The Web Standards - MySQL & MariaDB

The Relationship: MySQL and MariaDB

MySQL is the most popular open-source database in the world, powering massive platforms like Facebook and WordPress. It follows a classic Client-Server model, where a server daemon (mysqld) runs on a host and listens for requests from clients.

MariaDB is a community-developed fork of MySQL. It was created by the original developers of MySQL after MySQL was acquired by Oracle.

• Drop-in Replacement: For most practical purposes, MariaDB is a "drop-in" replacement for MySQL. The commands, libraries, and APIs are almost identical.
• Why choose one over the other? MySQL (Oracle) offers enterprise support and specific features like the JSON document store. MariaDB tends to be more open-source focused, often implements new features faster, and includes more storage engines by default.