MariaDB vs MySQL vs PostgreSQL: The Right Database for WordPress, WooCommerce and Laravel

If you are planning a new WordPress site, launching a WooCommerce store or deploying a Laravel application, your database engine choice will shape performance, scalability and how painful (or painless) maintenance feels later. PHP code and caching get a lot of attention, but in real projects we see that the database layer is often the quiet bottleneck—or the quiet hero. Choosing between MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL is less about theory and more about how your stack behaves under real traffic, how your plugins are written and how your hosting architecture is designed. In this article, we will walk through the differences from a very practical angle: what works best for WordPress and WooCommerce, when PostgreSQL starts to shine for Laravel, and how we design database setups on dchost.com’s shared hosting, VPS, dedicated and colocation infrastructure to match each use case.

Why Your Database Choice Matters So Much for WordPress, WooCommerce and Laravel

For small personal blogs any MySQL-compatible database “just works”. But as soon as you add WooCommerce, heavy page builders or a Laravel back-office application, your database engine decisions start to show up in:

• Page load times (checkout, search, filters, admin screens)
• Concurrency (how many users can shop or use the app at once)
• Schema flexibility (how easily you can evolve your Laravel models and features)
• Operational complexity (backups, replication, high availability)
• Tooling and ecosystem (plugins, ORMs, admin UIs)

We also see a clear pattern: when the database is chosen and configured correctly, you spend more time building features and less time firefighting slow queries. When it is chosen “by default”, you hit limits earlier than you expect. We have already compared these engines for generic web apps in our article MariaDB vs MySQL vs PostgreSQL for web applications. Here, we will focus specifically on WordPress, WooCommerce and Laravel and turn that into concrete recommendations.

Quick Overview: MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL in Today’s Hosting World

MySQL

MySQL is the historical default database for PHP applications. WordPress core was designed around MySQL from day one, and most plugins assume a MySQL/InnoDB environment. Key characteristics:

• Storage engine: InnoDB by default; ACID-compliant, row-level locking, good for transactional workloads.
• Strengths: Simplicity, broad compatibility, huge ecosystem, good enough performance for the majority of WordPress/WooCommerce sites.
• Weaknesses: Fewer advanced features compared to PostgreSQL (rich indexing, JSONB, window functions are more basic/limited); some enterprise features exist but can be complex or licensed.

MariaDB

MariaDB is a community-driven fork of MySQL created by the original MySQL developers. At the SQL level it is largely compatible with MySQL, which is why many hosting providers (including us) offer MariaDB as a drop-in replacement for typical WordPress workloads. Highlights:

• Compatibility: For most WordPress/WooCommerce sites, MariaDB behaves like MySQL with no code changes.
• Performance: Often faster than MySQL in complex read-heavy workloads due to optimizer and index improvements.
• Features: Additional storage engines, virtual columns, some analytical extensions; Galera Cluster support for multi-master setups.
• Gotchas: At very advanced feature levels (certain replication modes, specific SQL extensions) MariaDB and MySQL have diverged; tools built for very recent MySQL features may not behave identically.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a different family altogether. It is a powerful, fully open-source relational database with a strong reputation for correctness and advanced features. Key traits:

• Data types: JSONB, arrays, hstore, geometric types and more—ideal for complex Laravel apps.
• Indexing: Partial indexes, expression indexes, GIN/GiST indexes, full-text search.
• SQL features: Window functions, common table expressions (CTEs), rich transactional semantics.
• Trade-offs: WordPress does not support PostgreSQL out of the box; you need compatibility plugins and must test everything carefully. Many WordPress plugins contain MySQL-specific SQL.

For Laravel, all three engines are first-class citizens via PDO drivers. For WordPress and WooCommerce, MySQL/MariaDB are still the practical default, with PostgreSQL remaining a niche option.

WordPress and WooCommerce: Which Database Engine and When?

Official Support and Ecosystem Reality

WordPress core officially supports MySQL (and MariaDB as a MySQL-compatible engine). The reality of the ecosystem is:

• The majority of plugins and themes assume MySQL/MariaDB.
• SQL queries in plugins frequently use MySQL-specific syntax or functions.
• WooCommerce’s schema and indexes are heavily tuned for InnoDB.

