Business Intelligence · head to head
Cyfe vs MariaDB

MariaDB
Database & Data Management
The open source relational database for the enterprise
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Cyfe dashboards are the billing unit, at 2 on the $29 Starter plan and 5 on the $39 Standard plan; MariaDB jSON support using text fields rather than native binary type; lacks MySQL's JSON syntax and functions
- They diverge on capability: Cyfe covers Pre-built Widgets, MariaDB covers MySQL Compatibility.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cyfe and MariaDB actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Cyfe
- Pre-built Widgets
- Custom Metrics
- Historical Data
- White-labeling
- Embedding
- Google 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.
Cyfe
- Building business dashboards from marketing, sales and finance sourcesnot MariaDB
- Displaying live metrics on office screens and shared public URLsnot MariaDB
MariaDB
- Transaction processingnot Cyfe
- Data storagenot Cyfe
- Application backendnot Cyfe
- Reportingnot Cyfe
- Data analyticsnot Cyfe
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cyfe
- Dashboards are the billing unit, at 2 on the $29 Starter plan and 5 on the $39 Standard plan
- Users are capped separately, at 1 on Starter and 2 on Standard, so a two person team needs the second tier for seats alone
- Unlimited users only appears on the $119 Premier plan
- Additional dashboards beyond a plan are $5 each
- The Agency plan includes 10 clients with further clients at $19 each
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
Cyfe
Free- FreeFree
- 5 Widgets
- Basic Features
- Community Support
- Solo$19/month
- 10 Dashboards
- Premium Widgets
- Email Support
MariaDB
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the MariaDB review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Cyfe if
- You need pre-built widgets.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Mobile, Tv.
- You also want custom metrics.
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 Cyfe or MariaDB better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cyfe starts at Free and MariaDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cyfe or MariaDB?
- Cyfe starts at Free and MariaDB at Free.
- Does Cyfe or MariaDB run on more platforms?
- Cyfe runs on Web, Mobile, Tv. MariaDB runs on Linux, Unix, Windows, macOS.
- Can I use Cyfe for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Cyfe best used for?
- Cyfe is most often used for building business dashboards from marketing, sales and finance sources, displaying live metrics on office screens and shared public urls. Of those, building business dashboards from marketing, sales and finance sources and displaying live metrics on office screens and shared public urls are not what MariaDB is typically brought in for.
- What can Cyfe do that MariaDB cannot?
- Cyfe covers Pre-built Widgets, Custom Metrics, Historical Data, White-labeling. 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
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- MariaDB vs Amazon QuickSight
- MariaDB vs Power BI
- MariaDB vs Sisense
- MariaDB vs MicroStrategy
- MariaDB vs Qlik Sense
- MariaDB vs Domo
- MariaDB vs GoodData
- MariaDB vs ThoughtSpot
- MariaDB vs Google Data Studio
- MariaDB vs IBM Cognos Analytics
- MariaDB vs Mode
- MariaDB vs Periscope Data
- MariaDB vs Baremetrics
- MariaDB vs Celonis
- MariaDB vs Chartio
- MariaDB vs ChartMogul
- MariaDB vs Databox
- MariaDB vs Dundas BI
- 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

