Managed MariaDB Hosting — production-ready from $15 a month
MySQL-compatible open-source relational database. Deployed on your own dedicated instance in AWS, Azure, or GCP, kept patched, backed up, and monitored by ManageStacks — standard MariaDB, no lock-in.
MariaDB on ManageStacks is production-grade MariaDB deployed to your own AWS, Azure, or GCP region — priced flat at $29 per database per month regardless of storage size, with Galera Cluster for synchronous multi-master replication, binary-log PITR, and MySQL wire-protocol compatibility as a drop-in replacement. Materially cheaper than RDS or SkySQL, fully community-driven and open-source (GPL v2 — not affected by MySQL's Oracle stewardship).
What does MariaDB do, and why do teams deploy it?
MariaDB is a community-driven fork of MySQL, created by the original MySQL founders after Oracle's acquisition. It maintains full MySQL wire-protocol compatibility while evolving independently — the ColumnStore engine for columnar analytics, temporal tables for built-in time-travel queries, sequence tables, and a query optimiser that's often faster than upstream MySQL for common workloads.
MariaDB is the default MySQL-family database on most Linux distros (Debian, RHEL, Ubuntu ship it, not MySQL). It's used by Wikipedia, ServiceNow, and thousands of SMB stacks that value the fully-open-source-community licence over Oracle's stewardship of MySQL.
Self-hosting MariaDB means running mariadbd tuned correctly (innodb_buffer_pool_size, binary log config, connection limits), setting up either replica-based HA or Galera Cluster for synchronous multi-master, testing 10.11 LTS → 11.x upgrades, and integrating with your monitoring and backup pipelines. ManageStacks handles it.
- MySQL wire-protocol compatible — drop-in replacement for MySQL apps
- Multiple storage engines: InnoDB, MyRocks (LSM tree), Aria, ColumnStore, S3
- Galera Cluster for synchronous multi-master replication
- Temporal tables (SYSTEM VERSIONING) for built-in time-travel queries
- Sequence tables + INVISIBLE columns + WITHOUT OVERLAPS constraint
- JSON functions with the same syntax as MySQL 8
MySQL-compatible open-source relational database
What does managed MariaDB hosting cost?
Flat per-app pricing, in your chosen AWS, Azure, or GCP region. No per-user pricing — a busy deployment costs the same as a quiet one.
Starter
Staging and internal tools. Dedicated instance, TLS, daily backups, managed upgrades.
Standard
Production workloads. Adds monitoring, staging environment, region choice, priority support.
Business
High-traffic and compliance workloads. Adds a high-availability replica and same-day support.
24×7 SRE retainer
Round-the-clock on-call across every hosted application, for teams that need a pager answered at 3am.
Self-hosting MariaDB vs managed — what does it really cost?
The software is free. The engineer-hours are not.
Running it yourself
- Install MariaDB, tune my.cnf (innodb_buffer_pool_size, sync_binlog, wsrep for Galera)
- Set up binary log archiving + mariabackup schedule for PITR
- Configure Galera Cluster or replica + MaxScale by hand for HA
- Test major-version upgrades in staging; handle storage-engine-specific migration paths
- Monitor Galera state, replication lag, and slow queries via your own tooling
On ManageStacks
- Subscribe through your AWS, Azure, or GCP marketplace
- MariaDB comes up tuned, with binary-log archiving on and monitoring configured
- Galera Cluster available on Business+ with automatic membership management
- New MariaDB LTS versions arrive as one-click updates after we validate them
- Grafana dashboards ship for connections, buffer pool, replication, Galera cluster state
MariaDB on ManageStacks vs the alternatives
How MariaDB on ManageStacks compares to the two dominant MySQL-family managed offerings and running MariaDB yourself.
| MariaDB on ManageStacksUs | AWS RDS MariaDB | SkySQL (MariaDB Corp DBaaS) | Self-hosted on your VM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Managed on your AWS, Azure, or GCP | AWS-managed | Vendor-hosted (multi-cloud) | You provision + operate |
| Data residency | Your cloud region | AWS region | Vendor region choice | Your cloud region |
| Pricing basis | Flat per database | Per instance-hour + storage + IOPS | Per node-hour + storage | Your compute cost |
| Multi-master HA | Galera Cluster on Business+ | Not built-in (Aurora is separate) | Galera + Xpand supported | You configure Galera |
| License | GPL v2 (fully OSS) | GPL v2 | GPL v2 (Community); BSL (Enterprise) | GPL v2 |
| MySQL compatibility | Wire-protocol drop-in | Compatible | Compatible | Compatible |
Provisioning, upgrades, backups and monitoring on your team’s plate.
What does running MariaDB yourself involve?
