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Firebird Database Server Penetration

Originally published by "dbarker" on 2005-03-30 07:45:00Z

'Most important ever’ MySQL reaches beta: I found this stat in this article about MySQL 5.0, and I’m amazed by it:

[MySQL] accounted for 40 percent of open source database deployments, while Firebird and PostgreSQL accounted for 39 percent and 11 percent of deployments respectively.

Firebird has a 39% share of open-source database deployments? One percent behind MySQL? That’s amazing, as I thought it was still a hidden gem.

We’ve talked about Firebird here and here. Great database platform, by all appearances. I’m moving an enterprise system I built off of SQL Server, and I made the decision to put it on Firebird, so know that you’ll be hearing much more about it in the coming months.

Comment by "Drew" on 2005-03-30 07:48:00Z
Uhhhh, I think they were quoting the total market share of firebird and postgreSQL combined and not firebird itself as having 39%. It's probably more like half of that percentage.
Comment by "Drew" on 2005-03-30 07:50:00Z
preview before clicking post! Didn't see the "respectively" in the typo. I guess it is 1% behind mysql. Very interesting indeed.
Comment by "Daniel Tremblay" on 2005-05-13 07:15:00Z
I've been using Firebird for several years now and I love it. The stored procedures kick butt. I've replaced small MS Access systems (because they were getting terribly slow with multi-user environments) and MySQL systems (because they didn't support transactions). I'm happy you just saw the light!
Comment by "Tjerk Hellekamp" on 2006-06-25 17:05:00Z
We're using Firebird in small and big projects for years, both on Linux and Windows servers. One customer has over 80 databases all concurrently used ( by remote shops) and driven by one Firebird server instance. Worked flawlessly for months now. Scalability and performance are exellent.
Comment by "Don T. Bothers" on 2006-11-15 07:18:00Z
A quick look at opensource database related job (dice.com, monster.com, hotjobs.com) reveals that MySQL is about ten times more in use in PostgreSQL, and PostgreSQL is about ten times more in use than FireBird. This makes sense because nothing really competes against MySQL for simple database uses wheras PostgreSQL has to compete against Sybase, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server in a very support requiring environment. I would say the actual statistic usage is closer to 85% MySQL, 14% PostGreSQL, and <1%>