- Speed
- Cost
Engineer with 51-200 employees
It provides a low cost and effective SQL DB solution for smaller companies. Replication does need improvement though.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
MySQL provides a low cost and effective SQL Database solution for smaller companies that don’t require the overhead and cost associated with RDBMS tools like Oracle
What needs improvement?
Replication and HA features, but that is to be expected at this entry point
For how long have I used the solution?
10 years.
Buyer's Guide
MySQL
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No, the deployment of MySQL is very easy as it is usually a part of Linux distributions and most hosting services provide a MySQL database as a part of their hosting service.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No, MySQL has always been a stable database. If there are sufficient resources on the server to run the database it will do fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
None that I have run into. For really big databases I have always used Oracle.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
There is plenty of support available on the internet. I have never really needed to use or activate a support contract for MySQL
Technical Support:There is plenty of support available on the internet. I have never really needed to use or activate a support contract for MySQL.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using MySQL I used Oracle and Informix for RDBMS.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy as there is usually a version distributed as a part of the Linux distribution.
What about the implementation team?
I have always implemented MySQL through and in house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The initial setup cost and maintenance costs are built into the OS costs for all of my implementations and are insignificant.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I usually look at MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
What other advice do I have?
MySQL is a great RDBMS, but make sure it will integrate with all of the clients you will be using and the rest of your infrastructure. The problems usually have more to do with other products supporting MySQL than MySQL itself.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Database Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
A fast and reliable database management system
Valuable Features:
• It is inexpensive as compared to other common databases like Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.
• MySQL is an extensible, open storage database engine that integrates seamlessly with a number of programming languages and other web-based technologies.
• MYSQL is an open source system under the GNU General Public License. Developers can use it at no cost as long as the associated projects are also open-source.
• Having excellent performance, MYSQL is used by many internet powerhouses like yahoo as their back-end database. MYSQL has great performance due to format of its default table, MyISAM. MyISAM databases use little disk space, memory and cpu. The system runs without flaw and perform better on all platforms including windows, Unix and Linux.
Room for Improvement:
• MySQL has a limited storage capacity. It doesn’t support large databases.
• Database transactions are not handled efficiently.
• Unlike Oracle, MySQL doesn't have Tablespace, Role management, snapshots, synonym and packages.
• For transferring data, MySQL doesn’t support other languages being executed from within the system, and neither does it supports XML.
• Compared to Oracle, MySQL database does not support any feature like Audit Vault on its server
• There is a limited scope and earning available for database administrator of MySQL.
Other Advice:
MySQL is an open source database management system and is used by most of the most famous networking sites. It is more popular in websites and PHP integration. It can be executed under a number of operating systems like Linux, UNIX, Mac OS and Windows. MySQL supports ODBC interface which allows MySQL to be addressed by all the usual programming languages that run under Microsoft Windows.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
MySQL
May 2025

Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Head of Data Center at a tech company with 51-200 employees
MySQL is undoubtedly one of the best open-source database products available. It's fast, easy to use and very reliable.
Valuable Features:
MySQL has established itself not only as the most popular open-source database, but the most reliable one as well. In my more than six years as system administrator managing various websites and web servers, MySQL has been our server of choice for web applications. It wouldn't be acquired by Oracle if it did not see it that way too.What I like most about MySQL is that it's relatively easy to install, fast, lightweight and reliable. It's available for both Windows and Linux, making it a very good alternative to other open source databases back then, which only runs on Linux. PostgreSQL for example did not have a Windows installer before. This made it very difficult to adopt it for mixed-OS environments and that is why we use MySQL.
Room for Improvement:
Back in the days, our only gripe about MySQL was that it was a purely command-line based system. We don't really see it as disadvantage though, as it allowed it to be fast and very reliable. This has been addressed through the years with graphical management systems for MySQL. MySQL is a highly recommended product. I give it five stars as it really gets the job done without much of a hassle. Being available for the many platforms also makes it a very compelling choice for mixed-OS environments, as data migration can just be as easy as backing-up and restoring on another server even on different operating systems.
Other Advice:
Just be ready though to work at the command line should you wish to use MySQL in its free form. It may not be the most intuitive user interfaces available, but it also makes MySQL a simple yet very reliable database for most people's needs.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
MySQL is platform independent and can be run in mixed OS platform like windows, linux, ubuntu etc. It gives compatibility even over different OS during backup and restore. Data can be backed up from one OS and can be restored on other OS.
Developer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
MySQL is the most popular Open Source Data Base Management System, developed and supported by Oracle Corporation.
Valuable Features:
1) It is freely available under the terms of GNU General Public License.2) MySQL works seamless on various platforms and environments.3) It is mainly used in Client/Server environment and it can be embedded in standalone applications.
4) Support SQL standards, and also provide Multi-thread environment.5) Offers high performance due to its unique storage engine architecture as well as it's core written in powerful languages such as C and C++.
