The multiple engine replication is the most valuable feature. This neuralgic process for billing needs high availability and that is where we need this robust, but simple solution. If one server fails, we switch to the other transparently.
SENIOR DEVELOPER at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
During the billing process, if one server fails then we switch to the other transparently.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It facilitated fast processing of the millions of records for billing of the the call detail records in the Telecom company. The company needed to recover calls, in addition to immediately detecting frauds in the telephone calls so as to block the line and generate large losses. With the help of stored procedures, functions and triggers, we created an engine to recover most of the calls with a single transaction. Thanks to MySQL.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues.
Buyer's Guide
MySQL
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate the technical support as a five out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using PostgreSQL. The reason why we switched to this solution was that of the easy administration.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was easy.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Production Support Engineer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Simple to use with excellent performance
What is most valuable?
MySQL is very flexible, has excellent performance, and it's simple to use.
How has it helped my organization?
Once we needed to use a database to distribute a product for my company and we chose MySQL, it was easy to use and it is very small, but powerful.
What needs improvement?
Maybe the way to build clusters needs to be improved. They could also improve the installation process.
For how long have I used the solution?
I been using MySQL for nearly seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were some scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would give the technical support an eight out of 10 rating.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did upgrade the version with improvements to the product.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was complex in the cluster installation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
MySQL is one of the best database options. The Community version is great.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We used Oracle and SQL Server, but their prices and licensing were so expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Using MySQL could be an excellent option for you.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
MySQL
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,371 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Software Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Improved our internal procedures by providing high performance, ease of use and cost savings
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are:
- MySQL Database Servers
- MySQL Connectors
- MySQL Workbench.
How has it helped my organization?
MySQL has improved our internal procedures by providing high performance, ease of use, and cost savings.
What needs improvement?
Security in the data files needs manipulation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues.
How is customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was really straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
According to the specific business and technical requirements, you can choose your MySQL Edition that you wish by consulting the official site.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at the Microsoft SQL Server.
What other advice do I have?
It can benefit any business by a straightforward way of implementing and using it.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Online backup can be implemented by activating a temporary storage and introducing Percona innobackupex
What is most valuable?
This product is valuable because it is used in production environments. Online backup can be implemented by activating a temporary storage similar to the Oracle's flash recovery area and introducing Percona innobackupex. This is possible from version 5.6.
How has it helped my organization?
It permits services such as data warehouse and retail.
What needs improvement?
The online backup needs to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We did encounter stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Not applicable because we don't purchase commercial support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched due to cost saving reasons.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was of medium-level complexity due to memory parameters.
What other advice do I have?
Compared to PostgreSQL, it has an online backup feature only with the extension of Percona innobackupex.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Academic application support at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Owing to its speed and stability, we use it as the data store for most of our web applications
What is most valuable?
Speed and stability of the MySQL DB are the most valuable features since we use it as the data store for most of our web applications.
How has it helped my organization?
Before we used MySQL, we used to access the data used for the dynamic web pages directly from our enterprise data stores and that was a massive performance bottleneck. With MySQL, the data can be accessed much faster. This allowed us to create more complicated web systems, such as the corporate message system and a credit card paying system.
What needs improvement?
From where we are, most of the improvements are being handled. With the new improvements that were introduced in MySQL 5.7 and with the testing that we have done to this point, we are looking at updating our web development environment to make better use of the new features.
With the push from MySQL to implement database engines which can provide the same functionality as PostgreSQL and MongoDB, we are looking at application development that leverages this functionality on our current MySQL production database. Seeing that MySQL can provide noSQL document storage the same way MongoDB can and still have a SQL data source next to it creates the possibility of using the best features of both to achieve the desired application result without changing our current infrastructure drastically.
It must be noted that we are still in the process of experimentation to find the best ways of utilizing these data technologies in our current enterprise applications, but not having to move to other database providers to have the functionality means we can experiment without the need to change our base processes. So when I say that the improvements are being handled the MySQL development team have given us access to functionality which we started to look at about two years ago.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for around seven years with upgrades.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did experience a few scalability issues, but we decided to rather go for a bigger server than creating a cluster and that worked out very well.
How is customer service and technical support?
The technical support is very good
How was the initial setup?
The setup was very straightforward since the out-of-the-box MySQL's performance is already very good.
We had to do some tweaking over time, but nothing too major.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The enterprise version has a number of extra components that makes it worth the price, but if all you want is a stable DB for web applications, then stick to the open version.
