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Software · head to head

Culture Amp vs MariaDB

Culture Amp logo

Culture Amp

Software

Build a better workplace with employee experience data

From
On request
Rated
-
MariaDB logo

MariaDB

Software

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: Culture Amp no price is published, and cost depends on employee count, product chosen and service tier; MariaDB jSON support using text fields rather than native binary type; lacks MySQL's JSON syntax and functions
  • They diverge on capability: Culture Amp covers Employee engagement surveys, MariaDB covers MySQL Compatibility.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Culture Amp and MariaDB actually diverge.

Attributes where Culture Amp and MariaDB differ
AttributeCulture AmpMariaDB
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiLinux, Unix, Windows, macOS

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown), founded (2009).

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 Culture Amp

  • Employee engagement surveys
  • Pulse surveys
  • Performance management
  • Goal tracking
  • 360-degree feedback
  • Analytics & insights
  • Action planning
  • Manager effectiveness

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.

Culture Amp

  • Employee engagement surveys and analysisnot MariaDB
  • Performance reviews and development planning across an organisationnot MariaDB

MariaDB

  • Transaction processingnot Culture Amp
  • Data storagenot Culture Amp
  • Application backendnot Culture Amp
  • Reportingnot Culture Amp
  • Data analyticsnot Culture Amp

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Culture Amp

  • No price is published, and cost depends on employee count, product chosen and service tier
  • All products are billed annually
  • Support level is banded by organisation size, with additional support starting at 200 employees and enterprise treatment at 1,000, so smaller customers get less for the same product

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

Culture Amp

On request
  • Engage$undefined/month
    • Engagement surveys
    • Pulse surveys
    • Action planning
  • Perform$undefined/month
    • Goal tracking
    • Performance reviews
    • 1-on-1 meetings
  • Develop$undefined/month
    • Skills development
    • Career paths
    • Learning integrations

MariaDB

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the MariaDB review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Culture Amp if

  • You need employee engagement surveys.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want pulse surveys.

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 Culture Amp or MariaDB better?
Neither clearly leads. Culture Amp starts at On request and MariaDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Culture Amp or MariaDB?
MariaDB has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Culture Amp and Free for MariaDB.
Does Culture Amp or MariaDB run on more platforms?
Culture Amp 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. Culture Amp starts at On request.
What is Culture Amp best used for?
Culture Amp is most often used for employee engagement surveys and analysis, performance reviews and development planning across an organisation. Of those, employee engagement surveys and analysis and performance reviews and development planning across an organisation are not what MariaDB is typically brought in for.
What can Culture Amp do that MariaDB cannot?
Culture Amp covers Employee engagement surveys, Pulse surveys, Performance management, Goal tracking. 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.

Source
MariaDB: 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.

Source
MariaDB: 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.

Source
MariaDB: 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.

Source
MariaDB: 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.

Source
MariaDB: 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.

Source

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