different pricing models."
"SingleStore is a bit expensive."
"The product's licensing is not expensive. It is comparable."
"I would advise users to try the free 128GB version."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business74
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise62
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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 you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...
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 versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...
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 it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...
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