MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the

MySQL MySQL () is an Open-source software, open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A rel ...

relational database management system A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...

(RDBMS), intended to remain

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...

under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. Development is led by some of the original developers of MySQL, who forked it due to concerns over its acquisition by

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

in 2009, but in 2024 MariaDB plc was itself bought by the K1 private equity group, which appointed a new CEO. MariaDB is intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, with exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands, allowing it in many cases to function as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. However, new features are diverging. It includes new storage engines like

Aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

, ColumnStore, and MyRocks. Its CTO is Michael "Monty" Widenius, one of the founders of MySQL AB and the founder of Monty Program AB. On 16 January 2008, MySQL AB announced that it had agreed to be acquired by

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

for approximately $1 billion. The acquisition completed on 26 February 2008. Sun was then bought the following year by

. MariaDB is named after Widenius' younger daughter, Maria. (MySQL is named after his other daughter, My.) Its logo consists of a sea lion, that Monty Widenius has chosen while he was snorkeling with his daughter in the

Galápagos Islands The Galápagos Islands () are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, located around the equator, west of the mainland of South America. They form the Galápagos Province of the Republic of Ecuador, with a population of sli ...

MariaDB Server

Licensing

The MariaDB Foundation mentions that "MariaDB Server will remain Free and Open Source Software licensed under GPLv2, independent of any commercial entities."

Versioning

MariaDB version numbers follow MySQL's numbering scheme up to version 5.5. Thus, MariaDB 5.5 offers all of the MySQL 5.5 features. There exists a gap in MySQL versions between 5.1 and 5.5, while MariaDB issued 5.2 and 5.3 point releases. Since specific new features have been developed in MariaDB, the developers decided that a major version number change was necessary. {, class="wikitable sortable" , - ! Version ! Original release date ! Latest version ! Release date ! Status ! End of Life , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 5.1.67 , 2013-01-30 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 5.2.14 , 2013-01-30 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 5.3.12 , 2013-01-30 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 5.5.68 , 2020-05-12 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.0.38 , 2019-01-31 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.1.48 , 2020-11-04 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.2.44 , 2022-05-20 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.3.39 , 2023-05-10 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.4.34 , 2024-05-16 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.5.29 , 2025-05-06 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.6.22 , 2025-05-06 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.7.8 , 2023-02-06 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.8.8 , 2023-05-10 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.9.8 , 2023-08-14 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.10.7 , 2023-11-13 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 10.11.13 , 2025-05-22 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 11.0.6 , 2024-05-16 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 11.1.6 , 2024-08-08 , Stable (GA) , , - , , style="text-align:right;" , , 11.2.6 , {{nowrap, 2024-11-01{{Cite web , title=MariaDB 11.2.6 Release Notes , url=https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-11-2-6-release-notes/ , access-date=2024-11-15 , website=MariaDB.org , language=en-US , Stable (GA) , {{Version, o, Nov 2024 , - , {{Version, co, 11.4 LTS , style="text-align:right;" , {{Release date and age, 2023, 12, 24, p=yes, br=yes, df=y{{Cite web , last=Gilfillan , first=Ian , date=2023-09-20 , title=MariaDB 11.4.0 preview release now available , url=https://mariadb.org/mariadb-11-4-0-preview-release-now-available/ , access-date=2024-08-22 , website=MariaDB.org , language=en-US , 11.4.7 , {{nowrap, 2025-05-22 , Stable (GA) , {{Version, co, May 2029 , - , {{Version, o, 11 Rolling , style="text-align:right;" , {{Release date and age, 2023, 09, 20, p=yes, br=yes, df=y{{Cite web , last=Gilfillan , first=Ian , date=2023-09-20 , title=MariaDB 11.3.0 preview release available , url=https://mariadb.org/mariadb-11-3-0-preview-release-available/ , access-date=2023-11-21 , website=MariaDB.org , language=en-US , 11.7.2 , {{nowrap, 2025-02-13{{Cite web , title=MariaDB 11.7.2 Release Notes , url=https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-11-7-2-changelog/ , access-date=2025-04-05 , website=MariaDB.org , language=en-US , archive-date=15 March 2025 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250315181318/https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-11-7-2-changelog/ , url-status=live , Stable (GA) , {{Version, o, May 2025 , - , {{Version, c, 11.8 LTS , style="text-align:right;" , {{Release date and age, 2024, 12, 18, p=ye s, br=yes, df=y{{Cite web , last=Arnö , first=Kaj , date=2025-02-12 , title=MariaDB 11.8 is LTS , url=https://mariadb.org/11-8-is-lts/ , access-date=2025-04-05 , website=MariaDB.org , language=en-US , 11.8.2 , {{nowrap, 2025-06-04 , Stable (GA) , {{Version, c, June 2028 , - , {{Version, cp, 12 Rolling , style="text-align:right;" , {{Release date and age, 2025, 06, 05, p=ye s, br=yes, df=y{{Cite web , date=2025-06-05 , title= MariaDB Server 12.0 , url=https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-server-12-0/ , access-date=2025-06-05 , website=MariaDB.com , language=en-US , 12.0.1 , {{nowrap, 2025-06-05 , Release Candidate (RC) , {{Version, cp, TBC , - , colspan="6" , {{Version , l , show=111110 LTS = ''Long-Term Support''

