Editorial take
Why it stands out
GPL copyleft matters if you embed MySQL in a distributed appliance—call counsel early.
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Tool profile
Widely used relational database for web apps, transactional workloads, and familiar SQL development.
Transactional LAMP-style web applications
The world's most deployed open-source RDBMS: InnoDB transactions, replication, and a massive hosting footprint from LAMP stacks to cloud RDS.
MySQL Community Edition is licensed under GNU General Public License v2—you may run it $0 on your own hardware subject to GPL obligations. Oracle sells Enterprise editions and support with quoted annual fees; most SaaS teams instead buy managed MySQL (Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL, Azure Database for MySQL, DigitalOcean, PlanetScale on Vitess, etc.) priced per vCPU, RAM, storage, and IOPS.
Clarify Community vs commercial binaries with legal before you redistribute MySQL inside an appliance.
Quick fit
Editorial take
GPL copyleft matters if you embed MySQL in a distributed appliance—call counsel early.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Pricing snapshot
MySQL Community Server remains free open-source software, while MySQL Enterprise Edition is a commercial Oracle product sold through sales rather than a simple public price card. In practice, the recurring cost for most teams comes from managed MySQL hosting, backups, storage, HA, and support rather than from MySQL Community licensing itself.
Alation
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Enterprise data intelligence and catalog platform for search, governance, trust, and AI-ready knowledge layers over organizational data.
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