Is MariaDB the same as MySQL?

They share an origin and much of their syntax, but have diverged over the years in features, performance behaviour, and release schedules. Code written for one usually runs on the other, though not always, and the differences matter during upgrades.

Can you take over our existing database?

Yes, and it is most of what we do here. We start with an audit covering version support, backup validity, replication health, and the slowest queries, then give you a written assessment with priorities before quoting any work at all.

How do we change a large table without downtime?

With online schema change tooling rather than a direct alter statement, which on a large table can lock it for hours. The change is applied to a copy while writes continue, then swapped in. It takes longer overall but nothing goes offline.

Is MySQL enough for our growth?

For most applications, comfortably, provided indexing and replication are handled properly. Problems blamed on MySQL are usually queries written without regard to how they execute. We would rather fix that than sell you a migration.

MySQL
Development Services

Stateside Digitals provides MySQL development services for businesses running production databases they cannot afford to break, covering performance, upgrades, replication, and the schema changes nobody wants to attempt.

MySQL runs more of the web than any other database, largely because it arrived early, cost nothing, and every host supported it. That history matters more than any feature comparison, because it means the question most businesses actually face is not whether to choose MySQL for something new. It is what to do with the MySQL they are already running.

That changes what good work looks like here. New projects today more often start on PostgreSQL, and we would usually agree with that choice. But a MySQL database holding years of production data is a completely different situation, and it is normally worth keeping healthy rather than replacing on principle at considerable cost and risk.

Supported By Every Host

Cheapest To Run Well

Every managed service and hosting provider offers it, which keeps both infrastructure costs and your options genuinely competitive.

Replication Made Simple

Read Scaling Without Drama

Adding read replicas to spread query load is well-trodden ground here, with tooling that has been refined over a very long time.

Familiar To Every Developer

No Learning Curve To Absorb

Almost anyone you hire has worked with it, so handover, cover, and emergency help are easier to arrange than with newer systems.

WordPress And CMS Platforms

Content sites where MySQL is not a choice but a requirement, and the work is keeping queries fast as the content grows past what the theme expected.

Legacy Application Support

Business systems built years ago and still doing their job, where the priority is keeping them patched, backed up, and performing without disturbing what already works.

Read-Heavy Workloads

Applications serving far more queries than updates, where replicas absorb reporting and traffic without touching the primary database.

This sounds like a trivial question and frequently is not. MySQL has forked into MariaDB and Percona Server, each with its own release schedule and behaviour, and plenty of teams inherit a system without being certain which one they have or what version it sits on. Managed cloud services then add their own variants and patch levels on top of that.

It matters because older versions reach end of life and stop receiving security patches, and a surprising number of production databases sit past that line without anyone having noticed. The first thing we do with an existing database is establish exactly what is running, whether it is still supported, and what an upgrade path looks like, before anything else gets discussed.

We work across MySQL 8 and the MariaDB and Percona forks, on managed services or your own servers. That covers index and query tuning against the slow query log, online schema changes that avoid locking large tables, replication and read replica setup, connection handling through ProxySQL, and point-in-time recovery configured and tested rather than assumed to work.

MySQL
MariaDB
Percona
Slow Query Log
Query Tuning
Indexes
Online Schema Change
Replication
Read Replicas
ProxySQL
Point-In-Time Recovery
Managed Services

Supported Versions Only

Schema Changes Without Locks

Slow Queries Tracked

Replication Lag Watched

We establish what version and fork you are on first, because a database past end of life stops receiving security patches without announcing it.

Large tables are altered through online schema change tooling, so a change takes longer but nothing goes offline while it runs.

The slow query log is turned on and actually read, which is where most problems blamed on the database turn out to be visible.

Replica lag is monitored and alerted on, because reads served from a replica that has fallen behind return stale data without erroring.

Supported Versions Only

Schema Changes Without Locks

Slow Queries Tracked

Replication Lag Watched

Usually not on principle alone. Migration costs real money and carries real risk, and a well-maintained MySQL database serves most applications indefinitely. It becomes worth considering when you need features MySQL lacks rather than because of reputation.

MySQL
Development Services