MariaDB

How ArrayMatic uses MariaDB

MariaDB is our MySQL-compatible database for projects running in environments where MySQL is the established standard but Oracle licence constraints are a concern, or where Galera Cluster's multi-master replication is a hard infrastructure requirement. We use it for transactional web backends, CMS systems, and e-commerce platforms that benefit from MySQL's widespread managed hosting support and familiar tooling ecosystem.

We deploy MariaDB on managed services — AWS RDS MariaDB, DigitalOcean Managed Databases — with read replicas for analytics workloads and automated point-in-time recovery. Connection pooling runs through ProxySQL. Schema migrations are managed with Flyway or Liquibase depending on the client's existing toolchain. For applications already in the MySQL ecosystem, MariaDB is a drop-in replacement requiring zero changes to the application layer.

When we choose MariaDB over PostgreSQL

For new greenfield projects without a MySQL dependency we default to PostgreSQL for its richer feature set — JSONB, advanced indexing, and better standards compliance. We recommend MariaDB when the client already runs MySQL infrastructure, when the managed hosting environment standardises on MariaDB, or when multi-master replication via Galera Cluster is a requirement that PostgreSQL cannot meet without additional tooling overhead.

Typical use cases

• E-commerce backends with high read volumes and existing MySQL tooling
• CMS and WordPress-adjacent applications requiring MySQL compatibility
• Legacy MySQL migrations requiring zero application-layer changes
• Multi-master replication deployments using Galera Cluster