List of SQL Server features implemented differently in MariaDB

Modern DBMSs implement several advanced features. While an SQL standard exists, the complete feature list is different for every database system. Sometimes different features allow to achieve the same purpose, but with a different logic and different limitations. This is something to keep into account when planning a migration.

Some features are implemented by different DBMSs, with a similar logic and similar syntax. But there could be important differences that users should be aware of.

This page has a list of SQL Server features that MariaDB implements in a different way, and SQL Server features for which MariaDB has an alternative feature. Minor differences are not kept into account here. The list is not exhaustive.

• The list of supported data types is different.
• There are relevant differences in transaction isolation levels.
• JSON support is different.
• Temporary tables are implemented and used differently.
• The list of permissions is different.
• Security policies. MariaDB allows to achieve the same results by assigning permissions on views and stored procedures. However, this is not a common practice and it's more complicated than defining security policies.
• Query store. MariaDB allows query performance analysis using the slow log and performance_schema. Some open source or commercial 3rd party tool read that information to produce statistics and make it easy to identify slow queries.
• Linked servers. MariaDB supports storage engines to read from, and write to, remote tables. When using the CONNECT engine, those tables could be in different DBMSs, including SQL Server.

See also

• [[sql-server-features-not-available-in-mariadb|SQL Server features not available in MariaDB]