Max count of Tables in a Single JOIN

Here’s a comparison of the maximum number of tables you can join in a single query across different database management systems:

1. SQL Server (Microsoft)

• SQL Server 2000: 16 tables.
• SQL Server 2005+ (including SQL Server 2025): 256 tables in a single query.

2. MySQL

• MySQL 5.x and later: MySQL allows up to 61 tables in a single query by default.

3. MariaDB

• MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and shares a lot of its properties.

4. PostgreSQL

• PostgreSQL doesn’t have a hard limit on the number of tables you can join. Instead, the practical limit is constrained by: