MariaDB is a community developed branch of MySQL that is feature enhanced and backward compatible. It aims to be a 100% drop-in replacement for MySQL that is stable, bug-free, and released under the GPLv2 license. Major releases of MariaDB include new storage engines like XtraDB and Aria, as well as new features for performance, scalability, and compatibility. MariaDB is developed as an open source project and supported by Monty Program and other community contributors and service providers.