Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source

https://optimizedbyotto.com/post/reasons-to-stop-using-mysql/

74•thunderbong•2w ago

Comments

dfajgljsldkjag•2w ago

The author is right that usage is dropping, but that really has no bearing on whether or not it is open source. Technologies get replaced all the time regardless of the license they use.

gnabgib•2w ago

Author is also being careful with the DB-Engines screen shot, usage of MySQL may be dropping, but it's still number two (below Oracle, above MSSQL - which shows the same curve, above Postgres, far above MariaDB and SQLite) https://db-engines.com/en/ranking_trend

graemep•2w ago

The rankings methodology looks like it will favour MySQL.

https://db-engines.com/en/ranking_definition

Lots of historical mentions. Even the MariaDB website mentions it. Lots of people say "MySQL" generically to include its forks.

gnabgib•2w ago

You can see that in this comment thread too. People assuming MariaDB=MySQL (not according to op, arguable)

tzs•2w ago

That site is not measuring usage. By usage SQLite would be way above all the others. There are more SQLite deployments in use than all the others combined.

bratao•2w ago

From my experience MariaDB is not necessarily better than MySQL. The 8.x line brought many interesting features. I dream on switch to Postgres, and try every year but for my use case MySQL is still superior (100Bi+ rows for large texts, and heavy modified - I´m also space constrained - So I need data compression and the VACUUM are not good.)

The percona distribution is very good!

CodesInChaos•2w ago

The storage engine is one of postgres's weakest points. I hope OrioleDB will eventually give us a more robust and easier to use replacement.

MrDrMcCoy•2w ago

If space constrained and wanting compression, why not do that at the filesystem or block layer if it's not supported in the app?

nubinetwork•2w ago

From my experience, mariadb is about the same as mysql... depending on the queries, it can either be fine, or slow as balls. I'm actually considering switching to pgsql to see if its any better. /shrug

exabrial•2w ago

Is there anything in 8.0.x/8.4.x line that isn't present in MariaDb latest?

dcmatt•2w ago

I'm not going to stop using it because it's not "true open source." I'm going to stop using it because there's better databases out there.

antonvs•2w ago

Who's still using MySQL on the back end? Most Linux distributions come with MariaDB. Is it Windows servers?

zinodaur•2w ago

MySQL performs well at large scale, and has a very cool and weird storage engine option called MyRocks, that slows read performance but allows demented write rates and compression.

But yes, it is very bad.

homebrewer•2w ago

I'm pretty sure Facebook is still running it. They've done a migration to 8.0 a couple of years after it came out (it was a massive release).

https://engineering.fb.com/2021/07/22/core-infra/mysql

frje1400•2w ago

Obviously lots and lots of companies. Do you think a mature company just migrates to a different database unless it is absolutely necessary? That's a multi year project. I'm at a smaller company (around a 100 devs) and we have easily a dozen different production instances, some small and some larger with many replicas, etc.

New projects get MySQL too because we know it and it works.

wink•2w ago

> Do you think a mature company just migrates to a different database

You are right if you look at the current state of how MariaDB and MySQL diverged. But if you migrated right at the time of the split or close to, they were not different in a meaningful way.

> unless it is absolutely necessary

Staying free of Oracle is often deemed absolutely necessary.

logifail•2w ago

Happily using MariaDB (as packaged with Debian) in production here...

fegu•2w ago

I used MariaDB in Azure, but got notified it was retired. Anyway, migrated to sqlite.

1over137•2w ago

I'm stuck on MySQL because converting to postgres is hard, the tool everyone recommends (pgloader) doesn't work with current MySQL (https://github.com/dimitri/pgloader/issues/782), anyone know another way?

captain_coffee•2w ago

How big of a DB are we talking about? You might need to recreate the whole DB schema / structure manually from scratch in PostgreSQL and then dump the data and load it in PG via standard SQL file exports in the correct table order to avoid failures due to FK constraints. This is a gross oversimplification but you get the gist

1over137•2w ago

In fact I don't get the gist :) but thanks for your reply. All I know about databases is following instructions to set one up as part of a LAMP/FAMP installation.

mlinster•2w ago

Unless you use stored procedures in MySQL, recreating the tables and schemas in Postgres should be straightforward. Postgres now offers a 'MySQL Adapter', a.k.a. Foreign Data Wrapper (https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/mysql_fdw), that makes it straightforward to load data from MySQL into Postgres.

I know you mentioned that all you know about databases is following instructions, but maybe the folks at EDB or Percona can give you a hand.

Postgres will be around for a long time, and I think it's pretty obvious that MySQL won't.

