Data Analyst at KPMG East Africa
Real User
Top 10
Easy to manage, saves time, and provides good documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "SKIP LOCKED is a valuable feature."
  • "The full-text search feature must be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for personal use cases like software development, mostly database bug systems.

How has it helped my organization?

I used the tool to build our website. It is used as a database to store information.

What is most valuable?

SKIP LOCKED is a valuable feature. It prevents us from deleting things we put in the database. It's mostly for background jobs in the software development site in MySQL 8. It is a new feature. The solution easily integrates with other tools and systems in our IT environment.

What needs improvement?

The full-text search feature must be improved.

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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for the past three weeks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten. We can create a database user schema. It's quite easy to update and remove in case anything happens. Backing up is quite easy. We have security features for the backup.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I’m the only user in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

The product provides good documentation online.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to deploy the product. I deployed it on my own. The deployment took an hour. We deploy the product using Kamal. It uses Docker. The tool is deployed on the cloud. To deploy the solution, we just have to enter the password in the server and deploy it. It wasn't much of a hassle.

What was our ROI?

The tool is easy to manage and saves us time. It has much less complications.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We're using the community version. The tool is open source.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I also use PostgreSQL.

What other advice do I have?

The tool helps us get the job done. It is not very complex. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Real User
Top 5
Good service provider, agile and quick deployment
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup was easy. I work in an agile way, which means coding and deploying quickly."
  • "MySQL's performance requires attention. For optimal performance, one should review and sometimes revise the code, particularly when using server-side scripting."

What is our primary use case?

I've used MySQL in the past for a variety of tasks. 

I once used MySQL when I created a PostgreSQL database for club management tasks. This included handling registrations, events, and mailing notifications for payments and event details. It served as a source service provider.

What is most valuable?


What needs improvement?

The response time for support could be faster. 

MySQL's performance requires attention. For optimal performance, one should review and sometimes revise the code, particularly when using server-side scripting. To optimize performance, it's crucial to pay attention to your code. Sometimes, you may need to review your code to ensure it's efficient and doesn't unnecessarily access the database multiple times.

The performance issues I encountered were not due to MySQL itself but were related to my coding approach.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using MySQL for ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For my use case, it is okay. Basically, it's just me for development. Previously, all clients or members of the club accessed it. When there was an event, maybe 30 to 40 people would try to access the system simultaneously.

I'm using SiteGround for hosting the website and its servers. I've chosen a package with more than enough CPU and memory to avoid trouble.

How are customer service and support?

I've used technical support for several times. Most of the time, it was quite okay with quick responses. Once, I had performance issues. It took some time to convince them, but they guided me on improving performance by changing some database functions in MySQL. It was a longer process, but it was eventually resolved.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. I work in an agile way, which means coding and deploying quickly. We had a few internal users but many external users accessing the website, though not the back office.

The back office was developed over years. It's not just about having an idea and executing it; it's more about testing and adapting the process, unlike the waterfall method, where you end up with something that may not be immediately usable.

What about the implementation team?

As the main user, our deployment process wasn't as strict as in a big company. I conducted tests, had a testing process with use cases to review, and then deployed. It was less rigid than in larger companies, where there are separate testing and development environments.

What was our ROI?

I  have seen value and impact from using MySQL

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't pay for a license. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

With my previous employer, we used Oracle.

What other advice do I have?

Don't just use MySQL on its own. Always use it with other software around it. MySQL is very stable, but pay attention to the software you use with it, whether you develop everything from scratch or use open-source systems like CMS.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend using the solution. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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April 2024
Learn what your peers think about MySQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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Maher Shahzalal - PeerSpot reviewer
Backend developer at Alphatraduction
Real User
Dynamic workflows but lacks stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The relations in the database, the dynamic workflow, and the ability to connect with all columns. It's useful for e-commerce."
  • "I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. It does break down a little at times."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case for MySQL is with my products or websites for clients, and it helps me maintain relations with the best.

What is most valuable?

The relations in the database, the dynamic workflow, and the ability to connect with all columns. It's useful for e-commerce.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in terms of the stability of the solution. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using MySQL for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a seven out of ten. It does break down a little at times. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup depends. For example, when working with e-commerce sites, it can be difficult to connect, and there may be failures. However, for other sites, it's easy.

What about the implementation team?

Our organization is using MySQL by having it hosted through a hosting provider.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is free. It is an open-source platform. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate MySQL a six out of ten. I recommend MySQL for small organizations and companies. For bigger organizations, one may need to consider other options.

You can also consider your project, budget, and organization while opting for MySQL. If it's a government or private project and what the product is. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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CharlesBrewer - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at NaMax Limited
Real User
Top 5
A reliable, free, and easy-to-use solution
Pros and Cons
  • "For starters, it's free, which is always nice, and it's also pretty straightforward to use. It's a nice conventional database."
  • "The workbench could be improved. In particular, error messages can be improved, which are horrific and completely unhelpful. I'd like to see improved parsing of errors. When you write SQL and it crashes, it usually is something completely irrelevant and not helpful. I've started to use GPT 3.5 for finding out how to do things. I got to do something a bit different, and that I found to be very useful. If there was some way to tie it into one of the new AI tools, that would probably be a good idea."

