I'm using it to create a small database for a project that I'm working on.
Programmeuse Python 3 at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has easy access to data, is easy to grasp, and has good documentation
Pros and Cons
- "The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features."
- "Sometimes, I get lost in the toggles and buttons, and a better visual design would be nice. The layout is not user-friendly or efficient."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features.
It's quite easy to grasp and is really well documented, which are huge plus points.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, I get lost in the toggles and buttons, and a better visual design would be nice. The layout is not user-friendly or efficient.
I would like to be able to sort the data easily without having to do a request to get the table out of the database into the web page. At present, I can't do it directly inside MySQL; I have to do a request and print out my request into a web page.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is really good. I haven't had any issues with it.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy.
I learned to use it in class, and the setup was quite fast because the teacher really helped us to gain access and take the first few steps. The setup took a few hours at most.
What about the implementation team?
I installed it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use a free version at present.
What other advice do I have?
Plan how the data will be constructed. I had to delete an entire database and start over because I didn't organize it properly. That was a huge block.
I would rate MySQL at eight on a scale from one to ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Managing Director at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Fully scalable relational database management system with good stability; setting it up was easy and straightforward
Pros and Cons
- "Fully scalable and stable SQL-based RDBMS, with a straightforward and easy setup."
- "Even for the best database, we always want the database to perform much better, so we wish MySQL would be much better, in terms of performance."
What is our primary use case?
We're using MySQL for data warehousing and logging.
What needs improvement?
Even for the best database, we always want the database to perform much better, so we wish MySQL would be much better, in terms of performance. When they release a new version, they mostly concentrate on scalability and performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using MySQL for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of MySQL is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
MySQL is a fully scalable product.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of MySQL was easy and straightforward. You can complete the initial setup for this product within a few hours.
What about the implementation team?
It was the technical team who did the setup for MySQL. We had two or three engineers who took care of the deployment and maintenance of this product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
MySQL is very cheap. In fact, it could be free. They also have a yearly licensing option. I don't remember paying for additional costs, aside from the standard licensing fee.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Oracle Database.
What other advice do I have?
I'm using the Enterprise version of MySQL.
MySQL is a good database. We are using it, and we'll continue to use it.
I've never contacted the technical support team for MySQL. I have no complaints.
I can recommend MySQL to others who plan to start implementing it.
We don't ask for new features on a database. When we take a database, we take it because of fixed features, e.g. its current features. It's not an application. It's a database. We are fine with whatever features MySQL offers now. We never really thought about whether we want more features on this product.
I'm rating MySQL an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
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.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Lead Project Manager, Owner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Ubiquitous solution for a wide variety of uses.
Pros and Cons
- "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 could be a little bit simpler to use."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for my clients. Basically any website that uses WordPress uses MySQL, so we use that to manage and run our WordPress websites. Some we have on a cloud, some we have at hosted servers.
It is part of WordPress and some clients are using it for eCommerce, and others are just using it as part of the website to give information.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what could be improved, there is not anything that I can think of offhand.
Everything related to automation or improvements are external tools that are brought into it, so it has nothing to do with the robustness of the system itself - it is the developers and implementations that touch it. Those can be improved, but MySQL itself is fine as is.
I would just say that it could be a little bit simpler to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using MySQL off and on for about seven years.
Different hosting systems have different iterations of it. Whenever possible, I try to use the latest version, but usually I'm using a model or two back. But I'm not using the original, not by any stretch.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Everything that works with MySQL is stable. If it's a bug, it's due to the developer who has miswritten a piece of code. The code itself is perfect. It's the application of people who attempt to make changes where the issues come in.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of scalability, I have not done anything bigger than a couple hundred people a day on a site, so I really couldn't tell you about that.
Our clients are small businesses, almost all of them with less than 50 employees.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, and I am talking almost 20 years ago, we would have used Microsoft Access, which is not a relational database and it's not iterative, so you can't have multiple people working on it, whereas MySQL is a system-based database, so multiple people can access it at the same time.
How was the initial setup?