Third-party software

MariaDB's

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

and protocol are compatible with those used by MySQL, plus some features to support native non-blocking operations and progress reporting. This means that all connectors, libraries and applications which work with MySQL should also work on MariaDB—whether or not they support its native features. On this basis, Fedora developers replaced MySQL with MariaDB in Fedora 19, out of concerns that Oracle was making MySQL a more closed software project.{{cite web, url=https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/ReplaceMySQLwithMariaDB, title=Features / Replace MySQL with MariaDB, access-date=17 September 2014, archive-date=21 February 2016, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221141730/http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/ReplaceMySQLwithMariaDB, url-status=live

OpenBSD OpenBSD is a security-focused operating system, security-focused, free software, Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Theo de Raadt created OpenBSD in 1995 by fork (software development), forking NetBSD ...

likewise in April 2013 dropped MySQL for MariaDB 5.5. However, for recent MySQL features, MariaDB either has no equivalent yet (like geographic function) or deliberately chose not to be 100% compatible (like GTID,

JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced or ) is an open standard file format and electronic data interchange, data interchange format that uses Human-readable medium and data, human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consi ...

). The MariaDB wiki claims that starting with MariaDB 10, upgrading from MySQL 8 is possible in most cases.

Prominent users

MariaDB is used at ServiceNow, DBS Bank,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, Mozilla, and, since 2013, the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

. Several Linux distributions and BSD operating systems include MariaDB. Some default to MariaDB, such as Arch Linux, Manjaro,

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

(from Debian 9), Fedora (from Fedora 19), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (from RHEL 7 in June 2014), CentOS (from CentOS 7), Mageia (from Mageia 2), openSUSE (from openSUSE 12.3 Dartmouth), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (from SLES 12), Slackware Linux (from Slackware 14.1) and

(from 5.7).

