We performed a comparison between MariaDB and SQL Server based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: MariaDB is the winner when it comes to ease of use, initial setup and price. SQL Server comes out on top when it comes to performance, scalability, and support.
"The product has good documentation and you can find many examples online."
"From the user's perspective, the performance of the columnar queries is very good in terms of the database when comparing it to the Oracle, and MySQL."
"It's a very easy product to set up."
"MariaDB is scalable."
"The most valuable feature of MariaDB is the power it provides. It is a powerful solution."
"I like the global transaction IDs (GTIDs) feature. It's quite reliable for replication between a master and a replica server, and it's a feature that MySQL also has but implemented differently."
"We use MariaDB for identity provider services. Most of the things that we are doing are deployed in the container mode. All such solutions require a database, and MariaDB is easier to use for these kinds of deployments."
"I haven't faced any technical issues with the product, and it works fine."
"The performance of the SQL Server is very good."
"I have seen that this is a very stable product."
"Stability is one of the most valuable features."
"SQL is very easy to manage."
"What I like most is the management, as it is very easy compared with other products."
"As a data warehouse and storage solution, it's quite good."
"We have found there are many useful features such as the solution is continually being upgraded, ETL capabilities for extracting and transformation, and it is very easy to use."
"I like that it's a cloud solution, is simple to set up, and is simple to use."
"The solution should do some fine-tuning on maybe the transaction per second so that users can get more than they can on the Microsoft SQL Server."
"There is room for improvement in terms of security."
"Replication could be better, and it's not so simple. It would be better if they had a replication server. It would make things a lot easier. You need to have that replication server, but not in the same server farm. Then there will be a bit of latency between both because you should have one in one city and another one in a different city. That kind of solution should be more baked into every single database today. Mirroring the database in a live environment where any record written on the production server replicates instantly across the fiber on the other server wasn't easy. Many people don't even bother with that, and they just run one server."
"The stability could always continue to be improved upon."
"MariaDB doesn't handle long or complex SQL queries quite as well as Oracle Database."
"It does not have tools for debugging procedures and functions."
"When we have had issues with accidental computer shutdown or a power outage, our MariaDB database was corrupted."
"The configuration could be improved. It should be easier."
"The interface integration could be better."
"We have had problems implementing a data warehouse using SQL Server."
"The backup capacity needs to be bigger."
"There are a lot of improvements in the cloud space about which we open a case with Microsoft every now and then. These improvements are not in terms of features or functionality. They are more related to their own compatibility or connectivity on which they keep on working to improve the product."
"If you are a new user then this solution could be difficult, they could improve by making the overall usage easier."
"I would like to see better integration between their link server and other platforms, such as IBM."
"SQL Server could improve by enhancing the integration abilities, adding more inbuilt data security features, and simplifying the maintenance."
"While using it, we really didn't experience any pain points."
MariaDB is ranked 5th in Relational Databases Tools with 51 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 260 reviews. MariaDB is rated 8.2, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of MariaDB writes "Simultaneously use active server capabilities but lacks the maturity ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "Easy to use and provides good speed and data recovery". MariaDB is most compared with Oracle Database, PostgreSQL, Firebird SQL, MySQL and Percona Server, whereas SQL Server is most compared with SAP HANA, Oracle Database, LocalDB, IBM Db2 Database and Teradata. See our MariaDB vs. SQL Server report.
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We monitor all Relational Databases Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.