MariaDB and MySQL are two of the most widely deployed open source relational databases in the world and, while they share a common ancestry and maintain compatibility via the MySQL protocol (MySQL clients can connect to MariaDB and vice versa), they have evolved in their own ways, becoming separate databases with unique features and different product visions. Organizations of all sizes continue to replace MySQL with MariaDB in order to take advantage of the innovation in MariaDB – and to get out from under Oracle.
Understand the differences, both small and large, between MariaDB and MySQL – from common features such as standard SQL and high availability to unique capabilities and use cases such as analytics and distributed SQL.
Read nowMariaDB meets the same standard enterprise requirements as MySQL, often with additional features, capabilities and options, and by implementing the MySQL protocol and maintaining compatibility with common MySQL data types and SQL syntax, it’s easy to migrate from MySQL to MariaDB without modifying applications and/or dropping requirements.
MariaDB and MySQL both implement standard SQL syntax, including common table expressions and window functions as well as JSON and geospatial functions. However, MariaDB adds the INTERSECT and EXCEPT set operators, linear regression functions and more.
MariaDB and MySQL both implement thread pools, partitioning and row compression to maximize resource utilization and performance. However, MariaDB adds query results caching with Redis, parallel query, read/write splitting and more.
MariaDB and MySQL both combine multi-master clustering and a database proxy/router to provide continuous availability. However, MariaDB adds transaction replay, session restore and connection migration to hide failure from applications.
MariaDB and MySQL both support point-in-time recovery using backup/restore tools and the binary log to roll forward transactions. MariaDB adds point-in-time rollback, enabling DBAs to rewind the database to a previous point in time with zero downtime.
MariaDB and MySQL both implement standard enterprise security features such as encryption, password expiration, roles, privileges and auditing. MariaDB adds dynamic data masking, query throttling and query result limiting for advanced database and data protection.
MariaDB and MySQL are both general-purpose databases. However, while MySQL has focused exclusively on its primary storage engine (InnoDB) for standard transaction processing, MariaDB has realized the full potential of its pluggable storage engine architecture to support scalable analytics, transactions and hybrid transactional/analytical processing too – and it is not constrained by Oracle, introducing features previously only seen in proprietary databases like Oracle Database and unlikely to ever be available in MySQL.
MariaDB is the only open source database to implement system-versioned, application-time period and bitemporal tables, granting developers the ability to query data based on a previous point in time and DBAs to audit and/or recover data after it was changed.
MariaDB is the only open source database compatible with Oracle Database data types, sequences, PL/SQL stored procedures and more, making it possible to "lift and shift" without having to modify database schemas and rewrite store procedures.
MariaDB and MySQL can access tables in other MariaDB/MySQL databases, but only MariaDB can federate heterogeneous databases, including Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server and IBM Db2, to consolidate data access and/or simplify database migration.
MariaDB supports both row and columnar storage. It can can be deployed as a data warehouse for interactive, ad hoc analytics or as a hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) database, storing current data in row storage and historical data in columnar.
MariaDB can can be deployed as a distributed SQL database, scaling out to achieve millions of transactions/second on commodity hardware while ensuring high availability and enforcing strong consistency for mission-critical applications requiring elasticity and full scalability.
After a brief history of MariaDB and MySQL, and a refresher on MySQL 8, we compare their enterprise offerings: MariaDB Platform X5 and MySQL Enterprise Edition 8. We cover nuanced differences in standard SQL support as well as signature features such as distributed SQL.
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