Comparison

CockroachDB vs MySQL

No clear leader: MySQL (65.2) and CockroachDB (65.0) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
CockroachDB65
MySQL65
Score
vioscaleAI score
CockroachDB65 / 100medium · 65%
MySQL65 / 100medium · 53%
Pricing
Free tier
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✓
Model
CockroachDBfreemium
Price level
CockroachDBlow
MySQLfree
Starting price
CockroachDB$0.06
MySQL–
Transparent
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✗
Integrations
Count
CockroachDB6
MySQL–
Reliability
Sla pct
CockroachDB99.99
MySQL–
Adoption
Dependent repos
CockroachDB235
MySQL664
Github stars
CockroachDB32,549
MySQL12,441
Stackoverflow questions
CockroachDB–
MySQL230,000
Activity
Commits last 30d
CockroachDB11
MySQL100
Release
Cadence days
CockroachDB–
MySQL90
License
Spdx
CockroachDB–
MySQLGPL-2.0
Language
Primary
CockroachDBGo
MySQLC++
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
CockroachDB6 items
MySQL8 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for relational databases. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
SQL model
CockroachDBFull SQL
MySQLFull SQL
Transactions
ACID transactions
CockroachDBFull
MySQLFull
Highest isolation level
CockroachDBSerializable
MySQLSerializable
Consistency
Consistency
CockroachDBStrong
MySQLStrong
Scale
Horizontal scale
CockroachDBNatively distributed
MySQLNatively distributed
Replication
Replication
CockroachDBConsensus (Raft/Paxos)
MySQLAsync
Availability
Automatic failover / HA
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✓
Deployment
Deployment
CockroachDBManaged
MySQLSelf-hosted
Serverless / scale-to-zero
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✓
Compatibility
Wire compatibility
CockroachDBPostgres protocol
MySQLMySQL protocol
Extensibility
Extensions / plugins / UDFs
CockroachDB✗
MySQL✓
Licensing
Licence class
CockroachDBSource-available (BSL/SSPL)
MySQLCopyleft
Data types
JSON / document support
CockroachDB✗
MySQL✓
Geo / spatial
CockroachDBNone
MySQL-

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

CockroachDB

A cloud-native SQL database that scales automatically across machines without manual sharding, supporting ACID transactions and multi-region deployments. It survives node, zone, and regional failures with minimal disruption and is compatible with PostgreSQL applications.

Independently observed

MySQL

MySQL is an open-source SQL database server. MySQL Cluster extends it with real-time transaction processing capabilities for distributed deployments.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

CockroachDB

from $0.06/vCPU-hourUsage-basedFree tier30-day trial

From $0.057/vCPU-hr. Free 30-day trial with $400 credit.

  • StandardFrom $0.057/vCPU-hr, 99.99% SLA
    • 99.99% availability SLA
    • Single- or multi-region on AWS and GCP
    • Row-level security
    • Column-level encryption
    • Private connectivity
    • +2 more
  • Mission Critical$0.162/vCPU-hr, 99.999% SLA
    • 99.999% availability SLA with multi-region
    • Egress controls
    • CMEK
    • PCI DSS & HIPAA compliance
    • All add-ons available
    • +1 more
as of verify ↗

MySQL

Open sourceFree tier

Community edition free; Enterprise/Standard/Classic editions require contacting sales

  • MySQL Community ServerFree
  • MySQL Enterprise EditionContact sales
  • MySQL Standard EditionContact sales
  • MySQL Classic EditionContact sales
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✓
CLI
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✗
Self-hosted
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✓
On-premise
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✗
Hybrid
CockroachDB✓
MySQL✗

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

CockroachDB

16 total
  • Datadog
  • Splunk
  • Dynatrace
  • New Relic
  • Terraform
  • Vercel
  • HashiCorp
  • pgvector
  • AWS
  • GCP
  • Azure
  • Kubernetes
  • MOLT (Migration Tool)
  • PostgreSQL drivers
  • SQLAlchemy
  • Google Cloud
Independently observed

MySQL

Not documented yet.

Still deciding?

CockroachDB or MySQL: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.