An impending price hike for customers of MySQL will take place soon, though no specifics on the final pricing are available yet. One thing is for sure: The less expensive, Basic- and Silver-level licensing plans will be scrapped. Unfortunately for smaller businesses, who might be on the Basic plan, this translates into a whopping 400 percent increase in annual licensing fees, reports InfoWorld.

In preparation of the new pricing, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) salespeople have been sending out emails to existing customers, pointing out that MySQL license fees haven't increased in six years. Most likely laying the groundwork for the price hike, the email also notes that, "We're being told that 'there will be changes to MySQL's pricing and possibly pricing model soon' and wanted to let you know."

Perhaps it's time for affected businesses to take a closer look at the open-sourced Postgres database management system?

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InfoWorld
- check out this article at The Register

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