MySQL

MySQL is the open-source relational database that, more than any other, powered the first two decades of the web. It is the M in LAMP, the default store behind WordPress and most PHP applications, and one of the two or three most deployed databases in the world. Oracle now stewards it, shipping a stable 8.4 LTS line alongside a faster-moving 9.x Innovation track.

Where it fits

MySQL is the path of least resistance for anything in the PHP world. WordPress, Laravel, and the vast back catalog of LAMP applications assume it, and most shared and managed hosts provision it by default. That gravity is real: pick MySQL and you inherit decades of documentation, tooling, and a hiring pool larger than any competitor’s.

The engine is well suited to read-heavy web workloads, where mature replication and a simple operational model carry it a long way. For conventional OLTP behind a SaaS app, it does the job without surprises. And because every major cloud offers a managed MySQL, the operational burden can be close to zero: Amazon RDS and Aurora, Google Cloud SQL, Azure Database for MySQL, plus MySQL-compatible platforms like PlanetScale built on Vitess for horizontal sharding.

Cost to adopt

The Community edition is free under GPLv2 with no usage limits, which covers the overwhelming majority of deployments. The real cost is operational, and managed services are where most teams spend: RDS and Aurora bill by instance size and storage, PlanetScale prices on a usage and branch model. Oracle’s commercial MySQL Enterprise tier adds features like thread pooling, advanced security, and support, and that is where the dual-license split bites: the same product ships under GPLv2 for the community and under a paid commercial license for organizations that need the proprietary add-ons or want to embed it without GPL obligations.

Against PostgreSQL the tradeoff is mostly about features versus familiarity. Postgres gives you richer SQL, extensions, and stronger data-integrity defaults for free; MySQL gives you a larger ecosystem, simpler replication, and a workforce that already knows it.

How it compares

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  PostgreSQL, the standards-leaning rival that now leads developer mindshare for new projects. Richer SQL, extensions, and stricter integrity defaults. Pick it for greenfield work where you choose freely.

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  MongoDB, the document database for schema-flexible, JSON-shaped data. Pick it when your model is hierarchical and evolving rather than relational and stable.

• PlanetScale, a MySQL-compatible managed platform built on Vitess, adding horizontal sharding and branch-based schema changes. Pick it to scale MySQL semantics past a single primary.