Scheduling & Booking · head to head
Boulevard vs MariaDB

Boulevard
Scheduling & Booking
Client experience platform for salons
- From
- $175/month
- Rated
- -

MariaDB
Database & Data Management
The open source relational database for the enterprise
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only MariaDB has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Boulevard pricing is charged per location, so a multi site business pays the full plan fee for each site; MariaDB jSON support using text fields rather than native binary type; lacks MySQL's JSON syntax and functions
- They diverge on capability: Boulevard covers Intelligent scheduling, MariaDB covers MySQL Compatibility.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Boulevard and MariaDB actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Boulevard
- Intelligent scheduling
- Client profiles
- Point of sale
- Inventory management
- Staff management
- Gift cards & packages
- Two-way messaging
- Business analytics
Only in MariaDB
- MySQL Compatibility
- Aria Storage Engine
- ColumnStore
- Galera Cluster
- MaxScale
- Spider Engine
- Temporal Tables
- phpMyAdmin
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Boulevard
- Appointment booking and client management for salons, spas and medspasnot MariaDB
- Running point of sale and card payments alongside schedulingnot MariaDB
- Automated client messaging, intake forms and marketing campaignsnot MariaDB
MariaDB
- Transaction processingnot Boulevard
- Data storagenot Boulevard
- Application backendnot Boulevard
- Reportingnot Boulevard
- Data analyticsnot Boulevard
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Boulevard
- Pricing is charged per location, so a multi site business pays the full plan fee for each site
- The Essentials plan caps the business at 5 professionals; unlimited professionals require the Premier plan
- Text and email allowances are metered per plan, with email blasts charged at $0.01 each beyond the plan allocation
- Forms cost from $65 per month per location unless you are on the top Prestige plan
- QuickBooks integration is an add on at $45 per month per location
- ePrescribe is $45 per prescriber on top of the plan
- Enterprise pricing is by consultation with no published rate
MariaDB
- JSON support using text fields rather than native binary type; lacks MySQL's JSON syntax and functions
- Galera Cluster maximum performance limited to the slowest node in cluster
- InnoDB tables limited to 1,017 columns and 64 secondary indexes
- Transaction size limits in Galera (128K rows and 2GB by default)
- Less strict SQL type checking than PostgreSQL; allows implicit conversions
Pricing, plan by plan
Boulevard
$175/month- Essential$175/month
- Appointment booking
- Client management
- Point of sale
- Premier$325/month
- Everything in Essential
- Advanced booking
- Marketing tools
- Prestige$undefined/month
- Everything in Premier
- Multi-location
- API access
MariaDB
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the MariaDB review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Boulevard if
- You need intelligent scheduling.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
- You also want client profiles.
Choose MariaDB if
- You need mysql compatibility.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS.
- You also want aria storage engine.
Questions people ask
- Is Boulevard or MariaDB better?
- Neither clearly leads. Boulevard starts at $175/month and MariaDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Boulevard or MariaDB?
- MariaDB has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $175/month for Boulevard and Free for MariaDB.
- Does Boulevard or MariaDB run on more platforms?
- Boulevard runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. MariaDB runs on Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS.
- Can I use MariaDB for free?
- Yes. MariaDB has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Boulevard starts at $175/month.
- What is Boulevard best used for?
- Boulevard is most often used for appointment booking and client management for salons, spas and medspas, running point of sale and card payments alongside scheduling, automated client messaging, intake forms and marketing campaigns. Of those, appointment booking and client management for salons, spas and medspas and running point of sale and card payments alongside scheduling are not what MariaDB is typically brought in for.
- What can Boulevard do that MariaDB cannot?
- Boulevard covers Intelligent scheduling, Client profiles, Point of sale, Inventory management. MariaDB covers MySQL Compatibility, Aria Storage Engine, ColumnStore, Galera Cluster.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
MariaDB: Is MariaDB completely free and open source?
