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MySQL for the common consultant
February 19, 2016

MySQL for the common consultant

Andy Erickson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with MySQL

We use MySQL as the back end database for our field studies as part of a WAMP server. Most of the company uses other products, but the full package nature and free development tools make MySQL a natural for this work.
  • The SQL commands for MySQL tend to be simple and easy to complete.
  • I like being able to get the columns from the table with 'SHOW COLUMNS FROM tablename'.
  • MySQL allows us to publish as many websites as needed without licencing issues.
  • And of course the price is right!
  • SQL Server seems to have many more reporting options, SSMS allows for imports and exports to other office products out of the box.
  • Since the rest of the organization uses other database products, I am on my own for support and upgrading.
  • Since MySQL is essentially free, the return on investment is 100%.
  • Time is the only requirement to get a MySQL instance working. As I gain more experience, set up gets easier and quicker.
MySQL is open source, readily available, with no licencing issues. Adding a new web product to my existing setup is relatively straight forward. In order to set up a SQL Server site, significant IT and licencing costs are involved. We are implementing some SQL Server back ends for a couple projects simply because that is what IT supports and because we can use Power BI as part of our Office 365 package. I am more familiar with MySQL commands, sometimes SQL Server seems to obstruct my processes. Both SQL products can generate the 'do not understand' errors from malformed SQL queries. If I want to copy and paste SSMS seems to have a slight upper hand on ease of use. SQL Server has many features in the menus and under the hood, a dizzying array of choices and setup options and requirements. MySQL just works and gets out of the way.
MySQL allows you to create and drop tables pretty simply from several tools, the SQL code is fairly standard across the industry, although some commands exist in MySQL and not in other languages. It is a relatively straight forward process to upgrade to the latest, most secure version. The lines between SQL choices are getting more blurred as time goes by, features are available with each brand of SQL. Apparently, it might be easier to spin up something like Couchbase than MySQL for quick prototyping.