MariaDB is a an open source and cross-platform database engine and server, designed as a drop-in replacement for the well known and powerful MySQL database engine used on numerous web servers around the world. The application is geared toward database professionals that are in search of a scalable, robust, reliable and stable SQL server, a replacement for the MySQL database server.
Supports a wide range of storage engines
By default, it provides users with support for several storage engines, including Aria, XtraDB (drop-in replacement for InnoDB), PBXT, FederatedX (drop-in replacement for Federated), OQGRAPH, SphinxSE, IBMDB2I, and Cassandra.
Compared with MySQL
When compared with MySQL, we can immediately notice that MariaDB is definitely much faster, and extendable through a great number of extensions. It comes with brand-new features, developed by the best and brightest developers in the industry.
Features at a glance
Among some of its major highlights, we can mention multi-source, fast and safe replication, InnoDB asynchronous I/O subsystem, support for over 200,000 database connections, extended user statistics, pluggable authentication, as well as faster subqueries and joins. In addition, it comes with support for dynamic columns, GIS (Geographic Information System) functionality, progress reporting, virtual columns, table elimination, HandlerSocket, as well as fewer bugs and warnings.
Compatible with MySQL databases
Another interesting feature is the full compatibility with the MySQL database server, allowing users to import database tables from MySQL to MariaDB without much hassle. Also, users will be able to easily create logical or physical backups of their databases.
Supported operating systems
MariaDB is a platform-independent application, supporting all major operating system like Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Microsoft Windows. In addition to the source code, the software provides binary packages for both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.
A drop-in replacement for MySQL
Because many Linux distribution developers replaced all the MySQL packages with MariaDB in their operating systems, we feel obliged to strongly recommend this powerful and open source SQL database engine/server for your projects.
