# Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), MariaDB vs MySQL Comparison

| | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Star Rating** | 4.5 out of 5 | 4.4 out of 5 | 4.4 out of 5 | 
| **Total Reviews** | 907 | 226 | 1,675 | 
| **Largest Market Segment** | Mid-Market (37.7% of reviews) | Small-Business (41.3% of reviews) | Small-Business (36.7% of reviews) | 
| **Entry Level Price** | No pricing available | No pricing available | $5,000 | 

---
## Top Pros & Cons

### Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

Pros:
- Ease of Use (15 reviews)
- Scalability (13 reviews)

Cons:
- Expensive (18 reviews)
- Complexity (7 reviews)

### MariaDB

Pros:
- Ease of Use (2 reviews)
- Easy Integrations (2 reviews)

Cons:
- Beginner Unfriendliness (1 reviews)
- Connectivity Issues (1 reviews)

### MySQL

Pros:
- Ease of Use (16 reviews)
- Reliability (9 reviews)

Cons:
- Feature Limitations (12 reviews)
- Limited Database Support (8 reviews)

---
## Ratings Comparison
| Rating | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
  | **Meets Requirements** | 9.0 (744 reviews) | 8.9 (183 reviews) | 8.9 (1404 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Use** | 8.8 (752 reviews) | 8.9 (185 reviews) | 8.7 (1408 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Setup** | 8.9 (528 reviews) | 8.7 (115 reviews) | 8.6 (671 reviews) | 
  | **Ease of Admin** | 8.7 (436 reviews) | 8.4 (110 reviews) | 8.4 (633 reviews) | 
  | **Quality of Support** | 8.6 (716 reviews) | 7.9 (142 reviews) | 8.0 (1184 reviews) | 
  | **Has the product been a good partner in doing business?** | 8.8 (424 reviews) | 8.1 (88 reviews) | 8.5 (519 reviews) | 
  | **Product Direction (% positive)** | 9.5 (704 reviews) | 8.9 (176 reviews) | 8.0 (1371 reviews) | 

---
## Pricing

### Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

#### Entry-Level Pricing

No pricing available

#### Free Trial

Yes

### MariaDB

#### Entry-Level Pricing

No pricing available

#### Free Trial

Yes

### MySQL

#### Entry-Level Pricing

Plan: MySQL Enterprise Edition

Price: $5,000


[Browse all 3 editions](https://www.g2.com/products/mysql/pricing)

#### Free Trial

No

---
## Features Comparison By Category

### Relational Databases

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)** | 8.8/10 | 468 |
| **MariaDB** | 8.7/10 | 175 |
| **MySQL** | 8.7/10 | 1290 |

#### Management 

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Data Schema** | 8.8 (306 reviews) | 9.2 (28 reviews) | 9.0 (148 reviews) | 
| **Query Language** | 8.9 (310 reviews) | 9.2 (29 reviews) | 9.2 (150 reviews) | 
| **ACID - Complaint** | 8.8 (295 reviews) | 8.5 (25 reviews) | 8.9 (132 reviews) | 
| **Data Replication** | 8.9 (304 reviews) | 8.5 (23 reviews) | 8.8 (130 reviews) | 

#### Support 

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Text Search** | 8.3 (300 reviews) | 8.6 (26 reviews) | 8.4 (139 reviews) | 
| **Data Types** | 8.7 (312 reviews) | 8.9 (28 reviews) | 8.7 (147 reviews) | 
| **Languages** | 8.6 (306 reviews) | 8.5 (23 reviews) | 8.8 (138 reviews) | 
| **Operating Systems** | 8.8 (310 reviews) | 8.9 (22 reviews) | 9.1 (136 reviews) | 

#### Security

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Database Locking** | 8.6 (299 reviews) | 8.7 (27 reviews) | 8.8 (137 reviews) | 
| **Access Control** | 8.7 (315 reviews) | 8.8 (28 reviews) | 9.0 (137 reviews) | 
| **Encryption** | 8.9 (309 reviews) | 8.8 (22 reviews) | 8.6 (130 reviews) | 
| **Authentication** | 8.8 (312 reviews) | 8.7 (23 reviews) | 8.6 (135 reviews) | 

