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MariaDB VS Google Cloud Spanner

Compare MariaDB VS Google Cloud Spanner and see what are their differences

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MariaDB logo MariaDB

An enhanced, drop-in replacement for MySQL

Google Cloud Spanner logo Google Cloud Spanner

Google Cloud Spanner is a horizontally scalable, globally consistent, relational database service.
  • MariaDB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18
  • Google Cloud Spanner Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

MariaDB features and specs

  • Open Source
    MariaDB is fully open-source, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. There are no licensing fees, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes.
  • Compatibility with MySQL
    MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. It offers extensive compatibility, making it easy to switch from MySQL without needing to make significant changes to the codebase.
  • Performance
    MariaDB often offers better performance and scalability compared to other relational databases. It includes enhancements in query optimization and indexing, which can lead to faster data retrieval.
  • Advanced Features
    MariaDB includes advanced features such as the Aria storage engine, dynamic columns, and thread pooling. These features provide more flexibility and control over database management and optimization.
  • Active Community
    Being open-source, MariaDB benefits from a robust and active community of developers and users who contribute to its development and provide support through forums and other channels.
  • Security
    MariaDB is known for its strong focus on security. It includes advanced security features such as data encryption, role-based access control, and protection against SQL injection attacks.

Possible disadvantages of MariaDB

  • Learning Curve
    For new users, especially those without much experience with relational databases or MySQL, MariaDB can have a steep learning curve. It requires an understanding of SQL, database management, and various configurations.
  • Inconsistent Documentation
    While the community is active, the documentation can sometimes be inconsistent or incomplete. This can make troubleshooting and leveraging advanced features more challenging.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Although MariaDB aims to be compatible with MySQL, certain features or configurations might not work identically, leading to potential compatibility issues with some applications.
  • Fewer Enterprise Features
    Compared to commercial database solutions like Oracle, MariaDB may lack certain enterprise-level features, tools, and support options that large corporations might require.
  • Market Adoption
    MariaDB, while popular, does not have as wide of an adoption as MySQL or other big players in the database market, which can be a consideration for integration and support in some environments.

Google Cloud Spanner features and specs

  • Scalability
    Google Cloud Spanner can automatically scale horizontally, providing robust support for large-scale applications. It can handle petabytes of data across millions of instances with ease.
  • Global Distribution
    Spanner enables globally distributed databases with strong consistency and low-latency reads, allowing applications to deliver seamless performance across the globe.
  • Strong Consistency
    Unlike many other distributed databases, Cloud Spanner offers strong transactional consistency, using Google's TrueTime API to ensure precise timestamp ordering that supports ACID transactions.
  • Fully Managed
    Cloud Spanner is a fully managed service, which means Google handles maintenance tasks such as updates, scaling, and provisioning, reducing the operational overhead for users.
  • SQL Support
    It provides support for SQL queries, making it easier for developers and teams familiar with SQL to integrate and manage their data workloads without needing to learn new paradigms.
  • High Availability
    Cloud Spanner is designed for high availability, with built-in redundancy and failover capabilities that ensure continuous operation even in the face of regional outages.

Possible disadvantages of Google Cloud Spanner

  • Cost
    Google Cloud Spanner can be expensive compared to other database solutions, especially for smaller applications or startups with limited budgets.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    While growing, Spanner's ecosystem is not as mature as more established relational or NoSQL databases, which might lead to fewer third-party tools and integrations.
  • Complexity in Migration
    Migrating existing applications and data to Cloud Spanner can be complex and time-consuming, particularly for those coming from non-relational database systems.
  • Limited NoSQL Features
    For applications that require specific NoSQL features, such as unstructured data handling and schema flexibility, Cloud Spanner may not be the best fit compared to other NoSQL databases.
  • Regional Lock-in
    Although it offers global distribution, data residency and compliance requirements might limit some organizations to specific regions, which can affect the strategic deployment of an application.

Analysis of MariaDB

Overall verdict

  • MariaDB is generally considered a good and reliable choice for database management, offering a strong feature set, active development community, and favorable performance.

Why this product is good

  • MariaDB is a popular fork of MySQL, known for being open-source and community-driven.
  • It offers enhanced performance and scalability, often outperforming MySQL in benchmark tests.
  • MariaDB includes features not present in MySQL, such as the Aria storage engine and better support for JSON.
  • Developed by the original creators of MySQL, ensuring continuity in quality and development philosophy.

Recommended for

  • Organizations looking for a robust, open-source alternative to MySQL.
  • Developers wanting to avoid the commercial restrictions of MySQL due to Oracle's ownership.
  • Projects that require high-performance, scalable database management systems.
  • Users looking for additional features and storage engines not available in MySQL.

