MIDAS Knowledgebase

Can I use an alternative database platform instead of MySQL?

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a method of communication with databases.

A number of different database architectures exist each with their own implementations of SQL, these include MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLite, and PostgreSQL to name just a few of the more commonly known SQL architectures.

MySQL remains arguably the world's most popular database engine, and has been used by many high profile sites including YouTube, Google, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, and eBay. It is also found and supported on the majority of web hosting providers around the globe as standard, and may also be freely obtained for use on your own server/system via mysql.com.

Given its popularity and wide availability, it is the most accessible database engine to our customers, and therefore until recently had been the only SQL database architecture official supported by MIDAS.

However, MariaDB is an increasingly popular free open source database engine which its developers promote as a "drop in replacement for MySQL".

We have successfully tested our MIDAS software using the MariaDB database engine, and therefore, you can choose to use either MySQL or MariaDB for your MIDAS room booking system!