MariaDB

MariaDB is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). It originated as a fork of MySQL in 2009, created by Michael Widenius and other developers after Oracle acquired MySQL. The project aims to remain community-driven and fully open, with ongoing development by the MariaDB Foundation and corporate sponsors. MariaDB Server is designed to be a drop-in replacement for MySQL in most applications, offering broad compatibility with MySQL's data and query syntax.

The software is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v2, with additional components released under compatible licenses. It supports a variety of storage engines, including a default InnoDB-compatible engine and other engines like Aria, ColumnStore, and others, providing options for transactional and analytical workloads. MariaDB also offers features such as improved query optimizer, safety and security enhancements, and options for replication and clustering through the Galera-based wsrep API for multi-master setups.

MariaDB is widely used in web and enterprise environments, running on Linux, Windows, and macOS, with deployments in on-premises data centers and cloud platforms. It has an active ecosystem of tools, drivers, and connectors and is maintained as open-source software by a global community. The project continues to release major branches in the 10.x series, adding features and performance improvements while maintaining compatibility with MySQL-style applications.