Why Are MySQL InnoDB Inserts Slower Than MyISAM Inserts?

Why is MySQL InnoDB insert much slower?

When performing inserts on MySQL InnoDB tables, users may encounter unusually slow performance, particularly in comparison to MyISAM tables. This issue stems from the fundamental differences between the two engines.

InnoDB implements transaction support, which ensures data integrity by guaranteeing its durability and consistency. However, this feature has a performance drawback. Each statement executed within InnoDB triggers a commit operation, which flushes the transaction to disk for safety.

This behavior contrasts with MyISAM, which does not implement transactions. As a result, statements in MyISAM are committed collectively at the end, avoiding the overhead of repeated disk flushes.

Remedy for Slow InnoDB Inserts

To mitigate the performance trade-off in InnoDB, users can employ explicit transactions:

1. Initiate a transaction with the following command before the insert loop:

START TRANSACTION

2. Conclude the transaction with the following command after the loop is complete:

COMMIT

By enclosing the insert operations within a transaction, users can significantly improve insertion performance in InnoDB while still maintaining data integrity.

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