We performed a comparison between MYSQL and SQL Server based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: SQL Server comes out ahead in this comparison because it is less demanding on resources and can more easily be integrated with other solutions. Some users feel that MySQL requires more maintenance and can be a bit buggy and less stable than SQL Server.
"I like MySQL because of its community."
"The initial setup for the SQL database is not complex and it even integrates into the platform. You set up the recipe and then just follow the runbook, the build book. Then it works as long as you follow the procedures."
"MySQL is easy and convenient for me. I don't need to rely on anyone. I can write the code and extract the information. It is fast if you know how to use it. The solution is not expensive, and most of the developers know how to use it. It is easy to create tables. The solution is stable and has good performance. The connection with AWS gives regular updates, which is manual otherwise and a nightmare."
"We use it as a data store and from that perspective, we get everything we need."
"Fully scalable and stable SQL-based RDBMS, with a straightforward and easy setup."
"I am totally satisfied with MySQL."
"I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten since it has been running flawlessly."
"The solution is great for small applications in particular."
"The performance is great."
"I believe Always On is the most valuable feature. It's also easy to use and not very tricky."
"The performance of the SQL Server is very good."
"Enables us to convert to bigger DBs and more easily move or upgrade between branches."
"This solution is user-friendly and easy to understand."
"It's a very stable solution."
"The main feature of this solution is ease of use."
"The initial setup is easy, flawless."
"The availability of tools could be improved in the MySQL open-source platform. They can provide more analytical tools. I haven't had any particularly difficult issues to troubleshoot on MySQL, but in the past, on Microsoft SQL Server, I had to troubleshoot some difficult issues, and better tools were in place to see what was going on in real-time on the server. So, that's the bit that is lacking on the MySQL open-source platform."
"I would like to see some improvements in the solution’s integration aspects."
"The GUI interface probably can be improved. Let us say I want to see the relationships in the database. In the query analyzer, I would like to go and drop the tables and create relationships between the tables. I haven't found a feature like that in MySQL. It was a shortcoming even in SQL Server. MySQL can have more performance monitoring tools. I know Google has these tools, but within MySQL, there are not that many tools to monitor things like performance and database locking. They might be in there, and I might not be familiar enough to know where they are. I am a pretty new user of MySQL."
"The documentation is pretty weak and should be improved."
"If the customer is already using or has already used Oracle for a long time they will know the look and feel and the character of this database that can fit into their business."
"MySQL needs improvements on its diagnostic features."
"I am looking for the Temporal SQL feature, which basically means that there is complete history for each table. This feature is currently available in MariaDB. PostgreSQL has something called a foreign-data wrapper, which is another way to access external data from inside. MySQL could have a similar feature."
"It would be helpful if there were a graphical user interface to administer, configure, and tune it."
"The treatment of database storage could be improved."
"I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"The backup capacity needs to be bigger."
"In terms of exceptionally large databases, it doesn't scale as well as Oracle."
"The solution could improve by having better integration."
"It would be nice if there was a feature to search for a specific value across multiple tables. This would save a lot of time for its users."
"SQL Server doesn't have proper bitmap indexing, proper columnar databases, or proper implementation of materialized views."
"SQL Server could improve by having better usability or user guidance."
MySQL is ranked 4th in Relational Databases Tools with 140 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 244 reviews. MySQL is rated 8.2, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of MySQL writes "Good beginner base but it should have better support for backups". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "A stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything". MySQL is most compared with Firebird SQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Teradata and Oracle Database, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, Oracle Database, IBM Db2 Database and Vertica. See our MySQL vs. SQL Server report.
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