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MariaDB vs Percona XtraDB Cluster

MariaDB: Community-led MySQL fork with extra storage engines, built-in Galera and a faster feature cadence. Percona XtraDB Cluster: Percona Server plus Galera synchronous replication, packaged as an open-source HA MySQL cluster.

key differences

  • Horizontal scaling is addon in MariaDB and none in Percona XtraDB Cluster.
  • Only MariaDB has vector search, columnar storage, time travel, online schema changes.

choose mariadb for

  • +Drop-in replacement for legacy MySQL deployments
  • +Linux distribution default database for LAMP stacks
  • +Temporal auditing with system-versioned tables
  • +HA clusters with Galera

best at · OLTP, Content, Geo

choose percona-xtradb-cluster for

  • +Highly available MySQL for business-critical OLTP
  • +Zero-data-loss failover within a data center
  • +Self-hosted MySQL on Kubernetes with an operator
  • +Read scaling with consistent reads on every node

best at · OLTP, Content

MariaDBCommunity-led MySQL fork with extra storage engines, built-in Galera and a faster feature cadence.
Percona XtraDB ClusterPercona Server plus Galera synchronous replication, packaged as an open-source HA MySQL cluster.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Document, Spatial, Vector, Columnar / OLAP
Document
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB plc
Percona
First release
2009
2012
Latest version
13.0.2 (Sep 15, 2026)
9.7.1-1 (Sep 10, 2026)
License
Open source (copyleft)GPL-2.0
Open source (copyleft)GPL-2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
56.2
10.3
Rank
#19
#300
GitHub stars
8.5K
390
Stack Overflow questions
14.6K
59
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Addon
None
Multi-region
Read replicas
Active active
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong, Eventual
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Single node, Primary replica, Multi primary, Client server
Multi primary, Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, DigitalOcean, Akamai
–
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
✓
✓
Full-text search
✓
✓
Vector search
✓
—
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
✓
✓
Triggers
✓
✓
Stored procedures
✓
✓
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
✓
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
✓
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
✓
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL, PL/SQL (Oracle mode)
SQL
Client languages
C, Java, Python, JavaScript, PHP, Go, C#, Ruby
C, Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, PHP, C#
Best for
OLTP, Content, Geo, Vector search
OLTP, Content
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

MariaDB vs Percona XtraDB Cluster: FAQ

What is the difference between MariaDB and Percona XtraDB Cluster?

MariaDB: Community-led MySQL fork with extra storage engines, built-in Galera and a faster feature cadence. Percona XtraDB Cluster: Percona Server plus Galera synchronous replication, packaged as an open-source HA MySQL cluster. Horizontal scaling is addon in MariaDB and none in Percona XtraDB Cluster. Only MariaDB has vector search, columnar storage, time travel, online schema changes.

When should I choose MariaDB over Percona XtraDB Cluster?

Choose MariaDB for drop-in replacement for legacy MySQL deployments, linux distribution default database for LAMP stacks and temporal auditing with system-versioned tables. Choose Percona XtraDB Cluster for highly available MySQL for business-critical OLTP, zero-data-loss failover within a data center and self-hosted MySQL on Kubernetes with an operator.

Is MariaDB or Percona XtraDB Cluster more popular?

MariaDB ranks #19 on the WhichDB Score (56.2/100) and Percona XtraDB Cluster ranks #300 (10.3/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are MariaDB and Percona XtraDB Cluster open source?

Yes. MariaDB is open source. License: GPL-2.0. Yes. Percona XtraDB Cluster is open source. License: GPL-2.0.