head to head · open source
TiDB vs mysql
TiDB has 40,701 GitHub stars, 6,284 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mysql has 15,274 stars, 2,340 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. TiDB leads on adoption by 166% (40,701 vs 15,274 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; mysql is written in Go under MPL-2.0. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, mysql 15%. TiDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, go), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| TiDB | mysql | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TiDB if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mysql if
- You want the mysql feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and mysql fits your workflow better
About TiDB
TiDB TiDB (/’taɪdiːbi:/, "Ti" stands for Titanium) is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database designed for high availability, horizontal and vertical scalability, strong consistency, and high performance. Key Features Quick Start Need Help? Architecture Contributing License See Also Acknowledgments Key Features Distributed Transactions : TiDB uses a two phase commit protocol to ensure ACID compliance, providing strong consistency. Transactions span multiple nodes, and TiDB's distributed nature ensures data correctness even in the presence of network partitions or node failures. Horizontal and…
About mysql
Go MySQL Driver A MySQL Driver for Go's database/sql package Features Requirements Installation Usage DSN (Data Source Name) Password Protocol Address Parameters Examples Connection pool and timeouts context.Context Support ColumnType Support LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE support time.Time support Unicode support Testing / Development License Features Lightweight and fast Native Go implementation. No C bindings, just pure Go Connections over TCP/IPv4, TCP/IPv6, Unix domain sockets or custom protocols Automatic handling of broken connections Automatic Connection Pooling (by database/sql package) Supports queries larger…
read the full mysql overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or mysql more popular?
TiDB has 40,701 GitHub stars and mysql has 15,274. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and mysql free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mysql under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and mysql?
TiDB is written in Go and mysql in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, TiDB or mysql?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,701 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mysql if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.