PostgreSQL support is possible via third-party plugins that translate or shim MySQL-specific queries, but you are fighting the tide. For production stores and corporate websites, we strongly advise staying with MySQL or MariaDB unless you have a very specific reason and deep in-house expertise.

MySQL vs MariaDB for Typical WordPress Sites

For small to medium WordPress sites, the difference between MySQL and MariaDB is often overshadowed by caching, PHP-FPM tuning and proper object caching. However, from our experience managing many customer sites, MariaDB often provides:

• Better query optimizer behaviour on complex JOINs and analytics-style queries.
• More flexible replication options in advanced setups.
• Nice performance edges on read-heavy sites when combined with proper indexing.

On dchost.com, we typically deploy MySQL or MariaDB with InnoDB and combine it with server-side caching and PHP-FPM optimization. If you want to go deeper on tuning, our guide MySQL indexing and query optimization for WooCommerce shows how much you can gain just by fixing slow queries and indexes—often more than you would gain by switching engines.

WooCommerce: Where Database Choices Really Show

WooCommerce adds heavy write activity (orders, stock, sessions) and complex read patterns (filters, search, reporting). This changes the picture:

• Use InnoDB only; other engines like MyISAM are not safe for WooCommerce transactions.
• Prioritise stability and compatibility over exotic features—MySQL or MariaDB are the right call.
• Plan for scaling: read replicas, separate database server, proper backups and monitoring.

When stores start to grow, one of the first structural changes we recommend is moving the database to its own server or VPS. Our article when to separate your database and application servers walks through the decision process step by step.

Is There Any Reason to Use PostgreSQL for WordPress?

There are edge cases where a team with deep PostgreSQL knowledge wants to keep one unified database platform for everything. In those scenarios they may:

• Run WordPress with a compatibility plugin that translates MySQL-specific queries to PostgreSQL.
• Accept that some plugins will break or need patching.
• Heavily rely on custom themes and minimal plugins to control the SQL surface.

From a hosting and operations perspective, this is perfectly doable—we routinely run PostgreSQL on VPS and dedicated servers for customers. But for most WordPress/WooCommerce projects, especially in agency or SMB environments, it adds more risk than benefit. You are better off sticking to MySQL/MariaDB and investing your energy in WordPress database optimization and cleaning up wp_options bloat.

Laravel Applications: When MariaDB/MySQL Are Enough and When PostgreSQL Shines

Laravel’s Database Abstraction

Laravel uses PDO and Eloquent ORM, which means it can talk to MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and others with minimal code changes. Most basic CRUD operations and Eloquent relationships work identically regardless of engine. The differences surface when you start using:

• Advanced data types (JSON, arrays, enums, custom types).
• Complex queries and reports (CTEs, window functions).
• Full-text search and search filters.
• Large-scale analytics or event logging inside the primary database.

When MariaDB/MySQL Are a Great Fit for Laravel

MariaDB or MySQL are usually enough for:

• Classic CRUD business apps (admin panels, intranet tools, back-office dashboards).
• APIs for mobile apps with predictable relational schemas.
• Moderate traffic SaaS products with mostly transactional workloads.

Advantages:

• Simple operations, familiar tooling and easy integration with existing WordPress databases if you share the same server.
• Good performance and maturity of InnoDB for transactional workloads.
• Works nicely with connection pooling tools such as ProxySQL or PgBouncer-equivalents in the MySQL world.

On dchost.com VPS or dedicated servers, we typically pair Laravel + MariaDB/MySQL with tuned PHP-FPM pools and Redis. Our Laravel deployment guide for production Laravel on a VPS shows how these layers work together in real projects.

When PostgreSQL Starts to Make More Sense for Laravel

PostgreSQL becomes very attractive when your Laravel project needs:

• Rich JSON querying with JSONB indexes for semi-structured data.
• Complex filtering and reporting using window functions and CTEs.
• Advanced full-text search without introducing an external search engine right away.
• Strict data integrity with advanced constraints and exclusion constraints.

Examples where we have seen PostgreSQL shine with Laravel:

• Analytics dashboards that aggregate and slice large event tables.
• Multi-tenant SaaS platforms with dynamic, per-tenant configuration stored in JSONB.
• Systems that need geospatial queries or complex reporting without adding extra services.

