---
title: MariaDB
slug: mariadb
url: "https://toolweight.com/tools/mariadb"
homepage: "https://mariadb.org"
categories: sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql
last_verified: 2026-11-06
dataset_version: 0738be72
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# MariaDB

> GPL-only MySQL fork under a foundation, with Galera clustering and native vectors.

- Forked from MySQL 5.1 by its original authors after Oracle acquired Sun.
- Stewarded by the MariaDB Foundation, with MariaDB plc selling support.
- Stays broadly wire- and dialect-compatible while diverging: bundled Galera clustering, ColumnStore and Spider storage engines.
- Ships native vector search in the community server ahead of MySQL.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | MariaDB |
| Company | MariaDB Foundation |
| One-liner | GPL-only MySQL fork under a foundation, with Galera clustering and native vectors. |
| Site | https://mariadb.org |
| Docs | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/documentation/ |
| Repo | https://github.com/MariaDB/server |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Open source | Yes |
| Licence | GPL-2.0 |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Database engines](https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql)
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note | Permalink |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Embedded or server | Both | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-embedded-server/ | Primarily a server, but the libmariadbd embedded library still ships, unlike MySQL, which removed its equivalent. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--embedded_or_server |
| Concurrency model | MVCC (undo log) | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/innodb/ | InnoDB by default, so the same undo-log versioning as MySQL. Aria and MyISAM behave differently and are not transactional. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--concurrency_model |
| Write concurrency | Concurrent writers (row-level) | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/innodb-lock-modes/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--write_concurrency |
| Isolation levels | Read uncommitted, Read committed, Repeatable read, Serializable | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/set-transaction/ | Defaults to REPEATABLE READ, matching MySQL. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--isolation_levels |
| JSON support | Text functions only | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/json-data-type/ | JSON is an alias for LONGTEXT with a JSON_VALID check constraint. The functions are there; the binary storage and multi-valued indexes are not. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--json_support |
| Full-text search | Built-in | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/full-text-indexes/ | FULLTEXT indexes on InnoDB and MyISAM; the Mroonga storage engine is the usual answer for serious CJK search. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--full_text_search |
| Vector search | Native type + ANN index | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-06 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/vectors/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--vector_search |
| Type strictness | Static, coercing | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/sql-mode/ | Strict mode has been the default since 10.2.4, but as on MySQL it is a sql_mode setting rather than an engine guarantee. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--type_strictness |
| ALTER TABLE | Moderate | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/alter-table/ | ALTER ONLINE and instant ADD COLUMN since 10.3; DDL is not rollback-able inside a transaction. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--alter_table_limits |
| Max database size | 64 TB | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/innodb-limitations/ | 64 TiB per InnoDB tablespace at the default page size, inherited from the shared InnoDB lineage. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--max_db_size |
| Replication | Built-in async + synchronous | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/galera-cluster/ | Binary-log replication plus Galera synchronous multi-primary clustering bundled since 10.1, no plugin purchase, no separate product. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--replication |
| PITR | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariabackup/ | Mariabackup for hot physical backups, plus binlog replay to a point in time. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--pitr |
| Online schema change | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/alter-table/ | Native online ALTER, and gh-ost and pt-online-schema-change both work against it. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--online_schema_change |
| Connection model | Thread per connection | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/thread-pool-in-mariadb/ | A thread per connection by default, but unlike MySQL the thread pool is in the community server. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--connection_model |
| Default max conns | 151 | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/server-system-variables/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--default_max_connections |
| Managed options | Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL, MariaDB SkySQL | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | Thinner than MySQL's. Several hosts advertising MariaDB compatibility are in fact running MySQL. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--hosted_options |
| Ops burden | 3 | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | Same shape as MySQL. Galera moves it up a point if you run it, synchronous clustering brings flow control and split-brain to think about. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--operational_burden |
| Extension ecosystem | 3 | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | Pluggable storage engines are a genuine differentiator: ColumnStore, Spider, Mroonga, CONNECT. Not comparable to Postgres extensions in breadth. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--extension_ecosystem |
| Client libraries | 4 | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | Mostly rides MySQL drivers, which works until it does not, authentication plugins and newer type support are where the divergence shows. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--client_library_maturity |
| Migration tooling | 3 | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | MySQL tooling generally works, but MariaDB is rarely the tested target, so you find the gaps yourself. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--migration_tooling |
| GitHub stars | 6,000 | Community-reported | 2026-07-01 | https://github.com/MariaDB/server | Approximate. Unlike MySQL and Postgres, this is where development actually happens. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--github_stars |
| Positioning | The open source relational database, made by the original developers of MySQL. | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.org/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--positioning |
| Licence | GPL-2.0 | Vendor-claimed | 2026-11-06 | https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-license/ | - | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--licence |
| Embed in closed source | ◐ | Inferred | 2026-07-01 | - | The server is GPLv2 with no commercial alternative, so you cannot embed it in closed source. The LGPL client library means you can link a proprietary client, the opposite trade to MySQL's. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--embedding_freedom |
| Governance | Foundation | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.org/about/ | The MariaDB Foundation stewards the code and guarantees it stays open; MariaDB plc sells products and support around it. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--governance |
| First release | 2009-10-29 | Community-reported | 2026-07-01 | https://mariadb.org/about/ | MariaDB 5.1.38 beta, forked from MySQL 5.1 after Oracle's acquisition of Sun. | https://toolweight.com/compare/sqlite-vs-postgres-vs-mysql#mariadb--first_release |

**Verdict.** MySQL without Oracle, plus Galera clustering and native vectors ahead of MySQL; smaller ecosystem and growing compatibility drift.

## Alternatives

- [DuckDB](https://toolweight.com/tools/duckdb), In-process columnar analytics engine, SQLite's shape, a warehouse's execution model.
- [MySQL](https://toolweight.com/tools/mysql), The relational server that ran the early web, now Oracle-stewarded and InnoDB-based.
- [PostgreSQL](https://toolweight.com/tools/postgresql), MVCC relational server with the widest SQL surface and a deep extension ecosystem.
- [SQLite](https://toolweight.com/tools/sqlite), Embedded SQL engine that runs inside your process, a file, not a server.

## Logo & brand colours

SVG files: https://toolweight.com/teams/mariadb/logo.svg and https://toolweight.com/teams/mariadb/mono.svg. JSON: https://toolweight.com/api/v1/brands/mariadb.

| Hex | oklch |
| --- | --- |
| #002b64 | oklch(30.2% 0.110 257.7) |
| #c49a6c | oklch(71.5% 0.079 68.5) |

## Licence and attribution

Data from Toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/tools/mariadb
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/tools/mariadb.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- Toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements.