# MariaDB

40 Hacker News commenters recommended MariaDB and 22 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free open-source database praised for its feature set, openness and production use. Critics most often question the corporate ownership and its drift from MySQL.

## Why people recommend it

- Default choice among relational databases (5 comments): "to me MariaDB is the default choice of relational DB after PostgreSQL" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173251)) "your best bets are MariaDB or Postgres" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589997)) "In my case I consider Postgres / MariaDB "regular, boring SQL"." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125207))
- Open source, actively developed (4 comments): "there's literally zero risk of the MariaDB server suddenly going closed-source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952513)) "it was being updated more regularly, and it was more fully open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46337646)) "MariaDB feels safer because it stays active and builds in the open" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46593459))
- Versatile, from simple to serious use (4 comments): "Postgres and MariaDB exist and you can run a business on them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667309)) "wonderfully simple to use for somewhat casual use cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49365742)) "I think people ignore how versatile mariadb is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46877342))
- Easy to use, coherent system (3 comments): "wraps an insane amount of complexity and smarts in a very coherent system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47888100)) "using MariaDB is infinitely easier on Windows than Postgres" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49173346)) "wonderfully simple to use for somewhat casual use cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49365742))

## What people warn about

- Corporate ownership eroding open-source trust (6 comments): "The MariaDB Corporation financial problems have also spooked companies and so more of them are looking to switch to Postgres." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498898)) "MariaDB Inc doing practically everything the original MariaDB fork was meant to protect users from" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904382)) "they are steadily making their OSS software completely dependent on the company (paid) versions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48585233))
- Limited JSON and MEMORY engine support (2 comments): "MariaDB's MEMORY engine has annoying limitations like no variable-length columns" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47182763)) "MariaDB still implemented JSON columns as LONGTEXT under the covers, making it a non-starter for any serious use of said type." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734269))
- Trails MySQL on recovery and reliability (2 comments): "IME MariaDB doesn't recover or run as reliably as modern versions of MySQL, at least with InnoDB." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46338161)) "IMO Maria has fallen behind MySQL. I wouldn't chose it for anything my income depends on." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46337187))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [PostgreSQL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/postgresql.md): 816 recommend
- [MySQL](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mysql.md): 124 recommend
- [Microsoft SQL Server](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-sql-server.md): 73 recommend
- [Microsoft Access](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-access.md): 62 recommend
- [Turso](https://hackerapproved.com/p/turso.md): 53 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "MariaDB", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mariadb/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).