Who should choose MySQL?

Teams that want open-source relational database

Who should choose Cassandra?

Teams that want distributed nosql database

Software comparison - Databases

MySQL vs Cassandra: 2026 Comparison

MySQL is the battle-tested relational database for CRUD apps with predictable schemas, while Cassandra is built for time-series data and massive write throughput across distributed nodes. Choose MySQL for startups; choose Cassandra when you need to scale writes horizontally across continents. [See comparisons](/compare) for nuanced tradeoffs.

Comparison dimensions

Dimension	MySQL	Cassandra	Winner
Features	9/10MySQL's ACID compliance, foreign keys, and complex joins make it ideal for transactional apps where data integrity is non-negotiable—banking, billing, and inventory systems rely on this.	8/10Cassandra sacrifices traditional foreign keys for denormalized schemas—you duplicate data across tables, but queries become single-partition seeks, which scale.	MySQL
Pricing	8/10MySQL is free and open-source; infrastructure costs scale with storage and connections, rarely exceeding $500/month for most startups even at 10M rows.	7/10Cassandra's operational complexity (node management, rebalancing) makes it expensive in human time—cloud providers like Astra hide some costs but charge per-request.	MySQL
Ease of Use	8/10MySQL's SQL syntax and relational model are intuitive for developers—most ORMs (Rails, Sequelize, SQLAlchemy) make it trivial to query and reason about data.	9/10Cassandra's eventual consistency model and partition-key-centric query patterns require rethinking your data model—developers often make expensive mistakes in early designs.	Cassandra
Integrations	7/10MySQL integrates seamlessly with ORMs, migration tools (Liquibase), and analytics platforms (Metabase, Looker)—you'll rarely hit a missing integration.	7/10Cassandra has strong integrations with log shipping (Kafka) and analytics (Spark), but traditional BI tools often require manual ETL pipelines.	Tie
Support	9/10MySQL's community is massive and mature—you'll find Stack Overflow answers, managed services (RDS, PlanetScale), and support options from hobbyists to enterprises.	9/10Cassandra's community is professional but smaller—you'll need DataStax support or experienced ops engineers to troubleshoot cluster issues.	Tie
Scalability	7/10MySQL scales vertically well (bigger instances handle more load), but horizontal scaling via sharding requires application-level partitioning logic and cross-shard consistency headaches.	9/10Cassandra scales horizontally by default: add a new node, rebalance, and throughput grows linearly—this is why it dominates IoT and sensor platforms.	Cassandra

Features

MySQL: MySQL's ACID compliance, foreign keys, and complex joins make it ideal for transactional apps where data integrity is non-negotiable—banking, billing, and inventory systems rely on this.

Cassandra: Cassandra sacrifices traditional foreign keys for denormalized schemas—you duplicate data across tables, but queries become single-partition seeks, which scale.

Pricing

MySQL: MySQL is free and open-source; infrastructure costs scale with storage and connections, rarely exceeding $500/month for most startups even at 10M rows.

Cassandra: Cassandra's operational complexity (node management, rebalancing) makes it expensive in human time—cloud providers like Astra hide some costs but charge per-request.

Ease of Use

MySQL: MySQL's SQL syntax and relational model are intuitive for developers—most ORMs (Rails, Sequelize, SQLAlchemy) make it trivial to query and reason about data.

Cassandra: Cassandra's eventual consistency model and partition-key-centric query patterns require rethinking your data model—developers often make expensive mistakes in early designs.

Integrations

MySQL: MySQL integrates seamlessly with ORMs, migration tools (Liquibase), and analytics platforms (Metabase, Looker)—you'll rarely hit a missing integration.

Cassandra: Cassandra has strong integrations with log shipping (Kafka) and analytics (Spark), but traditional BI tools often require manual ETL pipelines.

Support

MySQL: MySQL's community is massive and mature—you'll find Stack Overflow answers, managed services (RDS, PlanetScale), and support options from hobbyists to enterprises.

Cassandra: Cassandra's community is professional but smaller—you'll need DataStax support or experienced ops engineers to troubleshoot cluster issues.

Scalability

MySQL: MySQL scales vertically well (bigger instances handle more load), but horizontal scaling via sharding requires application-level partitioning logic and cross-shard consistency headaches.

Cassandra: Cassandra scales horizontally by default: add a new node, rebalance, and throughput grows linearly—this is why it dominates IoT and sensor platforms.

Best for MySQL

Teams that want open-source relational database
Users prioritizing scalability
Budget-conscious teams

Best for Cassandra

Teams that want distributed nosql database
Users prioritizing integrations
Budget-conscious teams

Decision notes

Choose MySQL if you value scalability; choose Cassandra if integrations matters more. Try both — most teams decide within a week.

Export/import support between MySQL and Cassandra
Team onboarding and learning curve
Pricing at your seat count
Integration coverage for your stack

Frequently asked questions

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