And while Oracle has continued maintaining MySQL Community Edition as a free, open source project, it offers an enterprise (paid) version as well. MariaDB is intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, with exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands, allowing it in many cases to function as drop-in replacement for MySQL. However, mariandb development new features are diverging.[6] It includes new storage engines like Aria, ColumnStore, and MyRocks. MySQL comes with the validate_password component, which is used to verify and increase password security . MariaDB, in its turn, offers three password validation plugins giving users more security in their database management.
MariaDB Server today has window functions and common table expressions (CTEs). MySQL 8 is presently in release candidate status and also has similar functionality. From a source code standpoint, MySQL makes pushes to Github when a release is made, whereas open source development happens for Percona Server for MySQL and MariaDB Server on Github.
Compatibility
MariaDB’s documentation lists hundreds of incompatibilities between MySQL and MariaDB databases, in different versions. The main conclusion from this documentation is that you can’t rely on an easy migration from one database type to another. Many new and exciting features like Windows Functions, Roles or Common Table Expressions (CTE) are probably worth mentioning, but won’t be mentioned in this article. Percona Server for MySQL includes a modified MEMORY storage engine, ships Percona XtraDB as the default InnoDB, and also ships TokuDB and MyRocks (currently experimental). MyRocks is based on the RocksDB engine, and both are developed extensively at Facebook.
Take a FREE guided tour of Cloudways and see for yourself how easily you can manage your server & apps on the leading cloud-hosting platform. With a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Abhi has experience with several programming languages, including Python, JavaScript and C++. He is also an expert on blockchain technology and its development, having worked in the industry for several years. Though MariaDB has more features than MySQL, there are pros and cons to both, and which you choose will depend on your requirements.
Further reading
Another interesting feature of MariaDB is that it supports virtual columns. These columns are capable of performing the calculations at the database level. This is extremely useful when many applications are accessing the same column so there is no need to write the calculation in each application. There are some enterprise features as part of an enterprise platform. Unlike MySQL, MariaDB Server leans in on its extensible architecture, supporting multiple purpose-built storage engines, enabling users to optimize for different workloads and use cases.
Our next-generation database continues to carry innovation forward, with tens of millions of users worldwide. On October 31, 2023, MySQL 5.7 will reach End of Life (EOL), meaning it will no longer receive updates or security patches. Current MySQL 5.7 users will need to choose between migrating to MySQL 8.0 or another open source database.
Supporting Ecosystem and Tools
Database views simplify the saving and sharing of queries across applications. On the other hand, MariaDB has improved this function in all versions, as it’s capable of supporting more than 200,000 connections. This is vital for eCommerce platforms, where intensive online transaction processing (OLTP) is common.
MariaDB has a vibrant, active open source community with GNU and GPL licensing. MariaDB started as a MySQL fork and uses the same wire protocol and SQL dialect, making the migration from MySQL to MariaDB relatively straightforward. MariaDB’s team of data experts offers an easy guide to migration for businesses to follow. MariaDB and MySQL both have General Public License (GPL) versions. MariaDB is completely under GPL authorization, while MySQL has two available licenses—public and private. Next we give some considerations when choosing between both the databases.
Create directory & set permission using a single Linux command
Whether you choose MySQL or MariaDB as your database vendor, you’ll probably end up struggling with some slow queries slowing down your application. On some Linux distributions, when you install the MySQL database, you might end up actually installing the MariaDB database, as it’s the default in many Linux distributions (though not in all). MariaDB Server 10.2 also has “flashback”, developed at Alibaba, to help with log-based rollback using the binary log. MariaDB ColumnStore is the MariaDB solution to analytics and using a column-based store. It is a separate download and product and not a traditional storage engine (yet). All projects actively embrace contributions from the open community.
However, since it is almost as same as MySQL, the database structure of it is same as MySQL. This helps you to shift from MySQL to MariaDB without having to change your application as the data structure and data wouldn’t need to change. In database management systems, storage engines are a component that helps to retrieve, update, and store data within the database. The storage engine you want to work with might influence your decision. You can use them to store data in a tabular format with rows and columns.
MariaDB vs MySQL: Compatibility
Some of these changes have led to core functionality, capability, and performance differences. MariaDB has declared broad compatibility with MySQL as its primary goal. The MariaDB development team strives to ensure the seamless replacement of MySQL with MariaDB. They conduct monthly merges from MySQL to get the latest features and bug fixes. One of the clearest advantages of MySQL is its long presence on the market. According to the DB-Engines Ranking, MySQL is the second most popular database engine in the world, while MariaDB ranks No. 12.
- It is largely an unofficial response to published comments from the MariaDB Corporation.
- For replication compatibility details between MariaDB versions, see Cross-Version Replication Compatibility.
- However, due to the implementation of the X
Protocol in MySQL, they are no longer directly compatible with each other. - MySQL’s dual licensing model also locks essential features like the thread pool plugin behind a paywall.
Vertical scale-out through parallel query, read replication and multi-master clustering. Fortunately for those still operating with MySQL 5.7, there’s still time to migrate to an alternate solution before October. Our open source database isn’t a pathway to vendor lock-in; it’s flexible, cloud native and can be deployed anywhere – private, public and hybrid cloud. MariaDB also provides an Oracle syntax compatibility mode for running Oracle database applications without change.
Features of Maria DB
In a previous article, we laid out the story of the Apache web server, its role in the rise of the internet, and how its market share is being eaten up by competitors like Nginx. Apache is part of the LAMP stack —Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP — and it’s not an understatement to say that more than half of all the internet owes its existence to LAMP. Almost all MySQL and MariaDB Indexes (PRIMARY KEY, INDEX, UNIQUE, AND FULLTEXT) are stockpiled in B-trees. MySQL holds up hash indexes and InnoDB engine makes use of inverted lists for FULLTEXT indexes. Some corporations which use it are Google, Wikipedia, Redhat, Fedora and Craigslist. MySQL has amassed a lot of following since it was started in 1995.