1over137•2w ago

I'll read up on that, thanks!

jbverschoor•2w ago

Prepare to be replaced by ai

1over137•2w ago

haha. I have lots of other valuable skills. There's more to programming & IT than just db administration you know.

afiori•2w ago

What happens if there are cycles of FK constraints between rows?

homebrewer•2w ago

It does work, I just used pgloader to migrate a 16 GB database from MySQL 8.4 to PostgreSQL 18 last week (around 700 tables). It's not big, but their problems seem to be with authentication, not database size or functionality.

Have you tried it doing it yourself?

1over137•2w ago

I have tried. It fails in authentication like that ticket describes, so I seem to be stuck on square one.

captain_coffee•2w ago

I would argue that the reason to stop using it is that is a pretty bad piece of software to begin with, not because it's not "true open source" but hey, whatever floats your boat, right?

schmookeeg•2w ago

Oracle's icy touch. It was foretold. :D

bitbasher•2w ago

Why would anyone use MySQL over Postgres in 2026?

timbit42•2w ago

Because they started with MySQL and it can be difficult to switch.

mannyv•2w ago

Because it's a zero-maintenance solution that performs well out the box, has excellent analysis tools that are free, and works with no issues.

Postgres is work. Mysql is not. I say this having used mysql, postgres, oracle, sybase, mssql, ingres, rdb, dbase, and other random data stores in production.

exabrial•2w ago

One does not need to stop because "its not open source", one needs to switch because its no longer actively being developed.

em-bee•2w ago

my client insists on mysql to stay compatible with amazon RDS

Ask HN: Is the coco 3 the best 8 bit computer ever made?

Show HN: Convert your articles into videos in one click

Red Queen's Race

The Anthropic Hive Mind

A Horrible Conclusion

I spent $10k to automate my research at OpenAI with Codex

From Zero to Hero: A Spring Boot Deep Dive

Show HN: Solving NP-Complete Structures via Information Noise Subtraction (P=NP)

Cook New Emojis

Show HN: LoKey Typer – A calm typing practice app with ambient soundscapes

Long-Sought Proof Tames Some of Math's Unruliest Equations

Hacking the last Z80 computer – FOSDEM 2026 [video]

Browser-use for Node.js v0.2.0: TS AI browser automation parity with PY v0.5.11

Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change

Software Engineering Is Back

Storyship: Turn Screen Recordings into Professional Demos

Reputation Scores for GitHub Accounts

A BSOD for All Seasons – Send Bad News via a Kernel Panic

Show HN: I got tired of copy-pasting between Claude windows, so I built Orcha

Omarchy First Impressions

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

Show HN: Versor – The "Unbending" Paradigm for Geometric Deep Learning

Show HN: HypothesisHub – An open API where AI agents collaborate on medical res

Big Tech vs. OpenClaw

Anofox Forecast

Ask HN: How do you figure out where data lives across 100 microservices?

Motus: A Unified Latent Action World Model

Rotten Tomatoes Desperately Claims 'Impossible' Rating for 'Melania' Is Real

The protein denitrosylase SCoR2 regulates lipogenesis and fat storage [pdf]

Los Alamos Primer

Ask HN: Is the coco 3 the best 8 bit computer ever made?

Show HN: Convert your articles into videos in one click

Red Queen's Race

The Anthropic Hive Mind

A Horrible Conclusion

I spent $10k to automate my research at OpenAI with Codex

From Zero to Hero: A Spring Boot Deep Dive

Show HN: Solving NP-Complete Structures via Information Noise Subtraction (P=NP)

Cook New Emojis

Show HN: LoKey Typer – A calm typing practice app with ambient soundscapes

Long-Sought Proof Tames Some of Math's Unruliest Equations

Hacking the last Z80 computer – FOSDEM 2026 [video]

Browser-use for Node.js v0.2.0: TS AI browser automation parity with PY v0.5.11

Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change

Software Engineering Is Back

Storyship: Turn Screen Recordings into Professional Demos

Reputation Scores for GitHub Accounts

A BSOD for All Seasons – Send Bad News via a Kernel Panic

Show HN: I got tired of copy-pasting between Claude windows, so I built Orcha

Omarchy First Impressions

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

Show HN: Versor – The "Unbending" Paradigm for Geometric Deep Learning

Show HN: HypothesisHub – An open API where AI agents collaborate on medical res

Big Tech vs. OpenClaw

Anofox Forecast

Ask HN: How do you figure out where data lives across 100 microservices?

Motus: A Unified Latent Action World Model

Rotten Tomatoes Desperately Claims 'Impossible' Rating for 'Melania' Is Real

The protein denitrosylase SCoR2 regulates lipogenesis and fat storage [pdf]

Los Alamos Primer

Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source

Comments