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MySQL pros and cons

Vendor: Oracle

4.1 out of 5

152 reviews
91% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

MySQL offers robust community support and valuable features such as clustering and replication, appealing to businesses seeking cost-effective and versatile solutions. Its ease of installation, cross-platform compatibility, and scalability cater to diverse expertise levels. However, MySQL faces scalability challenges with large projects, requiring improvement in performance monitoring, integration capabilities, and security features. Enhancements are needed in supporting big data environments and maintaining server responsiveness during peak situations.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

MySQL provides extensive community support due to its large user base, allowing users to resolve issues by accessing a wealth of shared knowledge.

It supports advanced enterprise-grade features like clustering, master-slave replication, and sharding, enhancing its versatility for business use.

MySQL is valued for its free usage, enabling cost-effective implementation while offering comprehensive functionality comparable to other databases.

It is exceptionally easy to install, set up, use, and scale, making it accessible for businesses and developers with varying levels of expertise.

MySQL's cross-platform compatibility and ability to automate tasks are highly beneficial, supporting a wide range of environments and use cases efficiently.

CONS

MySQL has limitations in scalability, especially when used with large solutions or projects with high concurrency.

Performance monitoring and diagnostic features in MySQL need improvements to enhance user experience.

MySQL's support for large operations and peak situations can be problematic, requiring work to maintain server responsiveness.

Integration with external systems and databases is an area where MySQL needs improvement, including better support for big data environments.

Security features in MySQL require enhancement to meet industry standards, including native encryption and data masking.

MySQL Pros review quotes

Works at Micro Focus

Dec 26, 2017

I use MySQL for employee service in an OLTP database.

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Head of Business Technology at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 2, 2018

A lot of the software components have been trialed and tested for often more than 10 years.

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AM

Muhammad Nurazhan Moin

Senior Web Manager at a university with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 3, 2018

Support for enterprise-grade features like clustering, master-slave replication, even Sharding (to some extent) which is an advanced feature.

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Director at RC Ghosh Group of Companies

Jan 10, 2018

The most valuable feature of MySQL is the informative error outputs of command line interface.

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MU

Co-Founder at Mero Reading Room

Oct 7, 2018

It creates a unified view of the entire architecture and performance factor, helping to manage the network more easily.

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jmitchell@natbankmw.com at NBM

Feb 10, 2020

The solution is very simple. It's easy to use. That's the most important feature.

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Infrastructure Platform Engineer at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees

Feb 13, 2020

The solution is free to use, which is its most valuable aspect.

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CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Aug 5, 2020

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.

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reviewer1301145

CEO at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Mar 19, 2020

Apart from the features that are in the enterprise part, we find the database to be valuable. The connectors and the backup features are valuable as well. We use the basic database. We don't really use the extra features. Our clients like the security features in the database.

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reviewer1139685

Business Intelligence Manager at a translation and localization position with 501-1,000 employees

Mar 23, 2020

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. I would have worked with our IT team in terms of the initial setup.

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MySQL Cons review quotes

Works at Micro Focus

Dec 26, 2017

When working with a cluster wide, I have to use the MySQL cluster version.

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Head of Business Technology at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 2, 2018

It does not stand out regarding scalability. When the company size increases, the user base having actual experience with (very) large MySQL solutions is reduced.

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AM

Muhammad Nurazhan Moin

Senior Web Manager at a university with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 3, 2018

It would be helpful if there were a graphical user interface to administer, configure, and tune it.

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Free Report: MySQL Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Director at RC Ghosh Group of Companies

Jan 10, 2018

MySQL needs improvements on its diagnostic features.

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MU

Co-Founder at Mero Reading Room

Oct 7, 2018

The only service which could be improved is its usability. The entire user experience needs to be revamped to meet the 2018 design standards.

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jmitchell@natbankmw.com at NBM

Feb 10, 2020

The replication needs improvement. It's becoming a native cloud product like Oracle DB or Cockroach DB.

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Infrastructure Platform Engineer at a cloud solution provider with 51-200 employees

Feb 13, 2020

From a user perspective, the initial setup could be simplified a bit.

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CTO at Translucent Computing Inc

Aug 5, 2020

In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release, one thing that's always missing is dash boarding. There's no real BI tool for MySQL, like there is in Yellowfin and all the different tools that you get. They all have MySQL connectors, but there's no specific BI tool for MySQL. These open source projects have sprung up, but they're more general purpose.

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reviewer1301145

CEO at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Mar 19, 2020

Oracle should start putting in some of the enterprise features in the standard feature. There are some key features that should be part of the standard.

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reviewer1139685

Business Intelligence Manager at a translation and localization position with 501-1,000 employees

Mar 23, 2020

I find the Microsoft solution a bit better. But mostly in terms of the UI layout, I would say. I just find it a little bit more efficient.

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Product Categories

Product Categories

Open Source Databases

Relational Databases Tools

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Teradata vs MySQL

SQL Server vs MySQL

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Oracle Database vs MySQL

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

SAP HANA vs MySQL

MariaDB vs MySQL

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs MySQL

ClickHouse vs MySQL

OpenSearch vs MySQL

Milvus vs MySQL

Qdrant vs MySQL

IBM Db2 Database vs MySQL

InfluxDB vs MySQL

See all alternatives

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