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PostgreSQL is too often overlooked
October 26, 2016

PostgreSQL is too often overlooked

Christopher Weiss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with PostgreSQL

We have used PostgreSQL as an application database for PHP, Ruby, and Java based applications. It has been used primarily for our customers' internet facing application. PostgreSQL presents a feature-rich open source database with many of the same capabilities as enterprise databases.

PostgreSQL presents a better stored procedure language as well as having better integration for geo spatial capabilities than MySQL. For setup and administration it is more flexible than SQL Server or Oracle.

In general, PostgreSQL tends to be overlooked.
  • The backend stored procedure language is complete, and lends itself to better programming and data manipulation tasks than MySQL.
  • PostgreSQL has complex data types like object columns and record data types that allow it to better mirror object relational structures directly within tables.
  • It is a fully SQL 92 compliant database even in its fully open source version.
  • For some more advanced features like replication, PostgreSQL can be a pain.
  • PostgreSQL can experience some bottlenecks under heavy read query load.
  • An in-memory or similar transaction caching strategy could greatly expand the appeal of PostgreSQL as developers look for other solutions such as Reddis to do in memory processing.
  • We have used PostgreSQL to deploy features more closely aligned with commercial databases than other Open Source databases such as MySQL
  • PostgreSQL does have some limitations, and we have had to migrate to a commercial database in some instances or move backward to MySQL for something similar.
PostgreSQL lacks the scalability of a commercial database such as SQL Server or Oracle. For this reason, it has been a difficult sale for some customers. However, PostgreSQL has more features, including a better programming language than MySQL. It is much more feature rich than embedded databases such as Berkeley DB and SQLLite, which have very limited applications.
For a general purpose SQL database that is fully SQL 92 compliant, PostgreSQL is a feature rich open source database. It is underrated in this area and frequently passed over in favor of MySQL or MariaDB. PostgreSQL is more akin to SQL Server or Oracle than it is to MySQL. For general purpose applications that need some database side programming, PostgreSQL is an excellent choice.

If you need a lighter weight and trivial to configure database, MySQL is a better choice. Also, PostgreSQL sometimes is not as performant as other solutions, meaning scale and load can be issues.