# Firebird vs TiDB

**Leader by Vioscale score:** TiDB

| Attribute | Firebird | TiDB |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 28.3 (10% (low)) | 59.5 (61% (medium)) |
| deployment.options | `{"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An open source relational database management system that scales from embedded, single-user deployments to enterprise applications with hundreds of simultaneous clients and databases up to 20 terabytes. | An open-source distributed SQL database trusted by innovators to power transactional, AI, and other modern applications. |
| features.capabilities | `{"sql_model":"full_sql","extensibility":true,"license_class":"permissive"}` | `{"sql_model":"full_sql","license_class":"permissive","horizontal_scale":"distributed_native","acid_transactions":"full","wire_compatibility":"mysql"}` |
| integrations.count | 8 | 4 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Firebird.NET"},{"name":"JayBird"},{"name":"Delphi"},{"name":"FreePascal"},{"name":"Lazarus"},{"name":"PHP"},{"name":"FireRuby"},{"name":"Sphinx"}]` | `[{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"JDBC"},{"name":"mysql-connector-python"},{"name":"MySQL"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","addOns":[{"name":"Enterprise subscription (IBSurgeon)","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"server","amount":199,"period":"month","currency":"EUR"}]},{"name":"Configuration/Optimization/Audit Incident Service (IBSurgeon)","components":[{"kind":"one_time","amount":575,"currency":"EUR"}]},{"name":"Recovery service for heavily corrupted database (IBSurgeon)","components":[{"kind":"one_time","amount":2500,"currency":"EUR"}]}],"summary":"Free open source database. Optional commercial support services from €199/month/server (enterprise subscriptions) or one-time incident services (€575–€2500).","currency":"EUR","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://firebirdsql.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T17:05:47.669Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"TiDB Cloud Starter"},{"free":false,"name":"TiDB Cloud Dedicated","contactSales":true}],"freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.pingcap.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:48:29.248Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.99 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.pci | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |

## Capabilities (Relational Databases)

| Capability | Firebird | TiDB |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| SQL model | Full SQL | Full SQL |
| **Transactions** |  |  |
| ACID transactions | - | Full |
| Highest isolation level | - | - |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Horizontal scale | - | Natively distributed |
| **Replication** |  |  |
| Replication | - | - |
| **Availability** |  |  |
| Automatic failover / HA | - | - |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | - | - |
| Serverless / scale-to-zero | - | - |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Wire compatibility | - | MySQL protocol |
| **Extensibility** |  |  |
| Extensions / plugins / UDFs | ✓ | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Permissive OSS |
| **Data types** |  |  |
| JSON / document support | - | - |
| Geo / spatial | - | - |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:30:55.344Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*