About MariaDB Server
MariaDB Server is one of the most popular database servers in the world. It’s made by the original developers of MySQL and guaranteed to stay open source. Notable users include Wikipedia, WordPress.com and Google.
MariaDB Server turns data into structured information in a wide array of applications, ranging from banking to websites. Originally designed as enhanced, drop-in replacement for MySQL, MariaDB Server is used because it is fast, scalable and robust, with a rich ecosystem of storage engines, plugins and many other tools make it very versatile for a wide variety of use cases.
MariaDB Server is developed as open source software and as a relational database it provides an SQL interface for accessing data. The latest versions of MariaDB Server also include GIS and JSON features.
More information can be found in the MariaDB Server Knowledge Base, for example:
MariaDB Server vs. MySQL – Features
MariaDB Server vs. MySQL – Compatibility
MariaDB Server Success Stories
There is also a good Wikipedia article about MariaDB Server and the MySQL history.
MariaDB Server will remain Free and Open Source Software licensed under GPLv2, independent of any commercial entities.
MariaDB Server in brief
- MariaDB Server in brief (English)
- MariaDB Server in Kürze (German)
- MariaDB Server en resumen (Spanish)
- MariaDB Server 简介 (Chinese)
- MariaDB Server en bref (French)
About MariaDB Foundation
The cornerstones of the MariaDB Foundation mission are Openness, Adoption, and Continuity.
- We ensure the MariaDB Server code base remains open for usage and contributions on technical merits.
- We strive to increase adoption by users and across use cases, platforms and means of deployment.
- We provide continuity to the MariaDB Server ecosystem, independent of any commercial entities.
The MariaDB Foundation is the global contact point for collaboration on MariaDB Server.
The Foundation is non-profit incorporated in Delaware, USA. and is funded by corporate and individual sponsors.
The Foundation’s staff supports MariaDB Server by:
- Encouraging adoption, contribution and distribution of MariaDB Server and related open source software.
- Helping new contributors understand the source code and lowering the barrier for new participants.
- Participating in the design of new features, ensuring the code quality and maintainability of the codebase while the number of contributors is growing.
- Making sure documentation keeps up with the development of new features.
- Porting and packaging MariaDB Server to different platforms and operating systems to keep it as widely available as possible.
- Speaking at events and driving adoption.
Details about the Foundation’s principles, operation and the board of directors are available on the Governance page. More information regarding board meeting minutes can be found here.
While the Foundation’s staff do work on the code base and develop MariaDB Server to some extent, the mission of the Foundation is not to develop MariaDB Server as much as possible, but to empower a large as possible community to be successful in collaborative MariaDB Server development.
Benefactors
Sponsors
The MariaDB Foundation is grateful to the following organizations for their substantial support:
Diamond sponsors
Platinum sponsors
MariaDB Corporation, Founding Member of MariaDB Foundation, is the Primary Code Contributor to MariaDB Server. They provide products and services around MariaDB Server. MariaDB Corporation has the largest number of MariaDB experts and contributors. MariaDB provides subscription services and downloads with additional enterprise features.
Acronis unifies data protection and cybersecurity to deliver integrated, automated cyber protection that solves the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security (SAPAS) challenges of the modern digital world. With flexible deployment models that fit the demands of service providers and IT professionals, Acronis provides superior cyber protection for data, applications, and systems with innovative next-generation antivirus, backup, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection management solutions powered by AI.
Alibaba Cloud provides a comprehensive suite of global cloud computing services to power both international customers and Alibaba Group’s own e-commerce ecosystem. Alibaba Cloud offers high-performance, elastic computing power in the cloud.
Founded in 1968, Intel’s technology has been at the heart of computing breakthroughs. They are an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. They stand at the brink of several technology inflections—artificial intelligence (AI), 5G network transformation, and the rise of the intelligent edge—that together will shape the future of technology.
ServiceNow allows employees to work the way they want to, not how software dictates they have to. And customers can get what they need, when they need it.
Constructor is all-in-one platform for education and research. With expertise in machine intelligence and data science, Constructor is built to cater to the needs of schools, higher education, corporate training, alternative credentials, and professional sports, offering solutions for teaching and administration, learning and research.
From infrastructure to applications, Constructor elevates learning experiences, empowers educators, and drives research breakthroughs.
Through its non-profit and for-profit entities that combine a University, Institute and Learning, Constructor all-in-one platform for education and research and Constructor Capital – Constructor group aims to provide innovative education that covers the entire learning lifecycle and technology breakthroughs in five fundamental technology trends.
With a full web enablement ecosystem geared towards empowering web professionals to succeed online today, WebPros helps anyone build, operate, and grow their business online. Full product lifecycle tools include everything needed to provision and manage servers, automate billing and other processes, build and optimize websites, and overall simplify any website need.
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 280 branches across 18 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS has a growing presence in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank’s capital position, as well as “AA-” and “Aa1” credit ratings, is among the highest in Asia-Pacific.
dbs.com
Gold Sponsors
IONOS is the leading European digitalization partner for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). The company serves around six million customers and operates across 18 markets in Europe and North America, with its services being accessible worldwide. With its Web Presence & Productivity portfolio, IONOS acts as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all digitalization needs: from domains and web hosting to classic website builders and do-it-yourself solutions, from e-commerce to online marketing tools. In addition, the company offers Cloud Solutions to enterprises who are looking to move to the cloud as their businesses evolve.
ionos.com
Silver Sponsors
Automattic – distributed company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Longreads, VaultPress, Akismet, Gravatar, Crowdsignal, Cloudup, Tumblr, and more.
SkySQL, a second-generation cloud database service, redefines data management by automating deployment, scaling, and administration. This cutting-edge platform frees up resources, letting you focus on strategic initiatives. With SkySQL, operational complexities are streamlined, unlocking the full potential of your data without compromising efficiency.
team.blue makes online business success simpler
Supporting local entrepreneurs and small businesses, team.blue serves over 2.5 million customers across Europe, enabling them to build, grow, and scale online.
Tencent Cloud Database is a general term for Tencent’s highly reliable, highly available, and elastically scalable cloud database service products. It supports easy use and management of mainstream open source and commercial databases on the market (MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc.), providing industry-wide database solutions in the field of public and private clouds, supporting cloud, off-cloud, and hybrid cloud deployment modes. It has widely served 500,000 industry customers in finance, government affairs, social networking, e-commerce, transportation, and games within the Tencent Group and on Tencent Cloud.
Bronze Sponsors
Cyber Leo is a technology company with expertise in Synthetic Reality, Music AI, Intellectual Property Management, Fintech, Web Security, BPaaS, DevOps, and Cloud solutions. Dedicated to empowering diverse users, the company offers cutting-edge solutions that enhance digital experiences and streamline operations. By providing state-of-the-art technologies, Cyber Leo drives innovation and excellence, shaping the digital landscape in a constantly evolving environment.
Founded in 2009, Host Arabia Group is one of the largest accredited registrars in the Middle East. Through Tasjeel.ae we provide over 10,000 customers with high quality domain name, e-mail and web hosting solutions.
Rumahweb Indonesia is a leading cloud and web hosting solution provider, offering a wide range of services catering to the diverse needs of enterprises and SMBs in Indonesia. Established in 2002, the company has built a strong reputation for delivering reliable, secure, and scalable hosting solutions. With an extensive portfolio of products, such as domain registration, shared hosting, business email, VPS, dedicated servers, and cloud solutions, Rumahweb Indonesia is committed to providing top-notch customer support and maintaining high standards of performance to empower its client online presence. The company’s continuous innovation and adoption of cutting-edge technologies have made it a trusted choice for customers looking to establish and grow their digital footprint.
Hetzner is one of Europe’s biggest web hosting companies; we offer dedicated servers, cloud solutions, web hosting, storage products and much more.
With our internet technology we want to add true value to people’s daily lives. To achieve that goal, we develop our own in-house, high-tech products and provide dependable infrastructure – at unbelievably low prices.
www.hetzner.com
Other Sponsors
galeracluster.com – Codership is the company behind Galera Cluster, a true multi-master cluster, based on synchronous replication. Codership provide development and consulting services on Galera Cluster to ensure high availability and performance.
percona.com – Percona is an American company based in Durham and the developer of a number of open source software projects for MySQL, MariaDB Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and RocksDB users.
