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It's a split decision.
MySQL is a database platform for applications, transactions, embedded products and analytics, with a free GPL Community Edition and paid server licences. Vertica is a columnar, MPP analytics database and lakehouse for structured and semi-structured data, with on-premises, cloud and Kubernetes deployment. Choose MySQL when application workloads, embedded use or an open-source option matter. Choose Vertica when distributed analytics, in-database machine learning and deployment flexibility across data environments are the priority.
01Side by side
| MySQL | Vertica | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid editions are licensed annually per server | Commercial licences are quote-based or hourly |
| Free tier | Community Edition is free under GPL | Free Community Edition: up to 1 TB, 3 nodes |
| Open source and licence | Community Edition is open source under GPL | Open-source status and licence not stated |
| Self-hosting | Self-hostable; also offered as HeatWave cloud service | Self-hostable on-premises or in Kubernetes |
| Integrations | HeatWave supports apps on a choice of cloud providers | Supports Kafka, Spark, Tableau, Power BI and more |
| Deployment model | Community, Enterprise, Cluster and HeatWave offerings | On-premises, cloud, hybrid and Kubernetes |
| Platforms | Web and embedded products | On-premises, AWS, Azure, GCP and Kubernetes |
| Limits and scaling | Paid licence tiers vary by server socket count | MPP analytics; Community capped at 1 TB and 3 nodes |
MySQL Choose MySQL if
- Choose MySQL if you need an open-source GPL database.
- Choose MySQL if you are embedding a database in a product.
- Choose MySQL if annual per-server prices suit your procurement model.
Vertica Choose Vertica if
- Choose Vertica if distributed, columnar analytics is the main workload.
- Choose Vertica if you need on-premises, cloud or Kubernetes deployment.
- Choose Vertica if in-database machine learning and lakehouse analytics matter.
02Pricing at real usage
MySQL Community Edition is free under GPL. The pricing page lists Standard Edition at $2,140 per server per year for 1–4 socket servers and $4,280 for 5+ sockets. Enterprise Edition costs $5,350 and $10,700 per server per year for those respective tiers. These are annual list prices; monthly prices are not published. Vertica Community Edition is free for up to 1 TB of data and three nodes. Commercial capacity-based licences are priced by raw data storage in TB; node-based licences are priced per node and specify up to 16, 32 or 64 cores per node. Both are quote-based, with 1-, 3- or 5-year terms or perpetual licensing. Vertica by the Hour is billed per node-hour through cloud marketplaces. Ask Vertica for a quote against your storage or compute plan.
03API, SDKs and integration
Neither product page specifies API protocols, SDK languages, CLI commands or documentation coverage, so confirm those details before choosing a client stack. MySQL is positioned as an application database and as an embedded database for ISVs, OEMs and VARs. HeatWave combines transactions with lakehouse-scale analytics in a cloud service, and its homepage says applications can be deployed with a choice of cloud providers. Vertica’s integration list names Kafka, RabbitMQ, Spark, Informatica, Talend, Apache NiFi, Tableau, Power BI and scikit-learn. Its platform targets analytics on structured and semi-structured data, including Parquet, ORC, Avro and ROS. The integration evidence points to different centers of gravity: MySQL spans application and embedded use, while Vertica connects to data processing, BI and machine-learning tools. Verify connector support and version compatibility with the vendor for your specific stack.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
MySQL Community Edition is open source under GPL, and MySQL is self-hostable. Paid Standard, Enterprise and Cluster editions use per-server licensing; Classic Edition is available through OEM and embedded licensing. Vertica is self-hostable across on-premises, cloud and Kubernetes environments, but its open-source status and licence are not stated. Its Community Edition is free within its published data and node limits; commercial use moves to quote-based licensing or marketplace hourly billing. Neither product page specifies data-export formats or migration tooling. Before committing, ask each vendor how to export schemas, data and machine-learning assets, and estimate the effort to move workloads between the product and your target database. Vertica’s capacity-based licence also ties commercial pricing to raw data volume, while its node-based option ties it to compute.
Questions people ask
What are the key differences between SQL and MySQL databases?
SQL is a database query language; MySQL is a database platform. The comparison here is between MySQL and Vertica, not SQL and MySQL: MySQL covers application and embedded database use, while Vertica focuses on columnar, MPP analytics and lakehouse workloads.
Is SQL still relevant in 2026?
SQL remains relevant to this comparison because both products are databases, but their product pages do not specify API protocols or client languages. Check the documentation for your chosen product to confirm supported SQL features, drivers and compatibility with your application stack.
What kind of database is Vertica?
Vertica is a columnar analytics database and data lakehouse platform. It uses massively parallel processing for analytics and supports structured and semi-structured data, real-time analytics, and in-database machine learning across on-premises, cloud, hybrid and Kubernetes environments.
Should developers choose MySQL or Vertica?
Choose MySQL for application databases, embedded products or a free GPL Community Edition. Choose Vertica for distributed analytics across large structured and semi-structured datasets, in-database machine learning, and deployment across on-premises, cloud or Kubernetes. Compare commercial pricing with your server, storage or compute requirements.