How do I choose a database? I am NOT a developer or DB guy but a webmaster who has manipulated mysql successfully for several wordpress sites. I know how to use the command line tool and also to run things via phpmyadmin. I know how to perform basic administrative mysql functions and occasionally to make a custom query. 

I am setting up a  drupal7  site on a VPS where I will already have a wordpress-mysql instance. But it occurred to me that there's nothing really stopping me from installing another db -- postgresql, SQLite, MariaDB. I am less interested in power than ease of use -- but obviously better performance would be welcome. I would probably need some management tool with a web interface. As I said, I wouldn't expect to be doing a lot of DB work; just the routine maintenance and rescue operations that occasionally are necessary. 

The site should be a low or medium traffic site with not a lot of writes, but probably a lot of reads. There would probably not be enough traffic to do load balancing or clustering. (It's for a magazine site). 

Is there any rule of thumb for which db to choose? Sticking with mysql seems to the obvious and easy solution; I'm just wondering if there's any reason to think differently in 2013.
Well choosing a database for your site depends on many ways,
I prefer MySQL to keep it quite simple.

MySQL is preferable PHP sites because:


Drupal 7 now comes with default table engine which is InnoDB(advantages over MyISAM) for
MySQL
MySQL has choice of table types for better read performance.
Drupal has PHPMyAdmin Web Interface for MySQL.
WAMP,XAMP comes with MySQL so it makes life easier when you use MySQL
Drupal's much better tested with MySQL


http://drupal.org/node/37268