#### Performance 

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Disaster Recovery** | 8.8 (305 reviews) | 8.3 (21 reviews) | 8.4 (127 reviews) | 
| **Data Concurrency** | 8.6 (299 reviews) | 8.6 (22 reviews) | 8.6 (130 reviews) | 
| **Workload Management** | 8.7 (307 reviews) | 8.4 (24 reviews) | 8.5 (131 reviews) | 
| **Advanced Indexing** | 8.5 (293 reviews) | 8.4 (20 reviews) | 8.6 (134 reviews) | 
| **Query Optimizer** | 8.5 (297 reviews) | 8.5 (27 reviews) | 8.7 (132 reviews) | 

#### Database Features

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Storage** | 9.0 (438 reviews) | 9.0 (153 reviews) | 8.8 (1152 reviews) | 
| **Availability** | 9.2 (438 reviews) | 9.1 (156 reviews) | 8.9 (1156 reviews) | 
| **Stability** | 9.0 (435 reviews) | 9.2 (156 reviews) | 8.7 (1160 reviews) | 
| **Scalability** | 9.2 (425 reviews) | 8.6 (148 reviews) | 8.1 (1128 reviews) | 
| **Security** | 9.1 (432 reviews) | 8.6 (150 reviews) | 8.4 (1116 reviews) | 
| **Data Manipulation** | 8.5 (403 reviews) | 8.7 (150 reviews) | 8.7 (1130 reviews) | 
| **Query Language** | 8.8 (420 reviews) | 9.0 (154 reviews) | 8.9 (1152 reviews) | 

### Columnar Databases

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)** | N/A | N/A |
| **MariaDB** | 9.0/10 | 10 |
| **MySQL** | N/A | N/A |

#### Storage

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Data Model** | Not enough data | 8.8 (8 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Data Types** | Not enough data | 8.9 (9 reviews) | Not enough data | 

#### Availability

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Auto Sharding** | Not enough data | 9.0 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Auto Recovery** | Not enough data | 8.8 (7 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Data Replication** | Not enough data | 8.6 (6 reviews) | Not enough data | 

#### Performance

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Integrated Cache** | Not enough data | 9.0 (8 reviews) | Not enough data | 

#### Security

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Role-Based Authorization** | Not enough data | 9.4 (8 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Authentication** | Not enough data | 9.5 (7 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Audit Logs** | Not enough data | 8.6 (7 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Encryption** | Not enough data | 9.2 (6 reviews) | Not enough data | 

#### Support

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Multi-Model** | Not enough data | 9.7 (5 reviews) | Not enough data | 
| **Operating Systems** | Not enough data | 8.8 (7 reviews) | Not enough data | 

### AWS Marketplace

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)** | N/A | N/A |
| **MariaDB** | N/A | N/A |
| **MySQL** | N/A | N/A |

#### Agentic AI - AWS Marketplace

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Autonomous Task Execution** | Not enough data | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Multi-step Planning** | Not enough data | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Cross-system Integration** | Not enough data | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

### Database as a Service (DBaaS)

| Product | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| **Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)** | 8.7/10 | 281 |
| **MariaDB** | N/A | N/A |
| **MySQL** | N/A | N/A |

#### Configuration

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Application Performance** | 8.8 (247 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Orchestration** | 8.4 (242 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Database Monitoring** | 8.6 (251 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Anomaly Detection** | 8.1 (227 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Network Security** | 8.9 (244 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Database Administration

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Provisioning** | 8.8 (242 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Governance** | 8.6 (232 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Auditing** | Feature Not Available | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Availability

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Scalability** | 9.1 (249 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Backup** | 9.1 (252 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Archiving** | Feature Not Available | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Indexing** | 8.7 (232 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Security

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Data Masking** | 8.3 (170 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Authentication And Single Sign-On** | 8.6 (181 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Data Anonymization** | 8.4 (170 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