PostgreSQL requires a bit more attention to tuning (shared_buffers, work_mem, WAL settings), but when configured correctly it can handle complex queries very gracefully. If you want a deeper PostgreSQL tuning checklist specific to VPS environments, we recommend our guide the friendly VPS playbook for PostgreSQL performance.

Performance, Scaling and High Availability: Comparing the Three Engines

Single-Server Performance Basics

At small to medium scale, all three engines can perform very well as long as:

• They run on fast SSD/NVMe storage.
• They are configured with sane buffer and cache sizes.
• Indexes are designed correctly for your queries.
• You use application-level caching (e.g. Redis object cache for WordPress, Laravel cache for APIs).

For WordPress/WooCommerce, we often see dramatic improvements not by changing engines, but by:

• Cleaning up autoloaded options and transients in wp_options.
• Adding an object cache like Redis.
• Fixing slow queries and missing indexes.

The article WordPress object cache with Redis or Memcached shows how to take load off the database without touching your schema.

Read/Write Patterns in WooCommerce and Laravel

WooCommerce and many Laravel apps share similar patterns:

• Write-heavy operations on checkout, authentication and background jobs.
• Read-heavy operations on product listing, search, dashboards and reports.

MariaDB and MySQL handle this with:

• Primary-replica replication (async or semi-sync) for read scaling.
• Connection pooling or middlewares like ProxySQL for splitting reads/writes.

PostgreSQL offers:

• Streaming replication for read replicas.
• Logical replication and tools like pglogical for more complex topologies.

For WooCommerce in particular, we have a dedicated article on when separate database and cache servers start to make sense. Many of those architectural decisions apply equally to larger Laravel APIs.

High Availability Options

At higher traffic or mission-critical levels, you will evaluate clustering and failover systems.

• MariaDB: Galera Cluster provides true multi-master high availability. Our article on MariaDB Galera vs MySQL Group Replication dives deep into these choices.
• MySQL: Group Replication and InnoDB Cluster provide built-in HA; classic primary-replica setups are also common and simpler.
• PostgreSQL: Tools like Patroni, repmgr or built-in logical/physical replication patterns are widely used to build clusters with automatic failover.

For most WooCommerce and typical Laravel apps on a single region, a well-tuned primary + one or more read replicas is enough. True multi-master clusters are usually justified only when you have very high write throughput or strict uptime requirements.

Backups and Point-in-Time Recovery

Regardless of database engine, backups and recovery plans matter more than any performance tweak. For MariaDB/MySQL, tools like mysqldump and physical backup tools are standard. For PostgreSQL, WAL archiving and tools like pgBackRest allow precise point-in-time recovery. If your database stores transactional WooCommerce orders or critical SaaS data, design backup retention and restoration before you need them.

Migration Strategies Between Engines on Real Projects

Staying Within the MySQL/MariaDB Family

Most WordPress and WooCommerce migrations are simple moves between MySQL and MariaDB (or newer versions of the same engine). Strategies include:

• Logical export/import with mysqldump.
• Physical snapshots or LVM/ZFS-level snapshots on VPS or dedicated servers.
• Replication-based cutover: replicate from old server to new, then switch traffic with minimal downtime.

Because MariaDB and MySQL are mostly compatible, moving a WordPress or WooCommerce database between them is usually straightforward. Just pay attention to:

• Character sets and collations (e.g. utf8mb4 vs older utf8 variants).
• Row formats and large indexes (to avoid surprises on older versions).
• Storage engine consistency (everything should be InnoDB).

MySQL/MariaDB to PostgreSQL for Laravel

If you decide to move a Laravel app from MySQL/MariaDB to PostgreSQL, plan it as an application-level migration:

1. Review your migrations to ensure they are portable (data types, default values, indexes).
2. Audit raw SQL in your codebase for MySQL-specific syntax.
3. Export data from MySQL/MariaDB and transform it (types, enum values) as needed.
4. Import into PostgreSQL and run integration tests.
5. Cut over carefully with a maintenance window or dual-write strategy if necessary.

Laravel’s migrations, Eloquent and query builder help a lot, but any raw SQL or stored procedures must be manually ported. For teams starting fresh with Laravel, picking PostgreSQL from day one is often easier than migrating later.

