Here’s a detailed comparison between MyISAM and InnoDB, the two main MySQL storage engines:
| Feature | MyISAM | InnoDB |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction Support | ❌ No transactions. | ✅ Supports transactions (ACID compliant). |
| Foreign Key Support | ❌ No foreign key constraints. | ✅ Supports foreign key constraints. |
| Locking Mechanism | Table-level locking (locks the entire table during write). | Row-level locking (locks only affected rows, better for concurrent writes). |
| Crash Recovery | ❌ Minimal crash recovery; tables can get corrupted on crash. | ✅ Automatic crash recovery using logs (more reliable). |
| Performance | Faster for read-heavy operations (like simple SELECTs). | Better for write-heavy and transactional workloads due to row-level locking. |
| Full-text Search | ✅ Supported (before MySQL 5.6, only MyISAM had it). | Supported in MySQL 5.6+ but historically weaker. |
| Storage | Smaller table size, less overhead. | Slightly larger storage because of transactional logs and indexes. |
| Data Integrity | Lower (prone to corruption on unexpected shutdown). | High, due to ACID compliance and transactional support. |
| Best Use Case | Read-heavy, mostly SELECT queries, simple applications. | Applications requiring transactions, high concurrency, data integrity, and foreign key relationships. |
Summary:
- MyISAM = fast reads, simple, no transactions, table-level locking.
- InnoDB = transactional, safe, concurrent-friendly, supports foreign keys, row-level locking.