Technology Partners
vettabase.com – Database consulting and automation.
Board
Below is a list of current MariaDB Foundation board members. See Governance for more details on how MariaDB Foundation is governed.
Chairman of the Board
Eric Herman
Chairman of the MariaDB Foundation Board, Lead Codebase Steward at the Foundation for Public Code
Board Members
Espen Håkonsen
CIO of Visma and Managing Director of Visma IT & Communications
Paul O’Brien
CEO, SVP, Strategy & Operations, Product Development, Fortune 500 Technology & Startup Growth Expert, Venture Capital, M&A, representing MariaDB plc
Michael “Monty” Widenius
Founder of MariaDB and MySQL
Sirish Chandrasekaran
GM Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) at AWS, Board Member, MariaDB Foundation, representing Amazon
Steve Shaw
Open source database lead at Intel
Todd Boyd
Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM
Xiang Peng
Director, RDS Open Source Databases at Alibaba Cloud
Barry Abrahamson
CTO Automattic
Sergei Golubchik
Chief Architect MariaDB Server at MariaDB Corporation
Chairman of the MariaDB Foundation Board, Foundation for Public Code
Eric Herman, former Principal Developer of Booking.com, and currently at the Foundation for Public Code, joined the MariaDB Foundation board of directors in May 2015, and was elected chair in November 2016. Prior to Booking.com, Eric worked for MySQL and Sun from 2004 through 2009. Eric remains an active member and contributor to the MariaDB/MySQL ecosystem, as well as contributing to other Free Software projects. For fun, Eric enjoys designing electronics, embedded programming, campfire cooking, brewing beer, and collaborating on all sorts of do-it-yourself projects.
Barry Abrahamson
Community Representative, Systems Wrangler at Automattic
Barry started using MySQL v3.23 in 2003 while working at Rackspace in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2006 Barry has served as Chief Systems Wrangler at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and many other well known web services such as Akismet and Gravatar. He also serves as the infrastructure lead for the open source WordPress.org software project. Barry currently lives in Houston, Texas with his family and enjoys the outdoors, eating BBQ, building LEGO, and tinkering with home automation in his free time.
Espen Håkonsen
CIO of Visma and Managing Director of Visma IT & Communications
Espen has been CIO of Visma and Managing Director of Visma IT & Communications since September 2013, and a MariaDB board member since 2015.
Paul O’Brien
CEO, SVP, Strategy & Operations, Product Development, Fortune 500 Technology & Startup Growth Expert, Venture Capital, M&A, representing MariaDB plc
Paul O’Brien is a technology executive with broad operational expertise both launching and running startups as well as in venture capital and Fortune 500 firms. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of high-technology, high-growth markets including storage infrastructure, security, and enterprise software. As a sales and marketing expert, Paul has significant experience running complex product management, global sales and marketing, and development organizations. He is adept at mapping, integrating, and executing business development and M&A activities.
Michael “Monty” Widenius
Founder of MariaDB and MySQL
The “spiritual father” of MariaDB, one of the original developers of MySQL, and a renowned advocate for the open source software movement. In addition to serving as CTO for the MariaDB Corporation, he is also a Founder and a board member of the MariaDB Foundation. He was a founder at SkySQL, and the CTO of MySQL AB until its sale to Sun Microsystems (now Oracle). Monty was also the founder of TCX DataKonsult AB, a Swedish data warehousing company. He is the co-author of the “MySQL Reference Manual” and was named Finnish Software Entrepreneur of the Year in 2003. In 2015, Monty was selected as one of the 100 most influential people in the Finnish IT market. Monty studied at Helsinki University of Technology and lives in Finland.
Sergei Golubchik
Developer Representative, Chief Architect MariaDB at MariaDB Corporation
Sergei was a MySQL developer since 1998. From 1999 to 2009 in MySQL AB, Sun, then in Monty Program AB and MariaDB Corporation on MariaDB. During these years he has touched almost every part of the server. To list a few projects – fulltext search, XA, HANDLER, precision math library, parallel repair and bulk inserts in MyISAM, indexes in MERGE. Sergei is a primary architect of the plugin API and an author of the “MySQL 5.1 Plugin Development” book.