In terms of the initial setup, you definitely need to know what you're doing, but it's not illogical. The database rules and how they work are very clear and concise. To execute MySQL is fairly straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
MySQL is open source so it's free.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anyone considering MySQL is to check the forums and do your homework.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give MySQL a 9. It would be a 10 if it was simpler to use, but as it is, it's about a 9.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Site Reliability Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
A great open-source product that offers great scalability and compatibility
Pros and Cons
- "MySQL is open-source. There are a lot of open-source communities trying to come up with their own patches, and to come up with their own features, which help MySQL develop faster than traditional databases like Oracle, which is closed source."
- "They should come up with a better solution than the NDB cluster for better scaling. If they could come up with a better solution for write scaling, apart from the NDB cluster, which is supported by all open source communities, that would be great. Although the NDB cluster, I believe, is an open-source tool, it's not widely supported as a solution."
What is our primary use case?
It's been used as a primary relational database for most applications. It's scalable and could easily be maintained and could be migrated to any Cloud-based Database as a Service solutions which are compatible with MySQL.e.g. AWS RDS MySQL, AWS RDS Aurora, Google SQL.
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved scalability, easy-maintenance. It is open-source and is easy to use.
What is most valuable?
MySQL is open-source. There are a lot of open-source communities trying to come up with their own patches, and to come up with their own features, which help MySQL develop faster than traditional databases like Oracle, which is closed source.
The solution is also compatible with a lot of other databases, like Percona, and it's compatible with MariaDB. It's also compatible with a lot of other shared database solutions.
Since MySQL is mostly used as a relational database in a lot of organizations, a lot of other solutions are being merged with MySQL and it's a rather easy process.
Unlike a lot of closed source services, the new features are solely based on customer feedback. The customer feedback of open source is way larger than the closed source application.
What needs improvement?
The developers of MySQL, which are Oracle MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB, seem to not be focusing much on object-oriented replication. Basically, replication is based on a text level of replication. There is a text level replication in Oracle, that is so similar it can be implemented in MySQL, however, it needs to pull a lot of resources. They have altered their approach for replication. Still, more focus on object-oriented replication would be good.
They should come up with a better solution than the NDB cluster for better scaling. If they could come up with a better solution for write scaling, apart from the NDB cluster, which is supported by all open source communities, that would be great. Although the NDB cluster, is an open-source tool, it's not widely supported as a solution.
The latest 8.0 version has come up with whole new features.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working on Relational Database MySQL throughout my career, i.e. for 14 years. This relational database MySQL is evolved from its MyISAM only engine to InnoDB and is now compatible with other database engines too. e.g. NDB, Galera.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
MySQL is reliable. If you are talking about it in terms of relational databases, MySQL is pretty stable. If you want to go ahead with a quite secure database like any PCI database or a customer-related database or even financial data, it's still feasible to migrate to MySQL.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are a lot of features provided by Oracle MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB. They all have their own replication cluster. Percona has XtraDB, MariaDB has GaleraDB, Oracle MySQL has its own cluster as well. MySQL replication is common in all three MySQL flavors. MySQL replication is an excellent read-scalable feature, which has also evolved a lot from its earliest versions to the latest 8.0 version.
The NDB cluster, which has been supported and developed by Oracle, and is based on MySQL, is different than all of the other MySQL replication cluster solutions. It's both read and write scalable. All other cluster features work well for read scaling. NDB cluster is the only cluster feature recorded by Oracle MySQL, which is write scalable as well as re-scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The solution seems to have plenty of technical support due to the fact that there are three companies who are product owners, and therefore there are three companies who are supporting MySQL. They are: Oracle, Percona, and MariaDB. They're doing pretty well.
There are a lot of companies also that support their customers. This is the good thing about any software which is open-source. A lot of open source communities come up with their own features and they try to patch up with the original source.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup has evolved a lot. It's pretty straight forward whether you're using Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. You can set it up on almost every operating system.
It's supported by the open-source community, and they have plenty of documentation online that users can reference for assistance. If you are working in almost any operating system and you have any questions related to the installation, you'll find the documentation you need.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not sure, what the licensing costs are for the solution. From my experience, there is no straightforward cost. You can get that cost from the Oracle website about the Oracle MySQL licensing costs, however, it's not a straightforward price quote for everyone.