Yes. MariaDB Server is licensed under GPLv2 and guaranteed to remain perpetually free and open source, independent of any commercial entities.
SourceMariaDB: Is MariaDB backward compatible with MySQL?
Yes. MariaDB was designed as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. Every application, driver, and configuration that worked with MySQL works with MariaDB without code changes.
SourceMariaDB: What are the storage engine options in MariaDB?
MariaDB supports multiple storage engines including InnoDB (transactional, default), Aria (crash-safe, good for read-heavy workloads), and MyISAM. The Aria engine is faster than InnoDB for certain read-heavy queries and full table scans.
SourceMariaDB: How much does MariaDB cost?
MariaDB Community Server is completely free to download and use. MariaDB offers paid enterprise support and managed cloud services for organizations needing professional support.
SourceMariaDB: Does MariaDB support native JSON storage?
MariaDB stores JSON using text fields (the JSON type is an alias for LONGTEXT), not as a native binary type like MySQL does. JSON support exists but is less sophisticated than MySQL's JSON functions and syntax.
SourceMariaDB: What scaling options does MariaDB provide?
MariaDB supports both scaling up (more cores, memory, storage) and scaling out (read replication, Galera Cluster with multi-node replication). However, Galera Cluster performance cannot exceed the slowest node in the cluster.
SourceRelated pages
Other head to heads
- Boulevard vs Calendly
- Boulevard vs Cal.com
- Boulevard vs Motion
- Boulevard vs Acuity Scheduling
- Boulevard vs Appointlet
- Boulevard vs Appointy
- Boulevard vs Setmore
- Boulevard vs 10to8
- Boulevard vs Booksy
- Boulevard vs Doodle
- Boulevard vs Fresha
- Boulevard vs GlossGenius
- Boulevard vs Schedulicity
- Boulevard vs Square Appointments
- Boulevard vs When2meet
- Boulevard vs Zenoti
- Boulevard vs Airbnb
- Boulevard vs Booker by Mindbody
- Boulevard vs Cockroach Labs
- Boulevard vs PostgreSQL
- Boulevard vs Airtable
- Boulevard vs Amazon Aurora
- Boulevard vs Elasticsearch
- Boulevard vs PlanetScale
- Boulevard vs Azure SQL
- Boulevard vs ClickHouse
- Boulevard vs Couchbase
- Boulevard vs DuckDB
- Boulevard vs DynamoDB
- Boulevard vs Oracle Database
- Boulevard vs Amazon RDS
- Boulevard vs Amazon Redshift
- Boulevard vs Apache Druid
- Boulevard vs Cassandra
- Boulevard vs CouchDB
- Boulevard vs Firebolt
- MariaDB vs Calendly
- MariaDB vs Cal.com
- MariaDB vs Motion
- MariaDB vs Acuity Scheduling
- MariaDB vs Appointlet
- MariaDB vs Appointy
- MariaDB vs Setmore
- MariaDB vs 10to8
- MariaDB vs Booksy
- MariaDB vs Doodle
- MariaDB vs Fresha
- MariaDB vs GlossGenius
- MariaDB vs Schedulicity
- MariaDB vs Square Appointments
- MariaDB vs When2meet
- MariaDB vs Zenoti
- MariaDB vs Airbnb
- MariaDB vs Booker by Mindbody
- MariaDB vs Cockroach Labs
- MariaDB vs PostgreSQL
- MariaDB vs Airtable
- MariaDB vs Amazon Aurora
- MariaDB vs Elasticsearch
- MariaDB vs PlanetScale
- MariaDB vs Azure SQL
- MariaDB vs ClickHouse
- MariaDB vs Couchbase
- MariaDB vs DuckDB
- MariaDB vs DynamoDB
- MariaDB vs Oracle Database
- MariaDB vs Amazon RDS
- MariaDB vs Amazon Redshift
- MariaDB vs Apache Druid
- MariaDB vs Cassandra
- MariaDB vs CouchDB
- MariaDB vs Firebolt
