MySQL

What MySQL is

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system. A database management system is the program that stores data and answers requests for it. Relational means the data sits in separate tables linked by rules, such as each order belonging to exactly one customer, and the database enforces those rules.¹

Programs talk to MySQL in SQL (Structured Query Language), the most common standard language for working with databases. Oracle Corporation develops, distributes and supports MySQL today.¹

The free MySQL Community Edition is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).² Companies that do not want to follow the GPL, for example because they ship MySQL inside a closed commercial product, can buy a commercial license from Oracle. This arrangement is called dual licensing.¹

The manual gives the official pronunciation as “My Ess Que Ell” but says “my sequel” is fine too.¹

Several widely used PHP content management systems run on MySQL. WordPress needs MySQL or its fork MariaDB, and Drupal and Joomla both support the two as well.³⁴⁵ As of October 22, 2026, W3Techs found WordPress alone on 39.6% of all websites.⁶

Origins in Sweden (1995 to 2007)

Allan Larsson, David Axmark and Michael “Monty” Widenius founded MySQL in 1995, and the first version was released in May of that year.⁷

The manual explains how it started. The developers first planned to connect the mSQL database to their own fast low-level table routines, called ISAM, but found mSQL neither fast nor flexible enough. They wrote a new SQL interface instead, keeping almost the same programming interface as mSQL so that code written for mSQL could be moved over easily.⁸

MySQL is named after Widenius’s daughter, My. Its dolphin logo is called Sakila, a name chosen in a user contest and submitted by Ambrose Twebaze, an open-source developer from Eswatini.⁸

The first external release, in August 1996, ran only on Sun’s Solaris operating system. Linux binaries followed in November 1996, the source code in December 1996 and the first Windows release in January 1998. SuSE Linux 6.0, in December 1998, was the first Linux distribution to include MySQL.⁷

Oracle’s MySQL blog dates the founding of the company MySQL AB to 1998.⁹ Writing in 2006, Computerworld described it as based in Uppsala, Sweden, giving MySQL away under the GPL while also selling proprietary licenses.¹⁰

In June 2000, with the beta of version 3.23, MySQL moved from its own MySQL Free Public License to the GPL.⁷ Version 3.23 also introduced MyISAM, a storage engine (the part of MySQL that writes tables to disk), and replication, which copies data from one server to others.⁷⁹

MySQL became the M in LAMP, the stack of Linux, the Apache web server, MySQL and a scripting language such as PHP or Perl. The writer Michael Kunze coined the acronym in the German magazine Computertechnik in December 1998, and the publisher O’Reilly and MySQL AB later worked to popularize it.¹⁰

The first versions of the InnoDB storage engine appeared in 2002.⁷ InnoDB supports transactions, groups of changes that succeed or fail together, with commit, rollback and crash recovery, and it is the default engine today.¹¹ MySQL 4.1 in 2004 added subqueries and Unicode support, and MySQL 5.0 in 2005 added stored procedures, triggers and views.⁷⁹ Also in 2005, Oracle bought Innobase, the company behind InnoDB.⁹

Sun, Oracle and the European Commission (2008 to 2010)

On January 16, 2008, Sun Microsystems agreed to buy MySQL AB for about $1 billion: roughly $800 million in cash for its stock and about $200 million in assumed options. MySQL then had about 400 employees in 25 countries and said its software had been downloaded more than 100 million times.¹²

Sun completed the purchase and set out its plans at a press conference on February 26, 2008, eWEEK reported. Sun’s chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, called MySQL the world’s most popular open-source database and named Facebook, Google, Nokia Siemens and YouTube among its customers.¹³

On April 20, 2009, Oracle agreed to buy Sun for $9.50 a share, about $7.4 billion.¹⁴ Oracle was a leading seller of proprietary databases, so the deal drew a competition review in Europe. The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation on September 3, 2009 into whether Oracle’s ownership of MySQL would weaken competition.¹⁵

Widenius campaigned against the deal. In an appeal forwarded to mailing lists on December 13, 2009, he asked MySQL users to write to the Commission to make it harder for Oracle to take over MySQL.¹⁶ His “Save MySQL” website carried the tagline “Oracle can have Sun but not MySQL,” The Register reported.¹⁷

On December 14, 2009, Oracle made public commitments to MySQL customers, users and developers, including to keep releasing future versions under the GPL. The Commission cleared the takeover on January 21, 2010. It found that PostgreSQL and possible forks of MySQL’s code could keep competitive pressure on Oracle, while confirming MySQL’s position as the leading open-source database.¹⁵

Oracle completed its purchase of Sun, and with it MySQL, on January 27, 2010.¹⁸

MariaDB, the fork

MariaDB is a fork of MySQL: a separate project that started from a copy of MySQL’s code. It began in 2009, made by original MySQL developers, and the MariaDB Foundation calls Widenius its “spiritual father.”¹⁹