What is our primary use case?

Mostly, we're using it as a database behind a machine learning application.

What is most valuable?

For starters, it's free, which is always nice, and it's also pretty straightforward to use. It's a nice conventional database. We don't need the sort of flexibility that you get with most SQL databases and stuff like that, so we are happy with a good old-fashioned relational database. It's totally good for that.

It works. It's reliable. We haven't done any configuration management for probably about two years, but as far as I remember, that was pretty straightforward as well. It's doing what it needs to do as far as we're concerned.

What needs improvement?

The workbench could be improved. In particular, error messages can be improved, which are horrific and completely unhelpful. I'd like to see improved parsing of errors. When you write SQL and it crashes, it usually is something completely irrelevant and not helpful. I've started to use GPT 3.5 for finding out how to do things. I got to do something a bit different, and that I found to be very useful. If there was some way to tie it into one of the new AI tools, that would probably be a good idea. There were a couple of things that I've found difficult to do in the past, and I remember they were fiddly. I set them into ChatGPT, which is GPT 3.5, and it gave first-class answers.

I find it clunky. It just doesn't feel very modern. It feels as if you have to go through multiple steps to get to places, and it's not clear, but operationally, I find it fine.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's reliable. I never lost any data, which you anyways shouldn't. I'd rate it a ten out of ten in terms of stability because we never had the slightest problem. We are not in a challenging environment, but I haven't had any problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've had absolutely no limitations. However, we haven't got enormous data. It's not very vast, so scalability hasn't been an issue. At our level, it's not even a question. It's absolutely perfect. I'd rate it an eight out of ten in terms of scalability, which I describe as very good

How are customer service and support?

I've never contacted them, but technical support within the environment itself isn't good. I'd rate it a three out of ten, but now if I can use my own technical support with GPT 3.5, it comes up to about an eight out of ten. It's a kind of hybrid support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We weren't using a similar solution previously. We would prototype from things like Excel or straight-off .TXT files. I had some experience and so did my business partner, and we just decided this looked like the right answer.

How was the initial setup?

That was pretty straightforward as I remember. It was a while ago now, but I don't remember any difficulties at all. I'd rate it a nine out of ten in terms of the ease of setup. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's free.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did look at MongoDB, but it wasn't what we needed, so we decided we go with something a little more conventionally established, and MySQL absolutely fitted the bill. We didn't need anything else. We got some colleagues who used Oracle, but it's expensive and quite difficult to use. 

What other advice do I have?

If you don't have any unusual requirements or absolutely vast databases, it's ideal. We certainly have no problems at all. It just works.

Overall, I'd rate it a nine out of ten. Nothing is perfect, but it's as good as we could have asked for.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Anays Micolod - PeerSpot reviewer
Programmeuse Python 3 at Université Grenoble Alpes
Real User
Top 5
Has easy access to data, is easy to grasp, and has good documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features."
  • "Sometimes, I get lost in the toggles and buttons, and a better visual design would be nice. The layout is not user-friendly or efficient."

What is our primary use case?

I'm using it to create a small database for a project that I'm working on.

What is most valuable?

The easy access to the data and the ability to sort the data with multiple methods are very valuable features.

It's quite easy to grasp and is really well documented, which are huge plus points.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes, I get lost in the toggles and buttons, and a better visual design would be nice. The layout is not user-friendly or efficient.

I would like to be able to sort the data easily without having to do a request to get the table out of the database into the web page. At present, I can't do it directly inside MySQL; I have to do a request and print out my request into a web page.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is really good. I haven't had any issues with it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy.

I learned to use it in class, and the setup was quite fast because the teacher really helped us to gain access and take the first few steps. The setup took a few hours at most.

What about the implementation team?

I installed it myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I use a free version at present.

What other advice do I have?

Plan how the data will be constructed. I had to delete an entire database and start over because I didn't organize it properly. That was a huge block.

I would rate MySQL at eight on a scale from one to ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Ahmed-Ramy - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at TMentors
Real User
Open-source and easy to implement but needs a lot of updating
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a mature solution that's been around for decades."
  • "It isn't as reliable as an SQL Server."

What is our primary use case?

We use the product for database management, as a database engine.

What is most valuable?

We use it for different projects, mainly when we have lots of data and the customer can't afford to pay the license of SQL Server, which is not a cheap one.

That's the main reason you use MySQL or Postgres or other databases. It's less expensive. 

The solution is stable.

The scalability is very good.

It's a mature solution that's been around for decades.

It is very easy to set up the product.

What needs improvement?

The support in MySQL is horrible.

It isn't as reliable as an SQL Server.

I don't see MySQL being improved at all, like in the last 10 years. It has been at the same level for a long time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is quite good. There are no bugs or glitches. it doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable, however, sometimes you might have issues. You need to have the knowledge to make sure that you can scale. That said, there are a lot of used MySQL implementations all around the world, which shows that it's a proven product. It has been there for more than 20 years or so.

