Guide
CodeIgniter 4: MySQLi vs PDO – Decision Guide
A practical comparison of MySQLi and PDO drivers in CodeIgniter 4 helping you choose the right database driver.
25 Apr 2026, 22:58 UTC
1 min116K views0
The Decision MySQLi or PDO for CodeIgniter 4?
CodeIgniter 4 ships with two database drivers MySQLi and PDO. Choose MySQLi for MySQL-only projects needing slight performance edge. Choose PDO for multi-database portability and exception-based error handling.
Comparison Table
| Feature | MySQLi | PDO |
|---|---|---|
| Native MySQL features | ✓ | ✓ (emulation off) |
| Cross-database support | ✗ MySQL only | ✓ MySQL PostgreSQL SQLite |
| Prepared statements | ✓ native | ✓ native or emulated |
| Transactions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Error handling | mysqli_error() mysqli_errno() | Exceptions |
| Default in CI 4 | ✓ since 4.1 | ✗ |
Validation
- Set DBDriver in app/Config/Database.php to MySQLi or PDO.
- Run php spark db:connect to confirm connection.
- In a controller use db_connect() and get_class($db) to verify driver instance.
- Run a transaction block and check commit/rollback behavior.
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