MariaDB Foundation

The MariaDB Foundation was founded in 2012 to oversee the development of MariaDB.{{cite web, author=rasmus, date=2012-12-04, title=MariaDB Foundation to Safeguard Leading Open Source Database « The MariaDB Blog, url=https://blog.mariadb.org/mariadb-foundation-to-safeguard-leading-open-source-database/, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906210407/http://blog.mariadb.org/mariadb-foundation-to-safeguard-leading-open-source-database/, archive-date=6 September 2013, access-date=2013-04-16, publisher=Blog.mariadb.org{{cite web, date=2012-12-04, title=1 million euros pledged to new MariaDB Foundation - The H Open: News and Features, url=http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/1-million-euros-pledged-to-new-MariaDB-Foundation-1762165.html, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121205160023/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/1-million-euros-pledged-to-new-MariaDB-Foundation-1762165.html, archive-date=5 December 2012, access-date=2013-04-16, publisher=H-online.com The current CEO of the MariaDB Foundation is Anna Widenius. The Executive Chairman is Kaj Arnö, who served as CEO from 2019 to 2025.{{Cite web, date=2019-01-30, title=A Word from the Incoming CEO, url=https://mariadb.org/kaj-ceo/, access-date=2019-01-30, website=MariaDB.org, language=en-US

Notable sponsors of MariaDB Foundation

MariaDB Foundation has notable sponsors. In January 2025, listed sponsors were

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

, Acronis, Alibaba Cloud, Constructor,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, MariaDB Corporation AB, ServiceNow, WebPros, DBS. The Foundation also works with technology partners, e.g.

tasked one of its engineers to work at the MariaDB Foundation in 2013, and Amazon contributed to a major AI feature, MariaDB Vector.

History of MariaDB Foundation

In December 2012

Michael Widenius Ulf Michael Widenius (born 3 March 1962), also known as Monty, is a Finnish software programmer. He is the main author of the original version of the open source MySQL database, a founding member of the MySQL AB company, founding member of the ...

, David Axmark, and Allan Larsson announced the formation of a foundation that would oversee the development of MariaDB. At the time of founding in 2013 the Foundation wished to create a

governance Governance is the overall complex system or framework of Process, processes, functions, structures, Social norm, rules, Law, laws and Norms (sociology), norms born out of the Interpersonal relationship, relationships, Social interaction, intera ...

model similar to that used by the Eclipse Foundation. The Board appointed the Eclipse Foundation's Executive Director Mike Milinkovich as an advisor to lead the transition. The MariaDB Foundation's first sponsor and member was MariaDB Corporation AB that joined in 2014 after initial agreements on the division of ownership and roles between the MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB Corporation.{{cite web, date=2013-04-18, title=MariaDB Foundation on course for community governance, url=http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/MariaDB-Foundation-on-course-for-community-governance-1844579.html, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130419003658/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/MariaDB-Foundation-on-course-for-community-governance-1844579.html, archive-date=19 April 2013, publisher= The H{{cite web , last=Asay , first=Matt , title=Does MariaDB's latest move show how hard it is to make money with open source? , website=TechRepublic , date=2016-08-22 , url=https://www.techrepublic.com/article/does-mariadbs-latest-move-show-how-hard-it-is-to-make-money-with-open-source/ , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823174355/https://www.techrepublic.com/article/does-mariadbs-latest-move-show-how-hard-it-is-to-make-money-with-open-source/ , archive-date=2016-08-23 , url-status=dead , access-date=2025-04-18 E.g. MariaDB is a registered trademark of MariaDB Corporation AB, used under license by the MariaDB Foundation. MariaDB Corporation AB was originally founded in 2010 as SkySQL Corporation Ab, but changed name in 2014 to reflect its role as the main driving force behind the development of MariaDB server and the biggest support-provider for it. Foundation CEO at the time, Simon Phipps quit in 2014 on the sale of the MariaDB trademark to SkySQL. He later said: "I quit as soon as it was obvious the company was not going to allow an independent foundation." Simon Phipps was CEO of the Foundation from April 2013 to 2014. Otto Kekäläinen was the CEO from January 2015 to September 2018. {{cite web, title=MariaDB Foundation CEO steps down, url=https://mariadb.org/mariadb-foundation-ceo-steps-down/, website=mariadb.org, date=19 September 2018 Arjen Lentz was appointed CEO of the Foundation in October 2018 and resigned in December 2018. Kaj Arnö joined as the CEO on 1 February 2019. Eric Herman is the current chairman of the board.

