Blog
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MariaDB is the natural replacement for MySQL
MariaDB is the natural replacement for MySQL. Why? Because it is the organic continuation of the MySQL that conquered the Internet. MySQL 8.0 is a fork of that foundation, while MariaDB stayed on track. That said, the MySQL fork is soft: Compatibility remains remarkable and migration back to the mothership is smooth.
As the Chairman of the MariaDB Foundation, and someone having joined MySQL AB’s management team in 2001, that is my response to the article As Oracle loses interest […]
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Arbaudie.IT becomes silver sponsor of MariaDB Foundation
We are pleased to welcome Sylvain Arbaudie as a sponsor of the MariaDB Foundation.
Sylvain Arbaudie is an independent consultant with extensive experience helping organisations design reliable, scalable data infrastructures. Having worked primarily with commercial systems early in his career, Sylvain has witnessed how open source has matured into a powerful foundation for innovation, technological sovereignty, and long-term freedom—often surpassing proprietary alternatives in robustness and adaptability.
Among relational databases he has followed—MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB—Sylvain sees MariaDB as standing apart […]
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MariaDB Foundation welcomes HammerDB as a Silver Sponsor
The MariaDB Foundation is pleased to welcome HammerDB as a Silver Sponsor.
HammerDB is the industry-standard open-source database benchmark, widely used across the database, cloud, and hardware ecosystem to evaluate mission-critical performance, scalability, and real-world workload behaviour. Its transparent and reproducible workloads are trusted by practitioners and vendors alike when validating performance claims, comparing configurations, and understanding database behaviour under load.
HammerDB is developed independently and hosted by the TPC Council as part of the TPC-OSS program, providing a neutral […]
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Making MariaDB the Natural Successor to MySQL
At the MariaDB Foundation, clarity of purpose matters. In an ecosystem as foundational as open-source databases, confidence is built not through slogans, but through predictability, restraint, and long-term commitment.
As I reflect upon what we learned in 2025 and how we can serve the database community in 2026, one thought stands out: MariaDB is the natural successor to MySQL, as Oracle loses its interest in the development of what has been the default Open Source Relational DBMS.
The MariaDB Foundation […]
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A Year in Review: Notable External Contributions to MariaDB Server in 2025
It’s the time of the year to look back and reflect. In line with the holiday spirit, we’d like to highlight some of the MariaDB Server contributions from 2025 that the team found particularly inspiring and interesting, and to say thank you to everyone who submitted them.
At the end of the post, we invite the community to help us recognise the most impactful external contributions of the year.
At last, I’d like to mention a pull request that was […]
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Choosing New Routes
The Queen’s Seven Predictions for 2026
When Queen Isabella I of Castile agreed to fund Columbus, it was not because the idea felt daring or exciting. It was because the old routes were failing. Europe’s trade system had become expensive, fragile, and constrained, and maintaining it unchanged was no longer a neutral decision. Supporting the voyage was not an act of romance, but of governance: an acceptance that continuing as before carried greater risk than change.
Crucially, nothing collapsed overnight. […]
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MariaDB 12.3 preview available
We are pleased to announce the availability of a preview of the MariaDB 12.3 series. MariaDB 12.3 will be a long-term release.
MariaDB 12.3 introduces numerous new features, in particular
Compatibility features
Replication
Miscellaneous
Download MariaDB 12.3 preview
Thanks, and enjoy MariaDB!
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State of MariaDB 2025: The Results Are In
In October 2025, we launched the first State of MariaDB Survey to learn how the community really uses MariaDB. Today, we’re excited to share the results.
Read the full report →
Why we did this
We wanted to move beyond assumptions and get real data from the people who work with MariaDB every day—developers, DBAs, architects, consultants, and everyone in between. The goal was simple: understand how MariaDB is actually being used so we can make it better.
What we […]