Differences Between MariaDB and Other DBMSs

A high-level comparison of MariaDB's architecture, including its pluggable storage engines, transaction log handling, and buffer pool management versus other databases.

This page lists general differences between MariaDB and other DBMSs (database management systems). For specific differences (for instance, between MariaDB and PostgreSQL), refer to the respective pages in this section.

Database vs. Schema

In MariaDB, the terms "schema" and "database" are synonymous and used interchangeably. The CREATE SCHEMA statement is a direct synonym for CREATE DATABASE, meaning they create the same object—a container for database objects like tables and views.

MariaDB does not support a distinction between schema and database as seen in other systems like SQL Server or PostgreSQL, where a schema is a logical container within a database. Instead, a database in MariaDB serves as both a namespace and a logical container to separate objects, and it has a default character set and collation that are inherited by its tables.