MariaDB Corporation AB

Initially, the development activities around MariaDB were based entirely on open source and non-commercial. To build a global business, MariaDB Corporation AB was founded in 2010 by Patrik Backman, Ralf Wahlsten, Kaj Arnö, Max Mether, Ulf Sandberg, Mick Carney and Michael "Monty" Widenius. The current CEO of MariaDB Corporation is Paul O'Brien. MariaDB Corporation AB was formed after a merger between SkySQL Corporation Ab and Monty Program on 23 April 2013. Subsequently, the name was changed on 1 October 2014 to reflect the company's role as the main driving force behind the development of MariaDB Server and the largest support-provider for it.{{Cite web, author=, date=30 September 2014, title=New name and new challenges {{! MariaDB, trans-title=, url=https://mariadb.com/fr/resources/blog/new-name-and-new-challenges/, access-date=9 March 2021, work=MariaDB, language=fr{{Cite web, last=Novac, first=Dragos, date=, title=SkySQL to become MariaDB Corporation, url=https://nordic9.com/news/skysql-to-become-mariadb-corporation-news0430186205/, access-date=9 March 2021, work=Nordic 9 MariaDB Corporation AB announced in February 2022 its intention to become a publicly listed company on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

(NYSE).{{Cite web, title=MariaDB Corporation AB to Become a Publicly Traded Company via Combination with Angel Pond Holdings Corporation, url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mariadb-corporation-ab-become-publicly-120000514.html, access-date=2022-02-03, website=finance.yahoo.com, language=en-US

Products of MariaDB Corporation AB

MariaDB Corporation AB is a contributor to the MariaDB Server, develops the MariaDB database connectors ( C, C++, Java 7, Java 8, Node.js,{{Cite web, title = MariaDB Adds Node.js Connector, author =, work = i-programmer.info, date = , access-date = 9 March 2021, url = https://www.i-programmer.info/news/84-database/12386-mariadb-adds-nodejs-connector.html, quote =

ODBC In computing, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a standard application programming interface (API) for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems. An ...

, Python,{{Cite web , title=How to Connect Python Programs to MariaDB - DZone Database , author= , work=dzone.com , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://dzone.com/articles/python-to-mariadb-connector R2DBC{{Cite web , title=Maria DB Gets Reactive with a Non-Blocking Connector for Java - The New Stack , author= , work=The New Stack , date= 8 January 2021, access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://thenewstack.io/maria-db-gets-reactive-with-a-non-blocking-connector-for-java/) as well as the MariaDB Enterprise Platform, including the MariaDB Enterprise Server, optimized for production deployments. The MariaDB Enterprise Platform includes MariaDB MaxScale,{{Cite web , title=MariaDB Platform Components {{! MariaDB , author= , work=MariaDB , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://mariadb.com/products/mariadb-platform/components/#maxscale an advanced database proxy, MariaDB ColumnStore, a columnar storage engine for interactive ad hoc analytics,{{Cite web , title=MariaDB Platform Components {{! MariaDB , author= , work=MariaDB , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://mariadb.com/products/mariadb-platform/components/#columnstore{{Cite web , title=MariaDB targets big data analytics market with ColumnStore , last=Olavsrud , first=Thor , work=CIO , date=5 April 2016 , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://www.cio.com/article/3051146/mariadb-targets-big-data-analytics-market-with-columnstore.html MariaDB Xpand, a distributed SQL storage engine for massive transactional scalability,{{Cite web , title=MariaDB Xpand: Distributed SQL Database {{! MariaDB , author= , work=MariaDB , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://mariadb.com/products/mariadb-platform/xpand/{{Cite web , title=How MariaDB achieves global scale with Xpand , last=Johnson , first=Shane , work=InfoWorld , date=23 September 2020 , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://www.infoworld.com/article/3574077/how-mariadb-achieves-global-scale-with-xpand.html and MariaDB Enterprise Server, an enhanced, hardened and secured version of the community server.{{Cite web , title=MariaDB Platform Components {{! MariaDB , author= , work=MariaDB , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://mariadb.com/products/mariadb-platform/components/{{Cite web , title=MariaDB enterprise server helps you sleep at night{{! App Developer Magazine , last=Harris , first=Richard , work=App Developer Magazine , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url=https://appdevelopermagazine.com/mariadb-enterprise-server-helps-you-sleep-at-night/ , archive-date=17 April 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417031700/https://appdevelopermagazine.com/mariadb-enterprise-server-helps-you-sleep-at-night/ , url-status=live MariaDB Corporation offers the MariaDB Enterprise Platform in the cloud under the name SkySQL, a database-as-a-service.{{Cite web , title=MariaDB SkySQL Launches, Delivers Next-Generation Cloud Database {{! MariaDB , author= , work=MariaDB , date=31 March 2020 , access-date=9 March 2021 , url=https://mariadb.com/newsroom/press-releases/mariadb-skysql-launches-delivers-next-generation-cloud-database/ , archive-date=13 April 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413190254/https://mariadb.com/newsroom/press-releases/mariadb-skysql-launches-delivers-next-generation-cloud-database/ , url-status=live {{Cite web , title=MariaDB SkySQL Launches, Delivers Next-Generation Cloud Database , author= , work=finance.yahoo.com , date= , access-date=9 March 2021 , url= https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mariadb-skysql-launches-delivers-next-131700714.html

