MariaDB vs MySQL: The Migration Case in 2026

MariaDB and MySQL share a common origin: MariaDB was forked from MySQL in 2009 when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems. Since then, the two databases have diverged significantly. In September 2025, Oracle laid off a large part of its MySQL engineering team, as The Register reported, accelerating the divergence. For organizations running MySQL in production, the question is no longer "if" but "when" to evaluate alternatives.

The MySQL support timeline

Oracle's restructuring of the MySQL engineering team has introduced uncertainty about the long-term maintenance of the MySQL product line. Several key versions have already passed their support end dates.

Organizations still running MySQL 5.7 or 8.0 face an immediate security gap. MySQL 8.4 and 9.x exist, but with Oracle's engineering reductions, the pace of bug fixes and security patches is uncertain.

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Feature comparison

MariaDB Community Edition includes features that MySQL reserves for its paid Enterprise Edition.

MySQL Enterprise Edition closes some of these gaps, but at a significant licensing cost. MariaDB includes most of them in the free Community Edition; MaxScale is the exception, commercially licensed for production use.

AI and vector capabilities

MariaDB includes native vector search directly in the core engine, making it practical for RAG pipelines, semantic search, and recommendation systems without adding a separate vector database. This capability is open source and available on any infrastructure.

MySQL's vector search is available only through HeatWave, Oracle's in-database ML service. HeatWave is cloud-only and locked to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, so using it means committing to OCI as your platform. MariaDB also offers AI RAG integration and an MCP Server for agentic AI workflows, both usable on Cloudscale, Exoscale, or on-premises deployments.

Security

MariaDB Community includes a security stack without requiring an Enterprise license: encryption at rest and in transit, LDAP, PAM, and Kerberos authentication plugins, row and column-level role-based access control, and detailed audit logging. Dynamic data masking and the query firewall run through MaxScale, which is free to test but needs a subscription in production. These controls directly support GDPR and HIPAA compliance requirements. Organizations subject to Swiss data protection regulations (nDSG) benefit from the combination of these controls with the ability to run on Swiss-jurisdiction infrastructure.

Enterprise migrations: real-world results

Large organizations across banking, technology, and education have completed MySQL and Oracle migrations to MariaDB with documented results.

Samsung SDS migrated their Knox Portal (internal groupware used by almost half a million Samsung employees across 80 affiliates) from Oracle to MariaDB. The result: operating costs reduced by more than 50%, with zero-downtime migration.

DBS Bank, Southeast Asia's largest bank, moved 30+ production applications to MariaDB, including its commercial banking and payment engines, the first mission-critical applications it put on MariaDB. Cost savings compared to their previous proprietary database were 30-70%.

Esade University migrated from MySQL Community to MariaDB Enterprise with Galera Cluster to handle roughly 1,000 daily concurrent users across their eLearning platform. The migration was described as "very straightforward" using standard dump files.

Other named MariaDB enterprise customers include Deutsche Bank and ServiceNow.

Migration path

MariaDB maintains application-level compatibility with MySQL. For MySQL 5.7, MariaDB is largely a drop-in replacement. For MySQL 8.0+, dedicated new infrastructure is recommended over in-place upgrades.

Key migration considerations:

• JSON data: MariaDB stores as LONGTEXT; auto-converted by the mariadb-upgrade tool (10.6.15+)
• Authentication: caching_sha2_password is supported in MariaDB 11.4+
• Replication: MySQL 8.0 to MariaDB 11.4/11.8 replication is supported for phased migrations
• Encryption: Tables must be decrypted before migration and re-encrypted after

MariaDB also offers a free Migration Assessment Tool for Oracle-to-MariaDB migrations, with automated DDL analysis and compatibility reporting.

Support lifecycle

VSHN supports each MariaDB version as long as MariaDB itself does:

That published, version-by-version schedule gives organizations a clear upgrade path, which contrasts with the uncertainty around Oracle's MySQL staffing and release commitments.

VSHN Managed MariaDB

VSHN operates MariaDB instances on Swiss cloud infrastructure (Cloudscale, Exoscale, or on-premises). The managed service includes automated backups, Galera Cluster high availability, 24/7 monitoring, and up to 99.99% SLA. VSHN is an authorized MariaDB reseller and assists organizations with MySQL-to-MariaDB migrations, including compatibility assessment and go-live support.

These prices cover the managed service. Computing resources come on top, procured and resold by VSHN, so you get one invoice unless you bring your own cloud subscription.

Next steps

Ready to evaluate a MySQL-to-MariaDB migration? Book a free 15-minute consultation with our database engineers. We will review your current MySQL setup, assess compatibility, and recommend a migration approach.