MyISAM and InnoDB are two most commonly used storage engines of MySQL database. However, MyISAM is the default storage engine chosen by MySQL database, when creating a new table. The major differences between these two storage engines are:
MyISAM:
- MYISAM supports Table-level Locking
- MyISAM designed for need of speed
- MyISAM does not support foreign keys hence we call MySQL with MYISAM is DBMS
- MyISAM stores its tables, data and indexes in diskspace using separate three different files. (tablename.FRM, tablename.MYD, tablename.MYI)
- MYISAM not supports transaction. You cannot commit and rollback with MYISAM. Once you issue a command it’s done.
- MYISAM supports fulltext search
- You can use MyISAM, if the table is more static with lots of select and less update and delete.
INNODB:
- InnoDB supports Row-level Locking
- InnoDB designed for maximum performance when processing high volume of data
- InnoDB support foreign keys hence we call MySQL with InnoDB is RDBMS
- InnoDB stores its tables and indexes in a tablespace
- InnoDB supports transaction. You can commit and rollback with InnoDB