#### Data Management

| Feature | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Data Replication** | 8.8 (188 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 
| **Advanced Data Analytics** | 8.6 (175 reviews) | Not enough data | Not enough data | 

---
## Categories
**Shared Categories (1):** [Relational Databases](https://www.g2.com/categories/relational-databases)

**Unique to Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) (1):** [Database as a Service (DBaaS) Providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/database-as-a-service-dbaas)

**Unique to MariaDB (2):** [Columnar Databases](https://www.g2.com/categories/columnar-databases), [AWS Marketplace Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/aws-marketplace)



---
## Reviewer Demographics

### By Company Size

| Segment | Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) | MariaDB | MySQL | 
|---|---|---|---|
| **Small-Business** | 29.0% | 41.3% | 36.7% | 
| **Mid-Market** | 37.7% | 31.7% | 30.8% | 
| **Enterprise** | 33.4% | 27.1% | 32.5% | 

### By Industry

#### Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

- **Information Technology and Services:** 22.6%
- **Computer Software:** 17.0%
- **Financial Services:** 6.0%
- **Computer & Network Security:** 3.7%
- **Telecommunications:** 3.2%
- **Hospital & Health Care:** 3.1%
- **Health, Wellness and Fitness:** 2.7%
- **Banking:** 2.5%
- **Retail:** 2.4%
- **Internet:** 2.2%
- **Other:** 34.4%

#### MariaDB

- **Information Technology and Services:** 26.1%
- **Computer Software:** 20.2%
- **Internet:** 5.0%
- **Telecommunications:** 5.0%
- **Computer & Network Security:** 3.7%
- **Education Management:** 3.7%
- **Marketing and Advertising:** 2.8%
- **Computer Networking:** 2.3%
- **Higher Education:** 2.3%
- **Retail:** 1.8%
- **Other:** 27.1%

#### MySQL

- **Information Technology and Services:** 25.1%
- **Computer Software:** 20.4%
- **Internet:** 4.5%
- **Higher Education:** 4.1%
- **Education Management:** 3.3%
- **Financial Services:** 3.0%
- **Telecommunications:** 3.0%
- **Hospital & Health Care:** 2.3%
- **Banking:** 2.0%
- **Computer & Network Security:** 1.8%
- **Other:** 30.4%

---
## Alternatives

### Alternatives to Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

- [Oracle Database](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-database/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (1010 reviews)
- [IBM Db2](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-db2/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (682 reviews)
- [SAP HANA Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-hana-cloud-2025-10-01/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (621 reviews)
- [Google Cloud SQL](https://www.g2.com/products/google-cloud-sql/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (366 reviews)
- [Azure SQL Database](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-sql-database/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (241 reviews)
- [EDB Postgres Advanced Server](https://www.g2.com/products/edb-postgres-advanced-server/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (37 reviews)
- [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-sql-server/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (2280 reviews)
- [DigitalOcean](https://www.g2.com/products/digitalocean/reviews) — 4.6/5 stars (749 reviews)
- [PostgreSQL](https://www.g2.com/products/postgresql/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (679 reviews)
- [MongoDB Atlas](https://www.g2.com/products/mongodb-atlas/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (371 reviews)

### Alternatives to MariaDB

- [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-sql-server/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (2280 reviews)
- [Oracle Database](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-database/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (1010 reviews)
- [IBM Db2](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-db2/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (682 reviews)
- [PostgreSQL](https://www.g2.com/products/postgresql/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (679 reviews)
- [Amazon Aurora](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-aurora/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (457 reviews)
- [SQLite](https://www.g2.com/products/sqlite/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (260 reviews)
- [Google Cloud SQL](https://www.g2.com/products/google-cloud-sql/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (366 reviews)
- [SAP HANA Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-hana-cloud-2025-10-01/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (621 reviews)
- [OpenText Vertica](https://www.g2.com/products/opentext-vertica/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (216 reviews)
- [Firebird](https://www.g2.com/products/firebird/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (24 reviews)

