MariaDB 10.11 vs 11.4 for WordPress: Should you update? YES! [Benchmark]

Saw a thread on Reddit – someone on Cloudways asking if upgrading MariaDB from 10.11 to 11.4 is worth it for WooCommerce. Everyone had opinions, nobody had numbers.

So I ran the actual benchmarks.

The Setup

Two identical Docker containers, same everything except the database version:

WordPress 6.8.3 with PHP 8.3
WooCommerce active on both
~1,000 posts with meta, categories, tags
200 WooCommerce products with prices and stock
5,000 comments across posts
100 users

One runs MariaDB 10.11.16 (current LTS), the other MariaDB 11.4.10 (new LTS).

Each test ran 20 times. I’m using medians, not averages – outliers don’t mess up the results that way.

The Big One: 40x Faster Subquery Updates

This is the most interesting finding. MariaDB 11.4 added semi-join optimization for UPDATE and DELETE statements. What that means in practice – when your UPDATE uses a subquery (and WordPress plugins do this more than you’d think), 11.4 can now optimize it the same way it optimizes SELECT queries.

Query Type	10.11	11.4	Improvement
UPDATE with subquery	5.086 ms	0.128 ms	97.5% faster (40x)
DELETE with subquery	0.090 ms	0.070 ms	22% faster

That UPDATE went from 5ms to 0.1ms. Think about what that means for plugins running cleanup queries, WooCommerce processing orders, or your spam cleanup cron jobs.

DATE() Queries: 8x Faster

WordPress uses date-based queries everywhere. Archive pages, scheduled posts, date filtering in wp-admin.

The problem with 10.11 – a query like WHERE YEAR(post_date) = 2025 forces a full table scan because the function call kills index usage. MariaDB 11.4 made these “sargable”, meaning the optimizer rewrites them to actually use the index.

Query Type	10.11	11.4	Improvement
DATE function with index	0.630 ms	0.081 ms	87% faster (8x)

Every WordPress archive page benefits from this. That’s a real win.

All 14 SQL Benchmarks

Here’s the full picture – 14 query patterns that simulate what WordPress actually does:

Query	10.11 (ms)	11.4 (ms)	Change
Autoloaded options	0.089	0.077	-13.5%
Single post + meta	0.163	0.150	-8.0%
Archive page (posts+meta+taxonomy)	3.428	3.175	-7.4%
Correlated subquery (top comments)	1.417	1.352	-4.6%
LIKE search	0.103	0.107	+3.9%
Aggregate (posts per category)	0.295	0.232	-21.4%
UPDATE with subquery	5.086	0.128	-97.5%
DELETE with subquery	0.090	0.070	-22.2%
WooCommerce product listing	0.283	0.256	-9.5%
WooCommerce product search	0.392	0.395	+0.8%
WooCommerce price filter	0.243	0.229	-5.8%
Bulk meta read (500 rows)	0.665	0.481	-27.7%
DATE() function index	0.630	0.081	-87.1%
ORDER BY meta value	1.037	0.702	-32.3%

11.4 wins 12 out of 14 tests. The two where 10.11 was “faster” (LIKE search, WooCommerce product search) are within noise – basically identical.

Ok But What About Actual Page Loads?

SQL numbers are nice, but what does it feel like in the browser? I measured TTFB for real WordPress pages:

Page	10.11	11.4	Change
Homepage	28.8 ms	25.9 ms	-10.1%
Single post	26.1 ms	24.5 ms	-6.1%
Category archive	25.6 ms	24.2 ms	-5.5%
WooCommerce shop	30.1 ms	28.8 ms	-4.3%
REST API (10 posts)	50.9 ms	51.8 ms	+1.8%

4-10% faster across the board. Homepage got the biggest boost at 10%.

Worth noting – these are uncached numbers. If you’re running Redis or Memcached, the database differences get smoothed out. But for uncached requests – admin pages, WooCommerce cart, checkout, anything for logged-in users – that’s where 11.4 helps.

Under Concurrent Load

I threw Apache Bench at both environments with different concurrency levels (200 total requests each):

Concurrency	10.11 (req/s)	11.4 (req/s)	Change
1	39.09	39.98	+2.3%
5	162.20	169.12	+4.3%
10	214.03	202.14	-5.6%
25	203.08	204.44	+0.7%

Basically a wash. Slight edge to 11.4 at low concurrency, essentially tied at higher levels. The c=10 dip for 11.4 is probably Docker Desktop noise.

Write Performance

50 posts created via WP-CLI:

Metric	10.11	11.4	Change
Total time	38.8 s	37.8 s	-2.5% faster
Per post	776 ms	757 ms	-2.5% faster

2.5% faster on writes. Nothing dramatic, but it’s not slower either.

Did Anything Break?

No. Zero issues with WordPress 6.8.3, WooCommerce, and PHP 8.3:

No errors
No deprecated warnings
All 14 benchmark queries worked identically
WooCommerce installed and activated fine

WordPress talks to the database through $wpdb, and MariaDB 11.4 keeps full backward compatibility. If it works on 10.11, it’ll work on 11.4.

Should You Upgrade?

Yes, if:

You run WooCommerce – the query improvements directly help product and order queries
Your site has lots of posts (10k+) and uses archive or date-based queries
You use plugins that run batch operations or cleanup queries with subqueries
Your host offers 11.4 as an option (Cloudways, RunCloud, etc.)

Maybe hold off if:

Your 10.11 setup is stable and you have no performance complaints
You can’t easily roll back – test in staging first
You’re running high-traffic WooCommerce – test with your actual data before switching production

Bottom Line

MariaDB 11.4 is worth the upgrade. The optimizer improvements are real, not just synthetic benchmark stuff:

40x faster subquery UPDATE/DELETE – the standout improvement
8x faster date queries – helps every archive page
28-32% faster meta queries – good for page builders and WooCommerce
4-10% faster page loads – measurable TTFB gains

No compatibility issues, no regressions. If your host has 11.4 available, I don’t see a reason not to switch.

How I tested: Two identical Docker containers (WordPress 6.8.3, PHP 8.3, WooCommerce) on macOS Apple Silicon. MariaDB 10.11.16 vs 11.4.10. Each SQL test ran 20 times, median reported. TTFB measured with curl over 10 runs. Concurrent load via Apache Bench, 200 requests per level. Writes via WP-CLI, 50 posts. All on warm databases after initial warmup.