Like MySQL, it is named after one of his daughters, in this case his younger daughter, Maria.²⁰

MariaDB was designed as a drop-in replacement for MySQL, meaning software written for MySQL should run on it without changes. It is licensed under GPLv2, and the Foundation says it will remain free and open source, independent of any commercial company.¹⁹

MariaDB 5.1, the earliest series in the Foundation’s maintenance table, became generally available on February 1, 2010, five days after Oracle completed its purchase of Sun.¹⁹¹⁸

The MariaDB Foundation, a nonprofit incorporated in Delaware, looks after the project. MariaDB Corporation, a founding member of the Foundation, is the main contributor of code. The Foundation names Wikipedia, WordPress.com and Google among MariaDB’s users.¹⁹

The two projects have developed separately since the split, and the Foundation publishes a comparison of their features and compatibility. Its upgrade tool can convert database files from older MariaDB releases and from MySQL releases before 8.0.¹⁹

MariaDB now names a new long-term support (LTS) series each year, with community binaries for three years after release. The newest LTS, 12.3, became available on May 28, 2026 and has community support until June 12, 2029. Faster-moving rolling releases are announced every quarter.¹⁹ As of October 22, 2026, the newest stable rolling release was 13.0.2, published on September 15, 2026.²¹

MySQL under Oracle: from 5.6 to 26.10

Under Oracle, MySQL 5.6 (2012) added global transaction identifiers for replication, and MySQL 5.7 (2015) improved performance, JSON support, replication and security.⁹

The first production release of MySQL 8.0, version 8.0.11, came out on April 19, 2018, after earlier milestone and release candidate builds.²² It changed the default character set, the rules for storing text, from latin1 to utf8mb4, added a transactional data dictionary for information about tables, and made caching_sha2_password the default sign-in method.²³

In 2023 Oracle split new versions into two tracks. Innovation releases, starting with 8.1.0 on July 18, 2023, add features and can change behavior, and each is supported only until the next one. Long-term support (LTS) releases change as little as possible and follow Oracle’s lifetime support policy of five years of premier support plus three years of extended support.²⁴²⁵²⁶

MySQL 8.4.0 LTS was released on April 30, 2024.²⁵ MySQL 9.0.0 followed on July 1, 2024.²⁷ MySQL 8.0 reached end of life in April 2026 with version 8.0.46, and Oracle advised users to move to 8.4 LTS or an Innovation release.²²

The next LTS line, MySQL 9.7, began with 9.7.0 on April 21, 2026.²⁷²⁸ It moved several features that had been limited to the paid Enterprise Edition into the free Community Edition, including telemetry and Group Replication tools, and added the hypergraph query optimizer to Community.²⁸

MySQL 9.7 is also the last version with sequential numbers. Later releases use calendar versions in YY.M form, so 26.7 is the July 2026 release.²⁴ MySQL 26.7.0 came out on July 28, 2026, and 26.10.0 on October 20, 2026, the same day as the 9.7.4 and 8.4.13 updates.²⁹²⁷²⁵

On June 25, 2026 Oracle published a community governance model for MySQL. It includes a technical steering committee and a vulnerability group that coordinates security reports, and it plans a separate steering committee whose initial members are to include AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle.³⁰

MySQL’s role under WordPress

WordPress has used MySQL from the start. Its parent project, the b2/cafelog blogging tool begun in June 2001, was written as a PHP and MySQL alternative to Blogger and Greymatter.³¹

A standard WordPress install keeps its content in a set of database tables. The WordPress documentation lists 12 tables for version 4.4, including wp_posts, which holds posts, pages and navigation menu items, and wp_options, which holds the settings from the admin Settings screens.³²

The wp_ at the start of each table name is a prefix set in the wp-config.php file, which also holds the database connection details. Giving each install its own prefix lets several WordPress sites share one database.³³

WordPress reaches the database through PHP’s mysqli extension, which the WordPress hosting handbook lists as required.³⁴

As of October 22, 2026, WordPress.org recommends MySQL 8.0 or greater or MariaDB 10.11 or greater. It says WordPress still runs on MySQL 5.5.5, but warns that such end-of-life versions may expose a site to security vulnerabilities.³

The hosting handbook names MySQL 8.4 LTS and MariaDB 10.11, 11.4 and 11.8 among recommended LTS versions. It does not recommend MySQL Innovation releases for general use, and says other MySQL-compatible services such as Amazon Aurora perform well but are not regularly tested.³⁴