MariaDB videos

+ Add

MySQL/MariaDB Basics (RHCE Study)

More videos:

  • Review - MariaDB Storage Engines
  • Tutorial - #MariaDB Server 10.2: The Complete Guide - #Database Tutorial

Google Cloud Spanner videos

+ Add

Build with Google Cloud Spanner

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to MariaDB and Google Cloud Spanner)

MariaDB

Google Cloud Spanner

Databases
71 71%
Databases
29% 29
NoSQL Databases
80 80%
NoSQL Databases
20% 20
Relational Databases
62 62%
Relational Databases
38% 38
Cloud Computing
100 100%
Cloud Computing
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare MariaDB and Google Cloud Spanner

MariaDB Reviews

Data Warehouse Tools
MariaDB is another open-source relational database management system that can be used for data warehousing. It’s a robust and secure option for organizations seeking a familiar and cost-effective solution, especially those already invested in the MySQL ecosystem.
Source: peliqan.io
MariaDB Vs MySQL In 2019: Compatibility, Performance, And Syntax
Even the command line tools are similar to mysqldump and mysqladmin still having the original names, allowing MariaDB to be a drop-in replacement.To make sure MariaDB maintains drop-in compatibility, the MariaDB developers do a monthly merge of the MariaDB code with the MySQL code. Even with this, there are some differences between MariaDB and MySQL that could cause some...
Source: blog.panoply.io

Google Cloud Spanner Reviews

We have no reviews of Google Cloud Spanner yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, MariaDB should be more popular than Google Cloud Spanner. It has been mentiond 42 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

MariaDB mentions (42)

  • OpenBSD Upgrade 7.6 to 7.7
    In addition, it also includes MariaDB update where "Binary logs are no longer purged by default unless a replica has connected", and minio update where "the MinIO Gateway and the related filesystem mode code have been removed". - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • MariaDB (Bite-size Article)
    Download from the Official Website: Visit the official MariaDB website (https://mariadb.org/) and download the version that matches your operating system. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • From License to Freedom: Embracing Open Source Forks Knowing What to Expect
    One of the most famous examples is MariaDB, a fork of MySQL. When Oracle acquired MySQL back in 2009, concerns arose about the future of the database under a corporate umbrella and while MySQL has remained open source, the idea of it living under Oracle's roof was enough to push some of the original creators to fork an alternative that still lived within the developer community. During the early stages of MariaDB,... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Using the built-in SQLite module in Node.js
    SQLite is a lightweight database engine written in C. It is a simple, fast, and fully featured implementation of an SQL Database Management System. SQLite differs from other relational databases like MariaDB and PostgreSQL because it does not run as a server. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    MariaDB: A fork of MySQL developed by early MySQL employees. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
View more

Google Cloud Spanner mentions (17)

  • Golden Ticket To Explore Google Cloud
    Multiregion is possible in Google Cloud using Cloud Spanner, which allows you to replicate the database not only in multiple zones but also in multiple regions as defined in the instance configuration. The replicas allow you to read data with low latency from multiple locations that are close to or within the region in the configuration. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • /u/ryuuthecat wonders how a feature of google maps works. Engineer who programmed the feature responds with the answer
    Basically everything I touch is in-house, but a majority of it is available publicly. For instance: https://cloud.google.com/spanner/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How Do Companies (Like Evernote) Handle So Many Notes?
    An application that needs to handle a lot of data can use a distributed database like Cloud Spanner. Unlimited scale and you don't have to split your database into multiple tables. Source: over 2 years ago
  • One of my favorite topics in DE is CAP Theorem. Has anyone managed to accomplish all 3 at once yet or is it truly impossible like the theorem states.
    Look at the architecture and performance of Google's Cloud Spanner, a CP system with 99.999% availability... https://cloud.google.com/spanner. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Vaultree and AlloyDB: the world's first Fully Homomorphic and Searchable Cloud Encryption Solution
    In my opinion, Google has built some fantastic database services like Bigtable and Spanner, which literally changed the industry for good, and I am eager to see how they will build upon this new service. With AlloyDB's disaggregated architecture, the dystopian world where I only pay for SQL databases per query and the stored data on GCP seems closer than ever. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing MariaDB and Google Cloud Spanner, you can also consider the following products

PostgreSQL - PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Microsoft SQL - Microsoft SQL is a best in class relational database management software that facilitates the database server to provide you a primary function to store and retrieve data.

Oracle DBaaS - See how Oracle Database 12c enables businesses to plug into the cloud and power the real-time enterprise.

SQLite - SQLite Home Page

Amazon Aurora - MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud. Performance and availability of commercial-grade databases at 1/10th the cost.

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