How are customer service and support?

The support is not ideal. It could be better. It runs under Oracle, and Oracle support is not the best company when it comes to supporting - especially since MySQL used to be a free, open-source solution, and remains free. Oracle doesn't have this approach in its DNA. It's an enterprise and they're not into open-source ways of working. That's why sometimes we move from MySQL to Postgres, which is similar yet has the support in the community.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've also used Postgre and SQL Server.

This product is not as solid as SQL Server. It's not like it's a lesser quality thing, however, it's not as reliable as SQL Server. The engine is a whole different engine. SQL Server is a full-featured database engine, and MySQL is based on what we call a file-based database. It's like flat files as a database engine, so it's an underdog, if you can call it that, when it comes to database engines. That said, it works fine.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not that complex. It's simple and straightforward for the most part.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is open-source. We don't pay for it.

There are options to get professional support from Oracle and, for that, the pricing really comes up, therefore, it's not competitive anymore. For that reason, it might be even wiser to get Oracle Database than get MySQL and pay for the premium support.

What other advice do I have?

We are just end-users. However, we are happy to work with them.

With Microsoft, we are a customer, partner, and vendor. We aren't partners with Oracle. 

I would rate the solution at a six out of ten.

They just need to assign a great team to MySQL, basically, and Oracle should just leave them alone to improve the product as the product hasn't been improved in the last 10 years. Since Oracle acquired it, it has been in decline. They need to do a lot, not in terms of features. In terms of the mindset.

I would recommend Postgres which is similar to MySQL, over this product. Even the clients are coming to us with such requests. They will flat-out tell us: "we hear that MySQL is having issues and we don't want to deal with Oracle and all that kind of stuff, so let's use Postgres." It's easy to migrate over. It's almost seamless, which makes it a very attractive option.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Egzon Maloku - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Pantheon ERP Implementer & Head of Accounting at Datalab
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Includes a feature for automation but license needs to be cheaper
Pros and Cons
  • "I like MySQL's feature that helps to automate things."
  • "The solution is expensive."

What is our primary use case?

We use MySQL to manage business intelligence reports by linking them with Oracle database and Power BI. 

What is most valuable?

I like MySQL's feature that helps to automate things. 

What needs improvement?

The solution is expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate MySQL's stability a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My company has two users for the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

We have not contacted support until now. We have an onboarding manual. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's installation is not complex but you need to have experience to set it up. You need to download the solution and pay for it. The installation can be done within an hour. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

You need to pay upgrade costs every year. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate MySQL a nine out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Free, open-source, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "MySQL has cross-platform support for multiple operating systems. The backups on a Linux machine can be restored on a Windows machine, and vice versa."
  • "Improvements are required in character set support, scalability, and big data sets."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for MySQL is to develop web applications, proof of concept projects with data collection, data manipulation, and data reporting on both Windows and Linux platforms. 

We also use MySQL to store the data that we receive from different projects and build data models. We can also develop reports out of it.

MySQL is used for small application use only and not used for enterprise-level business applications.

MSQL is free open-source software. This is the most valuable aspect for any company as it helps to reduce the cost.

How has it helped my organization?

MySQL is easy to use and, with basic knowledge of SQL, users can easily build SQL Statements. It helps to reduce project cost for development projects. It also supports a large number of embedded applications.

The backup and recovery features are easy to use without any complexity. Users who don’t have much knowledge of databases can easily use these features.

MySQL offers password encryption and offers a good data security layer to protect data.

MySQL platform independence helps the development and user community.

What is most valuable?

MySQL is a relational database and it is easy to install, handle day-to-day activities, and manage backups. It is compatible with a lot of other shared database solutions.

MySQL Workbench is the graphical user interface tool and it helps with development, data modeling, data migration, and day-to-day administration.

MySQL has cross-platform support for multiple operating systems. The backups on a Linux machine can be restored on a Windows machine, and vice versa.

MySQL supports multiple window displays and it is useful for developers and users who don’t have much database knowledge.

What needs improvement?

Improvements are required in character set support, scalability, and big data sets.

There is a lack of advanced features such as SQLServer, PostgreSQL, etc. I would like to see minimum reporting services and analytics features in the next release.

MySQL doesn't have many tools to monitor performance and fix issues easily.

The graphical user interface needs to be improved. It would be nice to have drag and drop on tables to create relationships between them. Other relational databases have these basic features. It helps during development to have these on hand.

It needs improvement in high availability and scalability features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for more than ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

MySQL is good for small to medium sizes. Also, it has built-in security features. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How are customer service and support?

The support may be limited for users who are not on cloud and needs improvement.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not previously use a different solution.

How was the initial setup?

MySQL is easy to setup and offers HA and scalability features. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the solution in-house.

What was our ROI?

Its free open source availability provides good ROI. MySQL commercial version cost is higher than other open source databases. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

MySQL is free open-source software. This is the most valuable aspect for any company. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at an SQL Server and Mongo DB.

What other advice do I have?

It supports wide range of languages and cross-platform support

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free MySQL Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free MySQL Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.