WordPress to PostgreSQL: Proceed with Caution

Moving an existing WordPress/WooCommerce site from MySQL/MariaDB to PostgreSQL is rarely worth the effort unless you have strong non-technical reasons (e.g. strict organisational standards). You will need:

• A compatibility plugin to emulate MySQL behaviour.
• Thorough plugin-by-plugin testing.
• A clear rollback plan if something behaves differently in production.

In our experience, you get a better return on investment by staying on MySQL/MariaDB and improving your schema, indexes and caching rather than switching engines.

How We Think About Database Choice on dchost.com Infrastructure

Shared Hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce

On shared hosting plans, we standardise on MySQL/MariaDB because:

• They offer maximum compatibility with WordPress core and plugins.
• All our management tools (phpMyAdmin, backup automation, monitoring) are tuned for them.
• They provide enough performance for typical small to medium WordPress and WooCommerce sites when combined with good caching.

We complement this with tuned PHP-FPM, HTTP/2/3, Brotli/Gzip, and caching layers. Our server-side optimization guide for WordPress shows how these layers interact with the database.

VPS and Dedicated Servers for Larger WooCommerce and Laravel

On VPS and dedicated servers, we can tailor the stack exactly to your use case:

• MariaDB or MySQL for WooCommerce and most Laravel apps.
• PostgreSQL for analytics-heavy, JSON-heavy or geospatial Laravel workloads.
• Separate database nodes when CPU, RAM or IO usage justifies it.
• Replication and failover for high availability and read scaling.

If you are unsure how much CPU/RAM/IO your database will need, our article on capacity planning for WooCommerce is a good starting point for sizing a VPS or dedicated server.

Colocation and Custom Architectures

For customers using our colocation services with their own hardware, we often help design more complex database topologies:

• MariaDB Galera clusters for write-heavy WooCommerce or multi-tenant panels.
• PostgreSQL clusters with replication and connection pooling for high-concurrency Laravel APIs.
• Hybrid setups where WordPress/WooCommerce run on MySQL/MariaDB and analytics or BI workloads run on PostgreSQL, fed via ETL jobs.

The physical side (NVMe vs SSD, RAID layout, network design) also matters. Our general NVMe vs SSD vs HDD article applies here; for high write workloads we always recommend fast NVMe for the database volume.

Putting It All Together: Concrete Recommendations

For WordPress-Only Sites

• Choose MySQL or MariaDB (InnoDB) on shared hosting, VPS or dedicated.
• Focus on schema cleanliness and wp_options bloat before considering engine changes.
• Add Redis or Memcached object cache and HTTP-level caching to reduce database load.

For WooCommerce Stores

• Use MySQL or MariaDB, InnoDB only, and keep everything on utf8mb4.
• Plan early for a separate database server/VPS once orders and product count grow.
• Invest in indexing and query optimization; then consider read replicas for big campaigns.

For Laravel Applications

• Start with MariaDB/MySQL if your data model is simple and you want maximum familiarity.
• Choose PostgreSQL if you expect heavy use of JSONB, advanced queries, full-text search or analytics-style workloads.
• Tune the database together with PHP-FPM, queues and caches; don’t treat it in isolation.

When in Doubt

If you want a single default choice that rarely goes wrong:

• For WordPress and WooCommerce: MariaDB (InnoDB).
• For Laravel: MariaDB (InnoDB) for classic apps, PostgreSQL for analytics- and JSON-heavy apps.

Conclusion: Choose the Engine That Matches Your Stack, Not Just the Trend

MariaDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL are all excellent database engines—when used in the right context. For WordPress and WooCommerce, the ecosystem clearly leans towards MySQL/MariaDB, and most performance gains come from smart schema design, indexing, caching and a clean hosting architecture rather than switching engines. For Laravel, you have more freedom: starting on MariaDB/MySQL keeps operations simple, while PostgreSQL becomes the natural choice for more advanced, data-heavy applications.

As the dchost.com team, we see these patterns every day across shared hosting, VPS, dedicated and colocation environments. Our job is to help you match your database engine and hosting architecture to your real workload, so that scaling a WooCommerce store or launching a new Laravel feature feels calm and predictable instead of risky. If you are planning a new project or thinking about a migration, you can reach out with your current stack, traffic profile and growth expectations, and we will help you design a practical, future-proof database setup on our infrastructure—whether that is MariaDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL.