MySQL for Windows Editor's Review

MySQL is a top piece of kit for anyone working in the world of databases, whether in a personal or a commercial capacity. It’s reasonably easy to download and install and it's available across most of the major platforms, ranging from Mac OS and Windows, through to HPUS and AIX.

It has fairly impeccable credentials as it’s used by many of the massive, web-based databases supporting multiple user access. However, the fact that it’s used by the likes of You Tube, Google and Facebook may appear to be living proof of its scalability, but there have been some well documented issues because of the sheer volume of transactions.

If you’re a large business, or someone expecting massive volumes of traffic, then you don’t necessarily need to dismiss MySQL in favour of a more expensive version. But you might want to invest some time in looking at a feature by feature comparison of MySQL against the likes of Oracle or SQL Server.

On the other hand, if you’re a home enthusiast or a small to medium business considering using MySQL to power your databases, you should be fine. Unless you’re expecting mammoth traffic, you’re likely to find that this piece of freeware has everything you need.

Pro's: It’s free, it’s pretty fast and it’s immensely scalable.

Con's: You won’t get all the bells and whistles that you get with some of MySQL’s pricier competitors.

Conclusion: MySQL isn't quite as feature rich as some of its commercial counterparts. But the fact that it’s used by many of the web-based big boys should give you plenty of confidence that this is a really powerful database tool.