Sirish Chandrasekaran
GM Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) at AWS, Board Member, MariaDB Foundation, representing Amazon
Steve Shaw
Intel
Steve Shaw is the open source database lead for Intel and lead developer of the open source database benchmarking tool HammerDB. With more than 20 years experience in commercial database he is also the author of 2 books on Oracle on Linux. He now focuses exclusively on ensuring that open source relational database runs best on Intel platforms.
Todd Boyd
IBM
Todd Boyd has worked for IBM for over 30 years in various capacities; he started in ZSeries I/O performance before moving to the Power Systems performance team. He has lead the Competitive Analysis Technical Team (CATT) for the last 15 years which projects the performance capabilities of competitive systems and solutions. He now works on the Cognitive Systems offering team in conjunction with the performance and the ISV teams to drive the Power portfolio offerings. In this role he deals with many ISV’s and acts as the IBM representative on the MariaDB Foundation Board.
Xiang Peng
Director, RDS Open Source Databases at Alibaba Cloud
Team
Alexander Morozov
Media Production Team
Andrew (LinuxJedi) Hutchings
Chief Contributions Officer
Anna Widenius
Chief of staff
Daniel Black
Chief innovation officer
Faustin Lammler
System and network engineer
Ian Gilfillan
Principal technical writer: documentation
Kaj Arnö
CEO
Michael (Monty) Widenius
Founder & CTO
Kristian Nielsen
Chief Architect Replication
Soeren von Varchmin
Chief Revenue Officer
Vicențiu Ciorbaru
Chief Development Officer
Vlad Bogolin
Senior Software developer
Alexander Morozov
Media Production Team
Email: morozov@mariadb.org
Andrew (LinuxJedi) Hutchings
Chief Contributions Officer
Andrew has a long history in the open source database world but has occasionally dipped into other technology industries, whilst keeping to his open source routes. He brings all of this experience to the MariaDB Foundation, where he works on making the contributions process as smooth as possible.
On the personal side of things, Andrew lives with his family in the UK countryside. In his spare time he restores and designs new hardware for retro computers such as the Commodore Amiga.
Email: andrew@mariadb.org
Zulip: Andrew Hutchings
IRC: LinuxJedi
Anna Widenius
Cheer Leader and Cat Herder
Email: anna@mariadb.org
Zulip: Anna Widenius
Daniel Black
Chief Innovation Officer
After a reasonable amount of time doing development and IT security work, Daniel landed a DBA Consultant job and loved it.
After writing a few too many bug fixes without a client to bill them to, he joined IBM to make MariaDB and MySQL scale on IBM POWER.
The love for the community brought him to MariaDB Foundation where he embraces the innovation of contributors and users to make MariaDB better for everyone.
Email: daniel@mariadb.org
Zulip: Daniel Black
Faustin Lammler
System and network engineer
Faustin is a French System and Network engineer; his skills go from BGP to Ansible passing by LaTeX.
Free software and open standard/format enthusiast, Faustin believes it is important that users are encouraged and able to share their knowledge freely.
At the MariaDB Foundation Faustin works on infrastructure, releases, mirrors, buildbot, installation and upgrade issues for Debian GNU/Linux based distributions.
Email: faustin@mariadb.org
Zulip: Faustin Lammler
Ian Gilfillan
Principal technical writer: documentation
Ian Gilfillan works part-time for the MariaDB Foundation, mostly working on the MariaDB documentation.
He has majors in IT as well as English and Philosophy, developed and taught various web and database programming courses, and wrote the first online grocery store in South Africa in the 90s.
He was lead developer for South Africa’s largest media company, and wrote the book Mastering MySQL 4 in 2002 based on his experiences there. He wrote regular columns on MySQL and web programming in the 2000s, before founding and developing an online organic food co-operative in 2005.
He has also been an active Wikimedian since 2003, helped found the Wikimedia South Africa chapter in 2011, and was on the board until 2020.
Email: ian@mariadb.org
Zulip: Ian Gilfillan
Kaj Arnö
CEO
Kaj is a software industry generalist, having served as VP Professional Services, VP Engineering, CIO and VP Community Relations of MySQL AB prior to the acquisition by Sun Microsystems. At Sun, Kaj served as MySQL Ambassador to Sun and Sun VP of Database Community. Board member at Footbalance Systems Oy (Helsinki, Finland). Past founder, CEO and 14 year main entrepreneur of Polycon Ab (Finland).
Kaj is a co-founder of MariaDB Corporation Ab, and served on its Executive Team in several positions, most recently Chief Evangelist.
Kaj lives and works in Munich, Germany, and during summer often in Nagu, Finland. He is a citizen of both countries. Kaj holds a M.Sc. (Eng.) from Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) and an MBA from Hanken School of Economics.
Programming-wise, Kaj started out on the TI-58 in the 1970s, followed by Basic and a bit of assembler on the ABC-80 and ABC-800, together with Michael “Monty” Widenius. Kaj took fondness to APL on mainframes, before settling on the 4GL Focus as the technical basis for his first company Polycon. After a Visual Basic period, a Delphi period and a brief PHP period, Kaj moved out of programming into management, only to realise in 2011 that Python is good for his mental well-being. His venture into geodata with Python even left some superficial traces on Github.
Licensing-wise, Kaj contributed to GPLv3 as co-chair of the industry Committee B, advising the FSF on GPLv3 in 2006-07, observing how Eben Moglen led the process towards industry consensus. In 2014, Kaj formalised the Business Source License BSLv1 with its originator Michael Widenius, and made it more mainstream into BSLv1.1 with the help of Bruce Perens and Heather Meeker.
Language-wise, Kaj is a native Swedish speaker. He also speaks German, English, Finnish and French, and has presented in a number of other languages, including Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Estonian, mostly understanding what he is saying.
Kaj joined MariaDB Foundation as CEO on 1 February 2019.
Email: kaj@mariadb.org
Zulip: Kaj Arnö
Kristian Nielsen
Chief Architect Replication
Kristian has been a MariaDB developer since the project was started in 2009. Before that he worked as a developer in MySQL Ab, working with the NDB storage engine after implementing the Pushbuild CI.
Kristian has done a lot of work on MariaDB replication, including designing and implementing Group Commit, Global Transaction ID, and Paralle Replication. Other work includes the non-blocking client API, InnoDB/XtraDB maintenance, Buildbot/releases, and lots of test case fixes.
Kristian’s primary focus at the MariaDB Foundation is advancing the state of MariaDB replication in the server source code. Designing and implementing major new features focused on performance and stability; and reviewing replication code changes to ensure future code correctness, consistency and maintainability.
Razvan-Liviu Varzaru
Razvan-Liviu Varzaru is responsible for maintaining buildbot.mariadb.org, the continuous integration framework used by MariaDB.
With several years of experience as a DevOps engineer and a background in Aerospace Engineering, Razvan-Liviu combines technical expertise with a dedication to quality code.
Outside of work, he enjoys playing music, bringing creativity and rhythm to both his personal and professional life.
Soeren von Varchmin
Chief Revenue Officer
For Soeren, keeping his head in the clouds makes great business sense, as he helps countless industry leaders achieve their goals. As CRO of the MariaDB Foundation as well as Chairman of the CloudFest Advisory Board, Soeren uses his deep internet infrastructure expertise to create game-changing event experiences. An industry rock star, Soeren is also an actual rock star as the guitarist for the Lords of Uptime.
Vicențiu Ciorbaru
Chief Development Officer
Vicențiu-Marian Ciorbaru is based in Romania, Bucharest. Having had to fix problems in many places, ranging from query-optimiser, authentication, replication, packaging, as well as platform specific problems, Vicențiu has had experience with many parts of the codebase. He is also a fast learner and can jump on any problem that surfaces. Past projects include Roles, Window Functions, Custom Aggregate Functions.
Vicențiu’s passions include teaching and making things work, both in the software world as well as in the hardware world. He used to teach Algorithm Design at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and now mentors students in programming, both locally as well as internationally, in programs such as Google Summer of Code. He enjoys speaking at conferences and you will probably find him at one of the Open Source Events around the world. He also holds a masters degree in Artificial Intelligence and will gladly enjoy discussing recent developments.