Timeline

1. October 20, 2026MySQL 26.10.0, 9.7.4 and 8.4.13 released²⁹
2. July 2026MySQL 26.7, the first release with calendar version numbers²⁴
3. June 25, 2026Oracle publishes a community governance model for MySQL³⁰
4. April 21, 2026MySQL 9.7.0 starts a new LTS line²⁸
5. April 2026MySQL 8.0 reaches end of life with version 8.0.46²²
6. April 30, 2024MySQL 8.4.0 LTS released²⁵
7. July 18, 2023MySQL 8.1.0, the first Innovation release²⁵
8. April 19, 2018MySQL 8.0.11, the first production release of MySQL 8.0²²
9. February 1, 2010MariaDB 5.1 becomes generally available¹⁹
10. January 27, 2010Oracle completes its acquisition of Sun, including MySQL¹⁸
11. January 21, 2010European Commission clears the Oracle and Sun deal¹⁵
12. April 20, 2009Oracle agrees to buy Sun Microsystems for about $7.4 billion¹⁴
13. January 16, 2008Sun Microsystems agrees to buy MySQL AB for about $1 billion¹²
14. June 2000MySQL moves to the GNU General Public License⁷
15. May 1995First version of MySQL released⁷

What it means for your website

See also

• SQL
• WordPress
• PHP
• Drupal
• Joomla
• Web hosting
• Website backups

References

1. What is MySQL?. Oracle, MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
2. MySQL Community Edition. Oracle. accessed October 22, 2026.
3. Requirements. WordPress.org. accessed October 22, 2026.
4. Database server requirements. Drupal.org. accessed October 22, 2026.
5. Technical requirements. Joomla Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
6. Usage statistics of content management systems. W3Techs. 2026-10-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
7. MySQL Retrospective: The Early Years. Scott Stroz, Oracle MySQL Blog. 2024-12-01. accessed October 22, 2026.
8. History of MySQL. Oracle, MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
9. MySQL enters a new decade. Frederic Descamps, Oracle MySQL Blog. 2024-12-23. accessed October 22, 2026.
10. LAMP. Russell Kay, Computerworld. 2006-09-25. accessed October 22, 2026.
11. Introduction to InnoDB. Oracle, MySQL 8.4 Reference Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
12. Sun Microsystems Announces Agreement to Acquire MySQL, Developer of the World's Most Popular Open Source Database (press release). Sun Microsystems, via MacTech. 2008-01-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
13. Sun completes $1B buyout of MySQL. Carol Pinchefsky, eWEEK. 2008-02-26. accessed October 22, 2026.
14. Oracle Buys Sun. Oracle Corporation. 2009-04-20. accessed October 22, 2026.
15. Mergers: Commission clears Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems (IP/10/40). European Commission. 2010-01-21. accessed October 22, 2026.
16. Help Saving MySQL: Appeal from Monty (forwarded to the Ubuntu-BD mailing list). Michael Widenius. 2009-12-13. accessed October 22, 2026.
17. Monty launches frantic "save MySQL" web campaign. Kelly Fiveash, The Register. 2009-12-29. accessed October 22, 2026.
18. Oracle Completes Acquisition of Sun (press release, SEC filing). Oracle Corporation. 2010-01-27. accessed October 22, 2026.
19. About MariaDB Server. MariaDB Foundation. accessed October 22, 2026.
20. Why is the software called MariaDB?. MariaDB documentation. accessed October 22, 2026.
21. MariaDB Server: All releases. MariaDB Foundation. accessed October 22, 2026.
22. MySQL 8.0 Release Notes. Oracle. accessed October 22, 2026.
23. What Is New in MySQL 8.0. Oracle, MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
24. MySQL Releases: Innovation and LTS. Oracle, MySQL 9.7 Reference Manual. accessed October 22, 2026.
25. MySQL 8.4 Release Notes. Oracle. accessed October 22, 2026.
26. MySQL Changes Versioning Model, Adds Innovation and LTS Releases. Renato Losio, InfoQ. 2023-08-12. accessed October 22, 2026.
27. MySQL 9.7 Release Notes. Oracle. accessed October 22, 2026.
28. MySQL 9.7 LTS Is Here: Upgrade and Modernize on a Stronger Community Edition. Mike Frank, Oracle MySQL Blog. 2026-06-09. accessed October 22, 2026.
29. MySQL 26.10 Release Notes. Oracle. accessed October 22, 2026.
30. The Next Phase of MySQL Community Engagement: Accelerating Participation and Collaboration. Heather VanCura, Oracle MySQL Blog. 2026-06-25. accessed October 22, 2026.
31. The Only Blogger in Corsica (Milestones: The History of WordPress). WordPress.org. 2015-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
32. Database Description. WordPress Codex. accessed October 22, 2026.
33. wp-config.php. WordPress Advanced Administration Handbook. accessed October 22, 2026.
34. Server environment. WordPress Hosting Handbook. accessed October 22, 2026.

Web Building Encyclopedia. First published October 22, 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026. Every fact on this page is linked to a source we opened. Spotted an error? Write to [email protected].