### Alternatives to MySQL

- [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-sql-server/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (2280 reviews)
- [IBM Db2](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-db2/reviews) — 4.1/5 stars (682 reviews)
- [PostgreSQL](https://www.g2.com/products/postgresql/reviews) — 4.4/5 stars (679 reviews)
- [SAP HANA Cloud](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-hana-cloud-2025-10-01/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (621 reviews)
- [Teradata Vantage](https://www.g2.com/products/teradata-teradata-vantage/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (375 reviews)
- [SQLite](https://www.g2.com/products/sqlite/reviews) — 4.3/5 stars (260 reviews)
- [Azure SQL Database](https://www.g2.com/products/azure-sql-database/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (241 reviews)
- [IBM Informix](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-informix/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (111 reviews)
- [Google Cloud SQL](https://www.g2.com/products/google-cloud-sql/reviews) — 4.5/5 stars (366 reviews)
- [Progress OpenEdge](https://www.g2.com/products/progress-progress-openedge/reviews) — 4.0/5 stars (49 reviews)

---
## Top Discussions

### Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

- Title: [What is Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-amazon-relational-database-service-rds-used-for) — 2 comments, 2 upvotes
  > **Top comment:** "Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a cloud-based service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that is used for managing and operating relational..."
- Title: [An Amazon RDS performance best practice is to allocate enough RAM so that your working set resides almost completely in memory.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/an-amazon-rds-performance-best-practice-is-to-allocate-enough-ram-so-that-your-working-set-resides-almost-completely-in-memory) — 1 comment, 1 upvote
  > **Top comment:** "nice"

### MariaDB

- Title: [What is MariaDB used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/mariadb-what-is-mariadb-used-for) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "It is a fork of MySQL used for data warehouse, e-com services and usage for similar kind of data manipulation tasks. "
- Title: [Is MariaDB compatible with MySQL?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-mariadb-compatible-with-mysql) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "Yes"
- Title: [What is MariaDB server?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-mariadb-server) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "MariaDB server is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that is compatible with MySQL. I'm pretty sure it was a fork of MySQLs..."
- Title: [What is MariaDB used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-mariadb-used-for) — 1 comment
  > **Top comment:** "It is a relational database that stores data in form of row and column coming as input from a source like application softwares"
- Title: [Improvements in the mechanism of replication](https://www.g2.com/discussions/12584-improvements-in-the-mechanism-of-replication) — 1 comment, 1 upvote
  > **Top comment:** "MarieDB Galera cluster is the way to go https://mariadb.com/kb/en/what-is-mariadb-galera-cluster/"

### MySQL

- Title: [Does MySQL new version has strong security?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/10422-question-about-mysql) — 10 comments, 2 upvotes
  > **Top comment:** "Hasini, What do you mean? Have you experienced any security issue? How are you using MySQL (any back-end language) If so, like any other language it depends..."
- Title: [What is MySQL used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-mysql-used-for) — 3 comments
  > **Top comment:** "MySQL is a widely used relational database management system (RDBMS) that serves various purposes across different industries and applications. Here are some..."
- Title: [Can I use MySQL for free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-i-use-mysql-for-free) — 3 comments, 2 upvotes
  > **Top comment:** "Yes, If you are using it for your own purpose (not business purpose), you can download MySQL Community version for free. 
Link for downloading the community..."
- Title: [Could you explain how to optimize MySQL database performance for a new user handling large-scale data?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/could-you-explain-how-to-optimize-mysql-database-performance-for-a-new-user-handling-large-scale-data) — 2 comments
  > **Top comment:** "Try these steps:
1) try normalization 
2) use indexes 
3) try to separate workloads using different techinques"
- Title: [Is there any possibilities than mysql database can be online?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-there-any-possibilities-than-mysql-database-can-be-online) — 2 comments, 1 upvote
  > **Top comment:** "Yes, you can make MySQL databases accessible online and many websites/application do this. It all depends on server configuration."

---
**Source:** [G2.com](https://www.g2.com) | [Comparison Page](https://www.g2.com/compare/amazon-relational-database-service-rds-vs-mariadb-vs-mysql)