Email: vicentiu@mariadb.org
Zulip: Vicențiu Ciorbaru
Vlad Bogolin
Senior Software Developer
Vlad Bogolin is a Senior Software Developer at the MariaDB Foundation. His primary focus is on the development and maintenance of MariaDB’s automated testing framework, ensuring that the MariaDB Server is thoroughly tested across different operating systems and platforms. Vlad’s career is deeply rooted in Open Source software, showcasing his belief in its key role in driving technological advancements.
Apart from his contributions to MariaDB, Vlad is deeply passionate about Artificial Intelligence, a passion reinforced by his achievement of a PhD in the area. During his doctoral studies, Vlad developed state-of-the-art solutions for a range of problems, from object detection to text-video retrieval, delving into the realms of multimodal AI.
Overall, Vlad Bogolin’s professional journey is characterized by his technical expertise, deep commitment to Open Source, and a continuous pursuit of advancing AI and database technologies.
Email: vlad@mariadb.org
Zulip: Vlad Bogolin
Personal website: https://vladbogo.com
Service providers
MariaDB Server is open source software and free to use as stated in the General Public License. The MariaDB Foundation is all about ensuring continuity and open collaboration – we do not provide any support or guarantees regarding the use of MariaDB Server to individual users. For anybody using MariaDB Server in a commercial setting we strongly recommend getting commercial products and services from any of the companies listed below.
MariaDB Foundation members
MariaDB Corporation
MariaDB Corporation, Founding Member of MariaDB Foundation, is the Primary Code Contributor to MariaDB Server. They provide products and services around MariaDB. Monty Program, the original primary developer of MariaDB was acquired by SkySQL in 2013, and in 2014 SkySQL changed their name to MariaDB Corporation. MariaDB Corporation has the largest number of MariaDB experts and contributors. MariaDB provides subscription services and downloads with additional enterprise features.
MariaDB Corporation has been a sponsor of the MariaDB Foundation since 2013.
If you want to have your company listed here, please become a member of the MariaDB Foundation.
Other service providers
Percona Inc.
With more than 3,000 customers worldwide, Percona is the only company that delivers enterprise-class solutions for MySQL®, MariaDB®, MongoDB®, and PostgreSQL across traditional and cloud-based platforms. Our unbiased open source database experts enable you to achieve success with modern database deployments by helping you navigate complexity and mitigate risks using best-of-breed open source solutions to avoid vendor lock-in.
Percona is a sponsor of the MariaDB Foundation.
FromDual
FromDual is specialised in MariaDB Server and MariaDB Galera Cluster providing professional services as support including 24×7 SLA, remote-DBA, MariaDB Server training and consulting.
Open Query | Catalyst (Australia/New Zealand)
Open Query are an Australian based company with specific expertise in MySQL and MariaDB Server. Our services include consulting, scalable architecture, proactive remote DBA, system administration, vendor neutral managed services with optional emergency support, training, and security and code reviews. Peace of mind for your MariaDB Server infrastructure providing tuning, training services and more. openquery.com.au
In 2018, Open Query was acquired by Catalyst IT Australia Pty Limited, enabling an even broader range of services.
Pythian
Pythian is a global IT services company. We design, implement, and manage systems that directly contribute to revenue and business success. Our highly skilled technical teams work as an integrated extension of our clients’ organizations to deliver continuous transformation and uninterrupted operational excellence using our expertise in advanced analytics, big data, cloud, databases, DevOps and infrastructure management.
Pythian is vendor neutral and a trusted advisor for your full-stack environment. We provide 24×7 managed service support, on-site or remote for MySQL-compatible database environments, including MariaDB Server.
Policies
Certificate of Incorporation
The Certificate of Incorporation of MariaDB Foundation is available at https://mariadb.org/certificate.
By-laws
The By-laws of MariaDB Foundation are available at https://mariadb.org/bylaws.
Governance
The MariaDB Foundation uses technical and legal means to guarantee the technology used by the MariaDB Server community will continue to be open in every sense.
Individual board meeting minutes starting Oct 2020 can be found here and the finances here.
No single person or company is able to dictate priorities or code to the community.
Non-profit foundation
The MariaDB Foundation is non-stock not-for-profit and incorporated in Delaware, USA. It is aiming at US 501(c)(3) status.
Board of directors
The foundation is legally controlled by the board. The board makes decisions on how the foundation can best serve the MariaDB Server community. The board does not make technical decisions.
See the current Board of Directors.
Technical decisions
Decisions regarding contributions are made by the contributors themselves, and if a general consensus is required for a particular technical decision, the topic is discussed openly on the MariaDB Server mailing lists and other transparent online means until a clear majority is reached among the developers.
Principles
We’re committed to excellence:
- in the code we produce.
- in our relations with our employees.
- in our relations with our developer and user communities.
- in the company we keep.
This being the case:
- We have published a code of conduct for how we work in the open source environment. We expect from others what we expect from ourselves.
- All code we produce will by default be GPL (e.g. MariaDB) or BSD-new (e.g. all-purpose libraries).
- Any patches given to us for our project’s source trees should be licensed under the MariaDB contributor agreement (MCA), BSD-new license, or public domain (in that order of preference). We require this to be sure we can use the code freely in MariaDB and other products. We also want to be able to contribute the code forward to other open source projects.
- Log of MariaDB Contributions contains an audit trail of patches included into MariaDB and whether they were contributed under the MCA or BSD.
Maintenance policy
A new long-term release (LTS) of MariaDB Server will be announced for General Availability approximately once every year. A new rolling release will be announced approximately quarterly. The MariaDB Foundation guarantees that every long-term release will be maintained for at least 5 years. For 11.2 and before, non-LTS releases were described as short-term releases, and were maintained for one year. From 11.3, these are rolling releases. See Adjusting the MariaDB Server release model.
The MariaDB Foundation prioritizes security fixes and major bug fixes that affect a large number of users, and other fixes that are important to the members and sponsors of the foundation. Please become a sponsor or donor to support our work.
The latest Generally Available (stable) long-term maintenance release, 11.4, was announced as stable in May 2024 and will be maintained until at least May 2029. The previous short-term maintenance release, 11.2, was announced as stable in November 2023, and will be maintained until November 2024. 11.5, 11.6 and and 11.7 are rolling releases.
MariaDB general release maintenance periods
Rolling release
Currently maintained long-term releases
| Release series | Stable (GA) Date | End-of-life |
|---|---|---|
| 11.4 | 29 May 2024 | 29 May 2029 |
| 10.11 | 16 Feb 2023 | 16 Feb 2028 |
| 10.6 | 6 Jul 2021 | 6 Jul 2026 |
| 10.5 | 24 Jun 2020 | 24 Jun 2025 |
Unmaintained releases
| Release series | Stable (GA) Date | End-of-life |
|---|---|---|
| 11.5 | 14 Aug 2024 | Rolling |
| 11.3 | 16 Feb 2024 | Rolling |
| 11.2 | 21 Nov 2023 | 21 Nov 2024 |
| 11.0 | 6 Jun 2023 | 6 Jun 2024 |
| 11.1 | 21 Aug 2023 | 21 Aug 2024 |
| 10.10 | 17 Nov 2022 | 17 Nov 2023 |
| 10.9 | 22 Aug 2022 | 22 Aug 2023 |
| 10.8 | 20 May 2022 | 20 May 2023 |
| 10.7 | 9 Feb 2022 | 9 Feb 2023 |
| 10.4 | 18 Jun 2019 | 18 Jun 2024 |
| 10.3 | 25 May 2018 | 25 May 2023 |
| 10.2 | 23 May 2017 | 23 May 2022 |
| 10.1 | 17 Oct 2015 | 17 Oct 2020 |
| 10.0 | 31 Mar 2014 | 31 Mar 2019 |
| 5.5 | 11 Apr 2012 | 11 Apr 2020 |
| 5.3 | 29 Feb 2012 | 1 Mar 2017 |
| 5.2 | 10 Nov 2010 | 10 Nov 2015 |
| 5.1 | 1 Feb 2010 | 1 Feb 2015 |
These dates constitute the public policy of the MariaDB Foundation and are not legally binding. The software is released with the GPL license as-is, without warranties.
Exceptions for MariaDB versions in widespread use
The MariaDB Foundation may decide to maintain selected releases beyond the normal 5 years if they are in exceptionally widespread use. As MariaDB 5.5 was included in multiple prominent Linux distributions with a lifespan beyond 2017, the Foundation committed to maintaining it until 2020.
Maintenance periods by service providers
Some MariaDB service providers might offer under contract longer, or otherwise more extensive, maintenance periods. Some Linux distributions may also offer extended support periods for the MariaDB versions they shipped.
Please contact the commercial service providers if you use MariaDB in a critical production environment and you want to have contractual warranties regarding your use and maintenance of the MariaDB software.
Semantic versioning
MariaDB aims to follow the semantic versioning standard. In client-server APIs we follow it fully and in the server we follow it in spirit.
Micro releases (patch versions) e.g. 5.5.x and 10.0.x only fix security issues and bugs. Minor version releases e.g. 5.x and 10.x add functionality but maintain backwards-compatibility. Major releases e.g. 10.0 and 11.0 may make backwards-incompatible changes.
For details about semantic versioning, see semver.org.
In all releases, including major releases, we always make sure that the mysql_upgrade facility runs correctly and the database files from any older release can be upgraded.
Privacy policy
MariaDB Foundation strongly believes in privacy laws and adheres to the rules of GDPR. View our full privacy policy here.
Security policy
MariaDB Foundation is committed to ensuring all security bugs are fixed within stable MariaDB Server versions. Security issues can be reported via security@mariadb.org or under the HackerOne Program.
The MariaDB Server developers classify all security bugs according to their threat level. The threat level can be one of:
- Critical: an exploitable vulnerability that causes arbitrary code execution or allows an unauthenticated user to crash the server or get access to the data.
- Medium: everything else.
We strive to fix any Critical security bug immediately, usually within hours, and release fixed MariaDB binaries as soon as possible, usually the next day.
We will fix Medium security bugs as soon as possible, but we will not change our planned release schedule to get the fix out earlier.
Please review our Security Policy and Assets covered within that we have available on our HackerOne profile.
We will also follow responsible disclosure procedures and also alert related projects and forks such as Oracle MySQL and Percona Server if we believe a reported security issue affects those projects as well.
Other
Logos and badges
The logo is available for use under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license. Please attribute to MariaDB Foundation when using the logo. We are flexible about the usage of the logo when addressing MariaDB Foundation. We recommend keeping the colours the same unless changing the scheme fits better with the final artwork. The logo is not for usage when referring to other MariaDB or non-MariaDB entities.
Please click on the logos for the full-sized versions.
Usage statistics
Beginning in October 2011, MariaDB Server included a new User Feedback plugin. When the plugin is activated (it is inactive by default), it can periodically upload configuration and usage information to mariadb.org. Alternatively, one can upload this information manually using the Upload Data page or with popular command line tools.
The information gathered by the User Feedback plugin provides the MariaDB project with useful input in form of:
- which platforms and hardware MariaDB is run on
- an indication of the worldwide distribution of MariaDB
- the version and build numbers of MariaDB that are in use
- features that are used
The main purpose behind collecting this kind of information is to use it to steer engineering and community development of MariaDB Server in the right directions. The information is used to continuously improve the product.
The User Feedback plugin gathers only non-sensitive information such as:
- processor type, speed, amount of processors/cores
- operating system, distribution, and kernel information
- storage engines that are in use
- list of loaded plugins
- and other similar data
The User Feedback plugin will never send any personal or sensitive information such as user names, database names or contents, or anything that would enable the tracking of the user.
The complete manual of the User Feedback plugin, including instructions for how to see what exactly is being sent, can be found on the User Feedback plugin page of the MariaDB Knowledgebase.
Statistics
- Server count by month
- Uploads by country
- Servers by country
- Map of servers by country
- Major version breakdown
- Version breakdown
- Uptime by day
- Architecture
- Operating System
- Windows Versions
- Linux Distributions
- CPU Count
- Features
If you would like to manually upload data from your MariaDB Server instance please use the Upload Data page.
Merchandise
Please show your support by purchasing official MariaDB Server merchandise.