diff --git a/requirements/dev.in b/requirements/dev.in
index 2f67f6a118a48a501792011592a67d7cee47d4c1..0e4c8c16752bbe6280f59565d54a766654f4f951 100644
--- a/requirements/dev.in
+++ b/requirements/dev.in
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ Flask-Admin>=1.5.7
 Flask-Login==0.5.0
 SQLAlchemy>=1.4.5
 celery[redis]>=5.0.5
+PyMySQL==1.0.2
 mysql-connector-python==8.0.24
 psycopg2-binary==2.8.6
 wget>=3.2
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e7237ff3676dbbc65929d5086493e6898d5f2faf..7ff6d80cb4eada531ffe24511784f65f22605032 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -360,6 +360,7 @@ requires_dev = [
    "mirakuru==2.3.0",
    "more-itertools==8.0.2",
    "mysql-connector-python==8.0.24",
+   "PyMySQL==1.0.2",
    "nodeenv==1.5.0",
    "numba==0.52.0",
    "numpy==1.20.2",
diff --git a/src/database.py b/src/database.py
index d47cb7fbfdaa9d0a0a0fd2a7eb0c83aeb7499681..7bc968469d51e2c87a72713c863ee1913dd78f24 100644
--- a/src/database.py
+++ b/src/database.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from logging.config import dictConfig
 from flask_admin import Admin
 from celery import Celery
 import sqlalchemy.dialects
+from sqlalchemy.dialects import postgresql, mysql, sqlite
 
 
 # TODO: #210 database.py: logging for Celery on Windows
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ def create_app():
     login_manager.login_view = 'usr.login'
     login_manager.init_app(my_app)
     my_app.config.from_object("config")
-    my_db_url_mariadb = "mariadb+mariadbconnector://{user}:{pw}@{url}/{db}?charset=utf8mb4&pool_pre_ping=True".format(
+    my_db_url_mariadb = "mysql+mysqldb://{user}:{pw}@{url}/{db}".format(
         user=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_USER'],
         pw=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_PW'],
         url=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_HOST'],
@@ -37,8 +38,8 @@ def create_app():
         pw=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_PW'],
         url=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_HOST'],
         db=my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_DB'])
-    my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = my_db_url_postgresql
-    my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS'] = False  # silence the deprecation warning
+    my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = my_db_url_mariadb
+    my_app.config['SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS'] = True  # silence the deprecation warning
     my_app.config['FLASK_ADMIN_SWATCH'] = 'superhero'
     # cache.init_app(app)
     return my_app