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Asked: 2026-05-15T22:01:18+00:00

I’m building a web application right now for my company and for whatever reason,

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I’m building a web application right now for my company and for whatever reason, can’t get mySQL working on my Mac w/ my Ruby install (OSX 10.5). SQLite works fine though, so would it be a problem to use SQLite for now so I can get to work on this and then just change up my database.yml file to point to a mySQL database when I deploy (assuming I rerun migrations and such)?

Also, what are the benefits/drawbacks of using mySQL over SQLite in a RoR application? I’ve always used mySQL by default in the past, but never learned SQL directly (always through ActiveRecord) and never thought too much about the difference.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Benefits of MySQL/PostrgreSQL/etc

    Pros

    • Stronger data typing, which means cleaner data
    • Ability to store more data
    • Scale better to larger data sets
    • Spatial support (think GPS)
    • Full Text Search (FTS)

    Cons

    • Stronger data typing means data will be validated, bad data will cause errors
    • Not a good candidate (if even possible) for devices with limited resources (iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, etc)

    I would pick PostgreSQL v8.4+ over MySQL given the choice. MySQL’s features lag behind the rest of the major SQL database alternatives.

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