MySQL

MySQL¹ is a popular choice of database management system that is developed by Oracle. As the name suggests, it is a relational database system, that uses SQL for managing data. Originally, MySQL was created to be fast, and can handle demanding loads. It is known for being easy to use, and a popular choice for beginning developers².

Comparison

Each of the requirements is scored on a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good).

Data integrity

Score: 5. MySQL is ACID-compliant by providing robust transaction support. Relations between table columns further ensure that data items in the database remain consistent.

Handling necessary data

Score: 5. MySQL should not have any problems in handling tables of several million rows.

JavaScript support

Score: 4. There are many third-party libraries³ availables for MySQL, each with their own feature set.

Performance

Score: 3. Benchmarks⁴⁵⁶ show that MySQL gets worse performance than its relational alternatives MariaDB and PostgreSQL.

Query support

Score: 4. MySQL’s supports SQL, but does not support some of the more advanced features that PostgreSQL supports.

Scalability

Score: 2. To scale MySQL, the machine resources have to be increased, or read replicas can be set up to improve the request capacity of the system for read-heavy applications. Otherwise, one has to turn to other applications in the MySQL ecosystem, which can further expand these capabilities.