ManageStacks deploys MariaDB with binary-log-based PITR, MaxScale or ProxySQL in front for connection pooling, replica-based HA (or Galera Cluster on Business+), and Prometheus-exporter metrics. We handle major-version upgrades, storage-engine tuning, and Galera membership management — you focus on the schema and the queries.
MariaDB key numbers
How long from subscribing to a live instance?
Subscribe
Subscribe to ManageStacks through your AWS, Azure, or GCP marketplace.
Provision
MariaDB spins up with your chosen version, MaxScale/ProxySQL in front, binary-log archiving on, and Grafana monitoring — typically 3-5 minutes.
Connect
Point your application at the endpoint. Most MySQL client libraries connect without changes.
Backup + monitor
Daily backups + PITR run in the background. Set alerts on replication or Galera cluster state, connection count, or query latency.
When is self-hosting MariaDB the right answer instead?
“Managed hosting is not always the correct call.”
Self-host when a platform team already runs the infrastructure and on-call rotation to operate MariaDB at genuinely low marginal cost. Self-host when compliance requires an air-gapped or on-premises deployment that no hosted option can satisfy. And self-host when the deployment depends on heavy customisation with a fast internal build-deploy loop, because an internal release process will beat any managed change process.
For everyone else — teams whose engineers have better things to do than shepherd upgrades — managed hosting is cheaper than the hours it replaces.
Which cloud should MariaDB run on — AWS, Azure or GCP?
For most workloads, the choice of cloud matters less than proximity: run MariaDB in the same cloud and region as the applications and data it talks to, because every request between them adds a round trip. The underlying compute performs equivalently across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
In practice, an existing cloud footprint decides it. All plans support all three clouds, and moving regions later is a scheduled migration, not a rebuild.
Deepest managed-service catalog, default when there's no existing footprint
Best fit for teams already on Microsoft 365 or Entra ID
Strongest for data/analytics-adjacent workloads
Every plan supports AWS, Azure, and GCP — region choice included.
Common questions about MariaDB on ManageStacks
Can I migrate my existing MySQL database to MariaDB on ManageStacks?
Yes — MariaDB is largely wire-protocol compatible with MySQL. Migration is typically mysqldump from MySQL, then load into MariaDB. Application code usually works unchanged. Note: MySQL 8+ has some divergent syntax (JSON functions, roles) — we help identify anything that needs adjustment during onboarding.
Does ManageStacks support MariaDB Galera Cluster?
Yes. Galera Cluster (synchronous multi-master replication, 3+ nodes) is available on Business+ plans. Every node accepts writes; writes commit synchronously across all nodes before returning. Ideal for HA where you want reads and writes on any node.
How does MariaDB compare to MySQL for my use case?
For most web-app workloads (Rails, Django, Laravel, WordPress), they're interchangeable. Choose MariaDB if: (a) you value the fully-open-source-community stewardship, (b) you want Galera for multi-master HA, (c) you're using storage engines like MyRocks or ColumnStore. Choose MySQL if: (a) your app or a plugin specifically requires MySQL 8 features (JSON schema validation, roles), (b) your cloud vendor tightly integrates with MySQL specifically.
How does MariaDB on ManageStacks compare to RDS MariaDB or SkySQL?
RDS MariaDB is per instance-hour + storage; SkySQL (MariaDB Corporation's DBaaS) is priced similarly. ManageStacks is flat $29 per database. For small-to-medium databases, self-hosted on ManageStacks is materially cheaper. RDS is worth it for tight AWS-VPC integration or IAM database auth; SkySQL for direct vendor support on the MariaDB application itself.
Does ManageStacks handle MariaDB version upgrades?
Yes. MariaDB has clearer LTS discipline than MySQL — 10.11 LTS, 11.x LTS lines. We track LTS versions, test upgrades on a clone of your data, and coordinate rolling upgrades across replicated setups.
Which storage engines are available?
InnoDB (default, transactional), MyRocks (LSM tree, write-heavy workloads), Aria (crash-safe MyISAM replacement), ColumnStore (columnar analytics — cluster-mode on Enterprise), S3 (read-only tables backed by object storage). Choose per table based on workload.
Is temporal / time-travel querying included?
Yes. SYSTEM VERSIONING tables record every change to a row with a timestamp; you can query historical state with SELECT ... FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF. Useful for audit, debugging state drift, and slowly-changing-dimension analytics without a separate CDC pipeline.
What happens if I want to migrate off?
mariabackup for physical exports, mysqldump for logical, or replication-based zero-downtime migration to your target. MariaDB is GPL-licensed and portable to any MariaDB or (mostly) MySQL deployment. Migration off is a supported operation.
Run MariaDB without carrying the pager
Subscribe through your AWS, Azure, or GCP marketplace. We handle provisioning, SSL, monitoring, backups, updates, and security. From $15/mo.