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 recognises its responsibility. As uncertainty around MySQL’s long-term direction continues to grow, the global community of users, operators, and vendors quite reasonably seeks continuity. They are looking for a future that feels familiar, independent, and safe.
MariaDB exists precisely to provide that future.
MariaDB as a safe haven
From a technical perspective, we are already there.
There are individual areas where MariaDB’s compatibility with MySQL can still be improved, whether in performance or functionality. As our State of MariaDB 2025 survey demonstrated, the vast majority of MariaDB users experience no MySQL compatibility issues at all.
That said, many MySQL users remain unaware of this. From their perspective, the key issue is not whether MariaDB is capable or performs well, but whether migrating feels safe and predictable. People don’t like change. We fully recognise and respect that concern. Our discussions with users show that migration risk is often perceived through the lens of long-standing myths or assumptions that no longer reflect today’s reality. One of our major goals is to address this directly: to replace uncertainty with clarity, and to ensure MySQL users feel informed, supported, and confident when considering MariaDB.
Our role as a Foundation is therefore to provide authoritative guidance, enabling the MySQL user base. Our work is focused on reducing migration friction and preserving familiarity for MySQL users, ensuring MariaDB remains a clear, stable continuation path even for those coming from newer MySQL versions.
The Implications Are Profound
The effects of Oracle’s de-facto abandonment of MySQL only began to play out in 2025. I foresee a tectonic shift throughout 2026, as DBAs, developers, cloud providers, partners, and the entire ecosystem slowly realises that they are using a tool no longer being lovingly developed.
Betting one’s future on a tool without a steward has always been an IT risk carefully avoided in the industry. That said, it’s not an immediate pain point for the next week, but it’s a worry sensible players start acting upon as soon as possible – within a matter of a few months.
Is My Choice Future Proof?
A database is arguably the second most fundamental architectural choice in IT, next to the operating system. Nobody jumps ship easily. In large organisations, the planning horizon is longer than a decade, and transitioning itself takes years.
This sets fundamental requirements for MySQL users looking for a successor. Requirements go far beyond the technical. Is the future database vendor sustainable? Is the database Open Source? Does the specific license support the development of the database? Is proper governance in place for the database software?
MariaDB Foundation plans to engage in discussions around these questions during 2026. We believe the answers we have in store for MariaDB Server are in line with long term user interests.
How can I get out the most of what I already have?
Beyond the fundamental requirements for the choice of database to be future proof, it is also a question of compatibility in its broadest sense. Organisations and individuals have accumulated considerable capital invested in applications, skill sets, tools, knowledge, and processes.
Picking MariaDB protects the investment in MySQL. The databases have common roots, and the intellectual capital is preserved for users, customers, developers, and DBAs alike.
What about PostgreSQL?
Moving from MySQL to PostgreSQL is a bigger step. The PostgreSQL community is keen to point out the advantages of using PostgreSQL; the proponents of MySQL face a new world where the future of the project isn’t endangered by its technical merits, but by its ownership structure. MariaDB Foundation, too, finds itself in a strange new world, where we pick up the torch in a dialogue with PostgreSQL – about technical merit, organisational models, governance, and licensing.
We have neglected PostgreSQL for too long, and it is time to engage in direct discussion with the PostgreSQL community. There is much we can learn from this interchange. While MariaDB shares many of the licensing, performance, and ease-of-use advantages that MySQL has traditionally held over PostgreSQL, MariaDB also brings additional strengths: Oracle Database compatibility, integrated AI capabilities, and a distinctive governance model combining both a Foundation and a Corporation.
AI as a key component of a future proof RDBMS
As we have pointed out in 2025, AI needs proper access to user data, and user data is relational. We see MariaDB as the relational backbone for AI-enabled workloads. MariaDB’s AI functionality bridges the gap between read-only AI models and user-owned transactional data.
When talking to our users, we get two messages: AI functionality is seen as one of the most fundamental requirements for a future-proof RDBMS. On the other hand, core relational functionality is where the rubber meets the road – AI is not the be-all and end-all of a relational database.
Our task is to make the path to productive AI usage within our RDBMS clear, optional, and free of hype.
In Conclusion: Giving MySQL Users Confidence in MariaDB as the Natural Choice
Looking back at 2025 and ahead to 2026, our task is to take on the responsibility of picking up the torch from MySQL.
The Foundation’s role is to replace ambiguity with clarity: to explain what is compatible, what is different, and why. Migration must not feel like a leap of faith, but like a controlled, well-understood transition with known and manageable steps.
By aligning our work across MySQL, PostgreSQL, AI, and the ecosystem, we will make MariaDB the natural choice when continuity, independence, innovation, and long-term stability matter.
That is the responsibility the Foundation has chosen to carry — deliberately, patiently, and in service of the global open-source community.
