Comparing Open-Source Database Products with SQL Server

Andrew analyzes and writes about Microsoft's data management, business intelligence, and machine learning solutions, as well as aspects of licensing... more

Azure provides several database services based on open-source products, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB. They are popular, cross-platform, relational database products (available for Linux, macOS, and Windows) that provide many of the same features and capabilities as SQL Server but cost less to license.

MySQL

MySQL is a popular, open-source, lightweight relational database management system that is often used as an alternative to SQL Server for small to medium Web applications because it is cross-platform, free, and easier to learn, deploy, and maintain than SQL Server.

As compared to SQL Server, MySQL does not support advanced SQL Server features, such as in-memory and parallel processing, direct query of unstructured data sources, support for machine learning languages, data cataloging, reporting, data integration, management tools, and data analytics. Such features can be used only with MySQL in combination with third-party solutions.

MySQL changes are directed by Oracle, which sells a version of the database, and by users of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) open-source Web development platform. MySQL is generally licensed under the General Public License (GPL) version 2; however, under certain circumstances, a commercial license may be required.

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