Comparison
MariaDB vs Oracle Database
The Oracle features your apps depend on, like clustering, readable standbys, encryption and PL/SQL compatibility, come in one MariaDB subscription rather than as separately priced options.
Oracle Enterprise Edition lists at $47,500 per processor before you add RAC, Active Data Guard, Partitioning or the Diagnostics Pack. MariaDB Enterprise Platform includes clustering, HA, encryption, columnar analytics and vector search in one subscription, on premises or in any cloud.
Comparison
How MariaDB and Oracle compare
Licensing
$47,500 per processor, plus priced options and 22% yearly support, versus one MariaDB subscription that includes clustering, HA and ColumnStore.
Clustering
Oracle RAC costs $23,000 per processor on shared storage, while Galera Cluster includes active-active clustering on a shared-nothing architecture.
Standby and failover
Oracle Active Data Guard costs $11,500 per processor, while MariaDB includes replicas plus MaxScale failover and transaction replay.
Analytics
Oracle Database In-Memory costs $23,000 per processor, while ColumnStore is included. MariaDB Exa is available as an add-on for large-scale MPP analytics.
Deployment
Oracle relies on Exadata, OCI or Oracle-run Database services, while MariaDB runs on any server, VM, Kubernetes cluster, or through MariaDB Cloud on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
Run Oracle-class workloads without Oracle’s licensing model
Oracle compatibility is built in
SQL_MODE=ORACLE reads PL/SQL blocks, packages, sequences and Oracle data types, so most stored procedures move with little rewriting. Score your schema first with the free assessment.
HA without paying for RAC
Galera Cluster runs active-active replication on standard servers. MaxScale handles failover and replays in-flight transactions, capabilities Oracle only includes with RAC or Active Data Guard.
Same platform on any infrastructure
Run MariaDB Enterprise Platform on bare metal, VMs or Kubernetes, or use MariaDB Cloud on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. No engineered systems or core factor tables required.
Samsung SDS
See how Samsung SDS moved its Knox Portal service off Oracle and cut database operating costs by more than 50%.
Recommended resources
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Contact us to migrate from Oracle to MariaDB today.
Frequently asked questions
Organizations can cut total database costs by up to 90%. Savings come from dropping per-processor licenses, option packs and annual support costs (22% of licence cost yearly). Use our savings calculator to estimate your potential savings.
SQL_MODE=ORACLE supports PL/SQL blocks, packages, sequences and common Oracle data types. Our migration assessment shows what needs to change before you start.
Yes. MariaDB Galera Cluster provides active-active clustering with synchronous replication on a shared-nothing architecture. Unlike Oracle RAC, it requires no shared storage and runs on standard servers or cloud instances.
For many OLTP and mixed workloads, yes. MariaDB Cloud gives you a managed service with autoscaling, and Exa adds MPP columnar analytics. We size the target during the assessment.
HeatWave is Oracle's MySQL cloud service, not Oracle Database. If you are weighing your options, see our MariaDB vs. MySQL comparison, which covers HeatWave.
It depends on schema size and how much PL/SQL you run. Our assessment tool and migration team provide a scoped plan, timeline and risk list before any code moves.