MariaDB vs MySQL
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Discover the differences between MariaDB and MySQL in terms of functionality, release philosophy, and more. Explore the unique approaches each database takes and how it may impact your projects.
MariaDB and MySQL have diverged in terms of functionality and release philosophy. MySQL is developed by Oracle Corporation and contributions are accepted, while MariaDB is released by a non-profit MariaDB Foundation that encourages contributions and has a lot of development done in public.
MarieDB Foundation is responsible for MarieDB server, while MarieDB Corporation builds proprietary solutions around MarieDB. MarieDB Foundation focuses on serving the MarieDB community, developing the open-source MarieDB server. MarieDB Corporation is a venture, for-profit corporation that builds proprietary solutions around MarieDB, providing enterprise-grade performance and database-as-a-service.
The complexity lies in the fact that running the MarieDB database requires more than just the server. It also involves connectors, proxies for connection management, and other components owned by MarieDB Corporation, released under different licenses. Marie DB’s community builds are now maintained by MariaDB Foundation, making it cleaner. Marie DB’s knowledge base is hosted by MariaDB Corporation, acting as lead generation for the commercial entity. Downloading from,iedb.org redirects to mariadb.com, creating confusion. Marie DB Corporation is the biggest sponsor and contributor to MariaDB Foundation, expecting a return on investment.
Open source in MySQL and MariaDB follows the open core model. MariaDB is an open-source database server with some proprietary parts. MariaDB is completely open source, including all its plugins. MariaDB is based on MySQL’s source code, which is GPL licensed. Downloading resources for MariaDB server can be challenging. GPL requirements only mandate distributing the source code. MariaDB, is an extended subset of the community version. Certain community features are not included in the enterprise version. Different lifecycle and release schedules for enterprise and community versions. MariaDB’s relationship with open source and enterprise versions.
The cloud-native or Kubernetes situation is also interesting. MariaDB Foundation is working on creating an official open-source Kubernetes operator for MariaDB. The project is in an early stage but shows great promise. Both MySQL and MariaDB have community versions available on major clouds. MariaDB also offers enterprise versions and has a partnership with Alibaba Cloud. In terms of analytics, MariaDB has the MariaDB ColumnStore storage engine while Oracle offers the MySQL Analytics Service called HeatWave. Marie DB focuses on comparability with Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, targeting the unique needs of sysadmins and dbas. Marie DB has improved usability with features like service control and colored error messages. Marie DB has also integrated with cloud services like S3 storage engine. Marie DB’s focus has been on developers with improvements in SQL support and tools like Docstore and JSON MySQL Shell. Marie DB does not focus on advanced Oracle or other database features.