If you are an existing customer, you can negotiate and you can get a better quote. The pricing on the website may be for new customers. That said, you can still negotiate. The same is true for Percona and MariaDB as well.
What other advice do I have?
We are using MySQL 5.6, 5.7, and MySQL 8.0.
In terms of advice, I'd say when implementing MySQL, if a company has been using any previous relational database, like Oracle, Microsoft SQL or DB2, the easiest way to migrate from any database is from Oracle to MySQL. There'll be some challenges from Microsoft SQL, as well as from DB2 to MySQL. Any existing application which is working with the Oracle database as a backend database, DB2 database as a backend database, or Microsoft as the backend database, should still work fine with MySQL, with minimal code changes.
MySQL is a product supported by a lot of applications and a lot of organizations. Almost every client and every API would be able to support MySQL. There would still need to be a lot of testing, however, I feel almost all of the applications which need a relational database for their database solution, could leverage out of MySQL.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Systems Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great performance and useful for running email system
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable features is MySQL's ability to run our email system. We use a system called Colab."
- "MySQL could be improved by adding more automation."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for MySQL is for running applications on our Linux boxes. We have very few applications that run online, but we use MySQL on those boxes, primarily for our email system. We haven't considered working on cloud, so all our solutions are on-premises.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features is MySQL's ability to run our email system. We use a system called Colab.
What needs improvement?
MySQL could be improved by adding more automation. There are no additional features I would like to see that I can think of at the moment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using MySQL for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This product is stable. I'm very satisfied with the performance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Since MySQL is running our email system, there are around 200 users. It's installed on one of the servers and the admins are the ones who interact with the system itself if the need arises.
How are customer service and support?
I have never contacted Oracle's technical support. If we have any issues, we've got some recommended support people here in Zimbabwe that we contact.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I didn't use any other solution before implementing MySQL. We also use MariaDB, but not on a very big scale.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was a very straightforward process. It took about a day and we did it ourselves.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented through an in-house team. One person, the admin, can handle it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using the free version of MySQL. We prefer paying for a yearly license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution an eight out of ten. I would recommend this solution to others and I'm very satisfied with its performance.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director Of Sales Marketing at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Quick to deploy, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The deployment process is pretty fast."
- "When I run into issues, I really have to research how to fix them."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is primarily used for mobile applications and IoT-based services. It's a good choice for development.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very stable.
The scalability has been great.
The deployment process is pretty fast.
What needs improvement?
It would be ideal if the solution had more references available in terms of helping me find answers to issues or problems. When I run into issues, I really have to research how to fix them.
The installation process could be better.
I would like the product to have even better stability and scalability.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. If a company needs to expand it, it can do so. It's easy.
We have 500 users on the solution at this time. We are likely to increase usage in the future.
How are customer service and support?
We don't really have access to technical support. Our engineers have to spend time looking for answers on Google.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we only used Oracle databases, which were expensive. We've moved away to other DBs and have begun to use MySQL.
How was the initial setup?
The installation process didn't take very long. It took about three or four hours.
We have five people, who are engineers, that can handle setup and maintenance tasks.
What about the implementation team?
I handled the implementation myself. I did not need the assistance of any integrators or consultants.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You do need a license in order to use MySQL.
What other advice do I have?
The solution can be deployed both on the cloud and on-premises.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Principal Software Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Free, stable, and full-featured
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "The availability of tools could be improved in the MySQL open-source platform. They can provide more analytical tools. I haven't had any particularly difficult issues to troubleshoot on MySQL, but in the past, on Microsoft SQL Server, I had to troubleshoot some difficult issues, and better tools were in place to see what was going on in real-time on the server. So, that's the bit that is lacking on the MySQL open-source platform."
What is our primary use case?
We're on a software development team. We develop applications.
We're currently running version 5.7 of MySQL, and we are going to be upgrading to version 8 this year.