SkySQL

SkySQL general availability was announced on March 31, 2020. This database-as-a-service offering from MariaDB is a managed cloud service on

Google Cloud Platform Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services offered by Google that provides a series of modular cloud services including computing, Computer data storage, data storage, Data analysis, data analytics, and machine learnin ...

. SkySQL is a hybrid database offering that includes a column family store, object store, distributed SQL database with both a transactional and analytical query engine. The combination allows developers to use a single database for multiple use cases and avoid a proliferation of databases. The benefits of using this offering vs Amazon RDS or Microsoft Azure Database's MariaDB services offerings are versioning (SkySQL ensures users are on the most recent product release) as well as having analytics and transactional support. Starting {{Date, October 2023, as part of the company's restructuring plan, MariaDB no longer offers SkySQL as a product. In {{Date, December 2023, SkySQL spun off from MariaDB as an independent company.

Investors in MariaDB Corporation AB

MariaDB Corporation has been funded with a total of $123M combined in its A-series funding round in 2012, B-series in 2013-2016 and C-series in 2017–2022.{{citation needed, date=February 2022 It is undergoing a D-series round in 2022 aiming at an additional $104M in combination with its intention to become a listed company on the

(NYSE). Some of the initial A-series investors in MariaDB Corporation AB were e.g. OpenOcean and ''Tesi'' (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd). The B-series round was led by

in 2013 which itself invested $20M. In 2017 Alibaba led the C-series with a $27M investment into MariaDB in addition to a €25M investment by the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

.{{Cite web, title=Finland: Investment Plan for Europe - EIB supports MariaDB with financing for accelerated growth, url=http://www.eib.org/infocentre/press/releases/all/2017/2017-114-investment-plan-for-europe-eib-supports-mariadb-with-financing-for-accelerated-growth.htm, access-date=2017-05-15, website=www.eib.org, language=en, archive-date=2 July 2018, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702120206/http://www.eib.org/infocentre/press/releases/all/2017/2017-114-investment-plan-for-europe-eib-supports-mariadb-with-financing-for-accelerated-growth.htm, url-status=live{{clear

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

{{Wikibooks, MariaDB
MariaDB Corporation website
{{MySQL {{Use dmy dates, date=May 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mariadb 2009 software Client-server database management systems Cross-platform software Free database management systems MySQL Relational database management systems Relational database management software for Linux Software forks Software using the GNU General Public License Free software companies