Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for pre-migration performance prediction of a database management system (DBMS). In an embodiment of the invention, a method for pre-migration performance prediction of a DBMS can include executing a calibration workload in a target DBMS to produce a conversion factor of cost of executing the calibration workload to temporal performance of executing the calibration workload. The method also can include subsequently submitting a sample workload from a database of a source DBMS for evaluation of cost of execution on an empty replica of the database in the target DBMS. Finally, the method can include predicting a temporal performance of the sample workload in the target DBMS as a product of the conversion factor and the cost of execution of the sample workload on the empty replica of the database in the target DBMS.