MySQL server currently is in a co-location center. We've got a hosting provider that takes care of that for us. We are looking at moving it into AWS, but that won't happen this year. We do have a smaller MySQL RDS instance in AWS right now, but it is pretty minimal.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
The availability of tools could be improved in the MySQL open-source platform. They can provide more analytical tools. I haven't had any particularly difficult issues to troubleshoot on MySQL, but in the past, on Microsoft SQL Server, I had to troubleshoot some difficult issues, and better tools were in place to see what was going on in real-time on the server. So, that's the bit that is lacking on the MySQL open-source platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using MySQL for seven years in my current company, and I have probably used it for another two or three years in a previous company.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't dealt with them.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We're using the open-source version right now, which is free. I do see some value in some of the more enterprise functions. We're using the open-source version right now, and I was interested in the MySQL Enterprise version really for the tools that they provide, but we decided not to make the purchase.
What other advice do I have?
There are certain things that it doesn't do as well as SQL Server. There are certain things that you can do to swamp the server, such as it is just not very responsive to more complicated joins and things like that. Unfortunately, you have to try to learn what those things are, but there are certain things like correlated sub-queries and more complicated approaches that it doesn't support, and you can hang the server in doing that. So, even though it has standardized the SQL queries and other things, there are some things that it doesn't perform particularly well, such as more complicated joined scenarios. We join several tables at a time, but we tend to do that on well-known indices, primary keys, and things like that, but if you're doing something more sophisticated than that, it becomes more challenging. These things that I've mentioned are written up by people, and once you learn those things, you develop techniques to work around them. You take different approaches to solve the problem for those things. You have to do that anyway as a developer. You don't just write code and throw it out there on a production server. You certainly need a totally separate test environment and all that.
I would rate MySQL an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Easy to use, fast, and developer-friendly, but it should have better support for big data
Pros and Cons
- "MySQL is a popular database platform for businesses because it is extremely easy to use."
- "When it comes to supporting big data, there is space to improve upon the database engines that are supported by MySQL."
What is our primary use case?
We developed a network monitoring software and used MySQL as a backend database.
We utilized the two most common and popular MySQL database engines, MyISAM and InnoDB.
We store collected monitoring data and configuration data on MySQL. Also, our network monitoring solution reporting module is based on the MySQL MyISAM database engine.
We use both Windows and Linux versions of MySQL, and we utilize the backup and recovery features.
To summarize, our primary use case is the embedded DB component for our network management software.
How has it helped my organization?
MySQL is a popular database platform for businesses because it is extremely easy to use. It is commonly used in combination with PHP and Java. For instance, someone with little to no knowledge of MySQL can easily establish a database connection and start programming immediately.
So MySQL improved our developing process speed. MySQL is a very popular and well-known database solution, so it is easy to find a MySQL developer.
MySQL performance also improved our NMS solution performance.
What is most valuable?
MySQL is a fast, easy-to-use RDBMS being used for many small and big businesses.
MySQL advantages and valuable points include:
- MySQL is a very powerful program in its own right. It handles a large subset of the functionality of the most expensive and powerful database packages.
- MySQL uses a standard form of the well-known SQL data language.
- MySQL works on many operating systems and with many languages including PHP, PERL, C, C++, Java, etc.
- MySQL works very quickly and works well, even with large datasets.
- MySQL is very friendly to PHP and Java at the same time. Both PHP and Java are our development languages.
What needs improvement?
The two most common and popular MySQL database engines are MyISAM and InnoDB. Database engines provide the underlying functionality for MySQL to work with and process data. MyISAM is the default engine for MySQL for versions earlier than 5.5.5 and functions well in most scenarios.
However, depending on your needs, there are situations where another database engine, such as InnoDB, may be the better choice. For example, InnoDB supports transactions, whereas MyISAM does not. InnoDB also provides support for foreign keys, whereas MyISAM does not.
When it comes to supporting big data, there is space to improve upon the database engines that are supported by MySQL. An example of this is the Vertica DB engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...), and offering support for it would be valuable.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using MySQL for more than ten years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used MSSQL and switched to MySQL because of performance issues.
How was the initial setup?
After installation, the maintanence is easy for an end-user.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
MySQL is released under an open-source license, so you have nothing to pay to use it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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