A relational, ACID-compliant database — the most common pairing with PHP/Laravel stacks, and the default choice for most business applications with structured, relational data.
Why I use it
Reliable, well-understood, and supported by every major hosting provider
Strong tooling for indexing, replication, and query optimization as an app grows
The default database Laravel's Eloquent ORM is built around
Where it fits
Any application with clearly related data — orders/customers, leads/pipelines, invoices/clients
Reporting and analytics queries over structured business data