Q: What are the differences between Amazon RDS for MySQL and MariaDB?
MariaDB Server is a popular open source relational database created by the original developers of MySQL. The MariaDB database engine is fully compatible with
MySQL Community Edition version 5.5. There are several additional features available in MariaDB including:
- Thread Pool for enhanced scalability
- Query optimizer improvements
- Global Transaction IDs (GTIDs) for more reliable replication
- Parallel replication for increasing performance
See the Amazon RDS User Guide for more details.
Q: Which versions of MariaDB does Amazon RDS support?
Amazon RDS currently supports MariaDB major versions 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6.
Q: How does Amazon RDS distinguish between “major” and “minor” version releases?
In the context of MariaDB, version numbers are organized as follows:
MariaDB version = X.Y.Z
X = Major version, Y = Release level, Z = Version number within release series.
From the Amazon RDS standpoint, a version change would be considered major if either major version or release level is being changed. Example: going from 10.0.X -> 10.1.X.
A version change would be considered minor if the version number within the release is being changed. Example: going from 10.1.14 -> 10.1.17.
Q: Does Amazon RDS provide guidelines for upgrading engine versions or deprecation of engine versions that are currently supported?
Yes. Please refer to the
Amazon RDS FAQs.
Q: What privileges are granted to the primary user for an RDS for MariaDB DB instance?
When you create a new DB instance, the default primary user that you use gets certain privileges. See
Master User Account Privileges in the Amazon RDS User Guide for a list of the privileges.

Learn more about product pricing
Amazon RDS is free to try. Pay only for what you use. There is no minimum fee.