Several years ago if you wanted to created a dynamic site with PHP the only logical choice one could make was to use MySQL as the database server. There were other database servers on the market, but they were either not free or there wasn’t enough support to warrant it.
In the last year or so the company who runs MySQL, contently called MySQL, has been slowly killing off its open sourceness. They created a closed version of the database that they are selling and updating often. They hardly ever update the community (open source) version. As time goes on the less and less frequently they fix problems.
As of late there has been some movement into the realm of alternative database servers. These servers have been around for a long while, but never made much traction. The two alternatives I will look at are SQLite and PostgreSQL.
Sometimes you do not want to house an entire database, you just want something lightweight that will preform well. SQLite is the ideal solution for this. This little program is extremely light and will essentially preform as well as the language calling it. Basically it is a single file that holds all of the information. The issue with SQLite is that if the data becomes corrupt you are out of luck. However, due to the fact it is a single file it is extremely easy to backup this file.
If one is looking for a database server that will function similarly to MySQL they will lean towards PostgreSQL. It does everything that MySQL does, but arguably much better. It can still put a burden on a server’s resources, but in my experiences it is much less than MySQL.
If you are planning on creating you are planning on creating a new project I would suggest against using MySQL. With the company backing the project not doing their part it will not be that long until it completly closes its source code. It is a scary thought, but their history is leading towards that.