Room for Improvement:
1) Does not provide good development and debugging tools, so it’s cumbersome to write large SQL statements.2) MySQL uses temporary tables to execute queries, so it consumes more space.3) MySQL is missing some RDBMS features like stored procedures, foreign keys, transaction, rollback, and subselect. And it also does't support triggers.It is widely used in web applications, and several software stacks includes MySQL as a Data Base Management System like (WAMP, XAMPP) considering its flexibility and simplicity.
Other Advice:
And if some one is looking for Database which performs simple processes like storing and displaying data only, then MySQL is the right choice.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
MySQL is a database system that is most used, fast, more reliable, cheaper, and better than any other database system.
Valuable Features:
It has a relational database system.
Client/Server Architecture
SQL compatibility (Structured Query Language) .MySQL has the features of the current SQL standard (at the moment SQL: 2003).
SubSELECTs: From version 4.1, MySQL is capable of processing a query in the form of SELECT * FROM tablename1 WHERE x IN (SELECT y FROM tablename2).
MySQL supports views from MYSQL version 5.0.
Stored procedures: Is capable of storing codes: MySQL has supported SPs since version 5.0.
Triggers: MySQL has supported triggers in a limited form from version 5.0
Unicode: MySQL has supported all conceivable character sets since version 4.1, including Latin-1, Latin-2, and Unicode (either in the variant UTF8 or UCS2).
User interface: There are a number of convenient user interfaces for administering a MySQL server.
Full-text search: Full-text search simplifies and accelerates the search for words that are located within a text field. If you employ MySQL for storing text (such as in an Internet discussion group), you can use full-text search to simply implement an efficient search function.
Has got statement-based replication.
It's one of the simplest ways to create databases.
Room for Improvement:
DELETE and UPDATE statements that use a LIMIT clause without an ORDER BY are non deterministic.
Statements using any of the following functions cannot be replicated properly using statement-based replication: LOADFILE (), USER ().
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user116742Oracle Web Administrator at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
It is the easiest to use and simplest to learn. The coding is just simple.
Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
One of the best Databases on the market today.
Valuable Features:
MySQL is open source, highly extensible and scalable, and is available from a web interface via PHPMyAdmin, which is excellent because it's platform independent.In almost all instances that I have used MySQL, it has handled whatever I threw at it and hasn't failed me yet.
Room for Improvement:
It is a community driven project, which means that support is sometimes scarce and hard to find. Also, it really doesn't have an IDE per-se, like MSSQL does.
Other Advice:
I use MySQL on a regular basis, specifically whenever I am managing or installing a Wordpress instance. Combined with PHPMyAdmin, MySQL is an excellent database solution for small to medium sized businesses or installations. I would recommend using a better supported database like Oracle or MSSQL for mission critical tasks on an enterprise level, but MySQL is completely capable of performing the same tasks as those other databases.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
MySQL can be integrated with LAMP/WAMP, web applications and number of programming languages. It is widely used for phpadmin and wordpress now a days.
Developer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Most Powerful Open Source Database
Valuable Features:
• Free to download and use
• Loads of new features over 4.1 version.
• Excellent support for a range of platforms.
• Performs well in small and medium applications.
• Most popular Open Source database engine.
• Supports advanced concepts such as replication.
• Performs extremely well in the average case.
Room for Improvement:
• It doesn't support stored procedures.
• You probably wouldn't use it for heavy-duty installation.
• There is no active directory for integration with Microsoft SQL Server or other data bases.
Other Advice:
As a developer I have used many database engines but MySQL is by far the best known and most popular Open Source database engine.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
As of MySQL 5.5.16, commercial distributions of MySQL include an authentication plugin that enables MySQL Server to use PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) to authenticate MySQL users. PAM enables a system to use a standard interface to access various kinds of authentication methods, such as Unix passwords or an LDAP directory.
Senior Manager of Data Center at a integrator with 51-200 employees
One of the best open source database for web developers and application enthusiasts
Valuable Features:
The best features in MySQL, making it one of the most used databases globally, are-
1) Multi-threaded architecture for multiple CPU utilization and kernel threading
2) Use of triggers and crash recovery techniques
3) Indexed Conditional Pushdown
4) Integration with LAMP/WAMP
5) Easy setup with Memcached for increasing performance and scalability
Room for Improvement:
Few cons in MySQL are
1) Increased complexity in InnoDB
2) Slower performance when using InnoDB as compared to MyISAM for using simple queries
3) Only identical MyISAM tables can be merged.
4) No active directory integration as in SQL server
5) It does not support check constraints
Other Advice:
MySQL is indeed the world's most popular open source database. It has been designed on the hyper threading infrastructure and supports multi-threaded architecture for using multiple CPU's. It works on index compression with B-Tree disk tables popularly known as MyISAM. Its efficiency depends on the implementation of SQL functions with optimization of library classes.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
MySQL is platform independent and can be installed on windows, linux and other OS too. It is an open source database under the GNU General Public License, that means developers can use it at no cost as long as the associated projects are also open source.

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Nice detailed explanation regarding advantages and disadvantages of MySQL. I agree with author on various points like popular free opensource database. But it doesn't support PL fully.