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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AAstra DB is a vector database for developers. In 2025 Datastax, the developer and supporter of Astra DB, was acquired. Astra DB is now available as a component of the IBM watsonx.data Multicloud offering.N/A

    PostgreSQL

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/APostgreSQL (alternately Postgres) is a free and open source object-relational database system boasting over 30 years of active development, reliability, feature robustness, and performance. It supports SQL and is designed to support various workloads flexibly.N/A
    Pricing
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    Chose Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    We chose Astra as our primary database for time series data was already on Apache Cassandra. We also utilize a small postgres database for relational data within the application, but it made sense to migrate the data to Astra from Apache Cassandra.
    Incentivized
    Chose Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    For the workloads we use Astra DB for it was a better choice than the other databases.
    It worked out to be more scalable and cost affective than the traditional relational databases.
    Also performant and without the downsides of size limits compared to other services.
    Incentivized
    Chose Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    It's not possible to make a straightforward comparison between the other DB and Astra, mainly because Astra is based more in providing a service for managing larger chunks of data than a RDS. However, what I can say is that the configuration therefore implementation of Astra is …
    Incentivized
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    46 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    32 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    45 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    32 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    45 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    40 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    25 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    Features
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Vector Database
    Comparison of Vector Database features of Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data and PostgreSQL
    Feature
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.data
    8.0
    12 Ratings
    1% above category average
    PostgreSQL
    -
    Ratings
    Vector Data Connection8.212 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vector Data Editing8.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Attribute Management7.710 Ratings00 Ratings
    Geospatial Analysis8.26 Ratings00 Ratings
    Geometric Transformations8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vector Data Visualization8.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Coordinate Reference System Management:7.96 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Import/Export8.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Symbolization and Styling8.35 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Sharing and Collaboration7.69 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    MariaDB Platform
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    MySQL
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    SQLite
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (46 ratings)
    8.3
    (56 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    7.8
    (4 ratings)
    8.3
    (9 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    9.3
    (7 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.6
    (44 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Astra DB, now part of IBM watsonx.dataPostgreSQL
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    We've been super happy with Astra DB. It's been extremely well-suited for our vector search needs as described in previous responses. With Astra DB’s high-performance vector search, Maester’s AI dynamically optimizes responses in real-time, adapting to new user interactions without requiring costly retraining cycles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    PostgreSQL is best used for structured data, and best when following relational database design principles. I would not use PostgreSQL for large unstructured data such as video, images, sound files, xml documents, web-pages, especially if these files have their own highly variable, internal structure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • We need to be able to process a lot of data (our biggest clients process hundreds of milions of transactions every month). However, it is not only the amount of data, it is also an unpredictable patterns with spikes occuring at different points of time - something athat Astra is great at.
    • Our processing needs to be extremaly fast. Some of our clients use our enrichment in a synchronous way, meaning that any delay in processing is holding up the whole transaction lifecycle and can have a major impact on the client. Astra is very fast.
    • A close collaboration with GCP makes our life very easy. All of our technology sits in Google Cloud, so having Astra in there makes it a no-brainer solution for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    • It works well with external data sources and runs on platforms with stable performance.
    • Clients can rest assured that their personal information will be safe and secure.
    • Many forums discuss setup and usage, and most are free.
    • Adding tooling applications to a computer is unlimited.
    • PostgreSQL runs on many OS platforms and supports ANSI SQL, stored procedures, and triggers.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Need better fine-grained Security options.
    • The support team sometimes requires the escalate button pressed on tickets, to get timely responses. I will say, once the ticket is escalated, action is taken.
    • They require better documentation on the migration of data. The three primary methods for migrating large data volumes are bulk, Cassandra Data Migrator, and ZDM (Zero Downtime Migration Utility). Over time I have become very familiar will all three of these methods; however, through working with the Services team and the support team, it seemed like we were breaking new ground. I feel if the utilities were better documented and included some examples and/or use cases from large data migrations; this process would have been easier. One lesson learned is you likely need to migrate your application servers to the same cloud provider you host Astra on; otherwise, the latency is too large for latency-sensitive applications.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    • Clearer indications on what is the query plan, to optimize the query
    • More out of the box, Postgres specific, SQL functions
    • It would be nice to have a more visual aid of the relationship between all tables, but possibly this depend more on the UI used
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    As a needed software for day to day development activities
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    It's a great product but suffers with counters. This isn't a deal breaker but lets down what is otherwise a good all round solution
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    Postgresql is the best tool out there for relational data so I have to give it a high rating when it comes to analytics, data availability and consistency, so on and so forth. SQL is also a relatively consistent language so when it comes to building new tables and loading data in from the OLTP database, there are enough tools where we can perform ETL on a scalable basis.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    PostgreSQL's availability is top notch. Apart from connection time-out for an idle user, the database is super reliable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    The data queries are relatively quick for a small to medium sized table. With complex joins, and a wide and deep table however, the performance of the query has room for improvement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Their response time is fast, in case you do not contact them during business hours, they give a very good follow-up to your case. They also facilitate video calls if necessary for debugging.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    There are several companies that you can contract for technical support, like EnterpriseDB or Percona, both first level in expertise and commitment to the software.
    But we do not have contracts with them, we have done all the way from googling to forums, and never have a problem that we cannot resolve or pass around. And for dozens of projects and more than 15 years now.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    The online training is request based. Had there been recorded videos available online for potential users to benefit from, I could have rated it higher. The online documentation however is very helpful. The online documentation PDF is downloadable and allows users to pace their own learning. With examples and code snippets, the documentation is great starting point.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    The online documentation of the PostgreSQL product is elaborate and takes users step by step.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    Graph, search, analytics, administration, developer tooling, and monitoring are all incorporated into a single platform by Astra DB. Mongo Db is a self-managed infrastructure. Astra DB has Wide column store and Mongo DB has Document store. The best thing is that Astra DB operates on Java while Mongo DB operates on C++
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    Although the competition between the different databases is increasingly aggressive in the sense that they provide many improvements, new functionalities, compatibility with complementary components or environments, in some cases it requires that it be followed within the same family of applications that performs the company that develops it and that is not all bad, but being able to adapt or configure different programs, applications or other environments developed by third parties apart is what gives PostgreSQL a certain advantage and this diversification in the components that can be joined with it, is the reason why it is a great option to choose.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    We are well aware of the Cassandra architecture and familiar with the open source tooling that Datastax provides the industry (K8sSandra / Stargate) to scale Cassandra on Kubernetes.
    Having prior knowledge of Cassandra / Kubernetes means we know that under the hood Astra is built on infinitely scalable technologies. We trust that the foundations that Astra is built on will scale so we know Astra will scale.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    The DB is reliable, scalable, easy to use and resolves most DB needs
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Better uptime due to the managed service having no outages
    • Less technical debt because we don't need to worry about upgrading our Cassandra clusters
    • Lower cost on infrastructure as a whole
    • Quick and easy to integrate vector search into our tech stack
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    PostgreSQL Global Development Group
    • Easy to administer so our DevOps team has only ever used minimal time to setup, tune, and maintain.
    • Easy to interface with so our Engineering team has only ever used minimal time to query or modify the database. Getting the data is straightforward, what we do with it is the bigger concern.
    • It's free. You can't beat that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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