We use enterprise because we use the PAM connector and the DB firewall, if you are looking at the pricing for implementing a separate data firewall, it is more than what you will pay for this solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There were not a lot of other options open to us.
What other advice do I have?
Ensure you know what you want to use it for and make sure it is the right fit for the job.
Do not allow developers to tell you what your DB should look like, as that is the best way to performance problems. Use the MySQL Workbench and MySQL Monitor.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Intern at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is used for many projects and easy to access. Needs to get more solid for my company to rely on it.
What is most valuable?
It is Open Source and easy to access.
How has it helped my organization?
My company does not use MySQL. However, it is often used at universities and is suitable for beginners. It is used for many projects.
What needs improvement?
From the perspective of the company, you can count on reliable Microsoft SQL or Oracle. If MySQL gets solid, it will be a good solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for around two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
There does not seem to be any technical support for MySQL.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used MS SQL and Oracle. However, now I have no money and am using MySQL.
How was the initial setup?
Encoding problems were always complicated, but nothing else.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you have money, it would be better to use Oracle.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I thought about other Open Sources, but I chose MySQL, which I have already used.
What other advice do I have?
MySQL is a good choice for startups and beginners.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
DevOps SRE at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
ACID attributes are the most valuable feature. It does not understand the clustered model.
What is most valuable?
ACID attributes are the most valuable feature, as data reliability is a top concern.
How has it helped my organization?
The backend of the production traffic happens at this level.
What needs improvement?
The dynamic scalability, clustering, dynamic replicas safeguard against failures, ease of setup and use all need to be improved.
- MySQL was originally meant for a single server; now with the 5.7 version, they have introduced the multi-master model but it is on the user to ensure that there is no conflict of data. Also, to add/remove a server from the cluster requires downtime and MySQL won't scale load on its own as it has scaled up/down (the load distribution has to be done on a separate layer).
- MySQL does not understand the clustered model, it is not aware of others in the cluster and won't act as a player in the cluster.
- Data corruption or two different updates to the same record are not sorted in the replicas and needs manual intervention.
- The cluster setup is complex and so is its maintenance.
- It is not equipped to take advantage of the Cloud (AWS, Azure etc) and their pricing models (go as you use).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have seen the corruption of data in replication when used with filters and also, with the growing data response time dwindles.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
A lot of manual effort is needed to scale the solution; a lot of room for improvement is there.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was of mid-level complexity.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is a GPL license, only the support is priced but as there is a good community so buying support is optional.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't involved as this predates me at the organization, but today if this re-happens MySQL won't be the best choice.
What other advice do I have?
Do your research and make sure for your use case that MySQL is the best choice, before making any commitments.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Telecommunications Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Offers SQL Merge, Replication, and Views. I would like to see additional side management tools and IDEs.
What is most valuable?
- SQL Merge
- Replication
- Views
- Stored Procedures
- Triggers
- Cursors
This is just like the enterprise grade Oracle DB. MySQL now supports replication (master-master or master-slave) of our DB to support our company's multiple geo-locations and PoPs.
It supports the original Oracle SQL operations such as Merge, as well as the creation of Views to your tables. This brings additional convenience to our organization.
How has it helped my organization?
The main benefit for us is that it's totally free, unless you need to pay for support.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see additional side management tools and IDEs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this current version for one year. I used previous versions for over ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
We didn't need any technical support. I would guess that Oracle support is top-level.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a solution prior to this one.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, user-friendly, and easy. In most cases, if you use the Linux-based versions, it comes as a standard Linux package. You can get it installed by using AptGet, Aptitude, or Yum.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Just pay for any license if you need some enterprise support for your project or any additional support tools that Oracle ships with the enterprise version. During the development stage of your project, you can just use the free community edition.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
Go with the Linux version. It is more stable and manages the system resources better.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. We are partners, developing applications together.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free MySQL Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: December 2025
Popular Comparisons
Teradata
SQL Server
PostgreSQL
Firebird SQL
Oracle Database
SAP HANA
MariaDB
Faiss
OpenSearch
Milvus
ClickHouse
IBM Db2 Database
Qdrant
InfluxDB
SQLite
Buyer's Guide
Download our free MySQL Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Which solution do you recommend for embedding reporting? Why?
- Did you switch from a different solution to MySQL? Can you list a few pros and cons for making the move?
- Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?
- Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?
- What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?
- How does MySQL compare with Firebird SQL?
- When evaluating Open Source Databases, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- Did you switch from a different solution to MySQL? Can you list a few pros and cons for making the move?
- Which database is the best for session cashing?
- Why is Open Source Databases important for companies?
















