If you are hosting a website with a database, as is the case with almost all websites built with a content management system, you are probably working with MySQL or MariaDB. But what's the difference between the two, and why are more and more users switching to MariaDB? We'll go into this in this blog post.

What is MariaDB?

MariaDB is an open-source relational database that was developed in 2009 as a direct replacement for MySQL. It was created by the original developers of MySQL after Oracle Corporation acquired MySQL. Due to Oracle's acquisition of MySQL, this database is no longer fully open source, which affects its accessibility. MariaDB was created at this time to go back to being completely open source and redesign all of MySQL's bugs and decisions from the ground up. This allowed the developers of MariaDB to start with a clean slate.

MariaDB is fully compatible with MySQL, meaning websites and applications that work with MySQL will generally run on MariaDB without any changes.

Why choose MariaDB over MySQL?

Open-source & free license

MariaDB remains 100% open-source and is developed by the community, while MySQL was developed under the direction of Oracle with partially proprietary functionalities. This makes MariaDB more attractive for companies that want to retain full control.

Faster performance

MariaDB is faster than MySQL in many cases, especially for complex queries and large databases. This is due to:

✅ Better query optimization - MariaDB executes some queries more efficiently.

✅ More storage engines - In addition to InnoDB, Aria, TokuDB and RocksDB are also supported for better performance on various workloads.

✅ Improved replication - Faster master-slave replication for high-traffic databases.

More active development & faster updates

MariaDB is regularly updated and introduces new features faster than MySQL. This means more innovation and better security. This enables faster adaptation to user needs and the addition of more features or improvements in the foreseeable future.

More features and flexibility

MariaDB has features that are not (or will not be) available in MySQL, such as:

Virtual Columns - for advanced data manipulation.

Extended JSON support - for modern web applications.

Galera Cluster - for advanced database replication and high availability.

Better security

MariaDB includes several security enhancements over MySQL by default, such as better encryption and improved authentication methods.

What does this mean for your website?

If you have a WordPress, Joomla or Magento website, you will probably find that MariaDB is faster and more stable. This means:

🚀 Faster load times for visitors

📈 Better performance with high traffic

🔒 Better security against data breaches

Faster load times make the biggest difference to your website's user experience, because it means you can get the site in front of your users' eyes faster. And that's an essential part of today's stress sheets. Several studies already show that if a website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, this is already a reason for many users to go elsewhere. This figure is also several years old and will most likely be even shorter than 3 seconds. So any advantage you have in the speed of your website should be used.

Should you switch to MariaDB?

At MijnHostingPartner.nl we offer the choice between MySQL 8 and MariaDB as standard. As part of our Core packages, it is also possible to use MS SQL for the best performance within .NET hosting applications. And this can also be linked as an add-on to an SSD hosting package.

If you are still using MySQL, you can easily switch over. As MariaDB is backwards compatible, you can usually migrate your existing databases without any problems.

It is then a matter of exporting the current MySQL or MySQL 8 database, which is easy to do via PHPmyAdmin, and then importing it back into MariaDB. This often works without any problems with smaller databases using PHPMyAdmin, but can also be done using a local tool such as SQLyog. This often works more reliably with larger databases. We have also written a detailed article on these steps that you can follow to easily migrate your MySQL databases to MariaDB. You can also let the databases coexist during this development phase to see what differences they have. Within WordPress, you then only need to adjust your Wp-config.php with the database data. So you can easily change this.

Would you like to know what other advantages our hosting offers? Then take a look at the specifications of our packages and see for yourself!

Secure your hosting package now at a competitive price and start creating your next project immediately.