ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL comparison

ClickHouse and PostgreSQL are both solutions in the Open Source Databases category. ClickHouse is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6, while PostgreSQL is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. ClickHouse holds a 6.4% mindshare in OSD, compared to PostgreSQL’s 14.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ClickHouse users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of PostgreSQL users who would recommend it.

ClickHouse

Read 21 ClickHouse reviews

4,128 Views
1,858 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

PostgreSQL

Read 125 PostgreSQL reviews

7,517 Views
6,540 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

ClickHouse

PostgreSQL

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

PostgreSQL and ClickHouse are open-source databases catering to different needs, such as SQL compliance and real-time analytics. PostgreSQL, with its extensive feature set and robust community support, seems to have the upper hand in handling diverse data types and offering strong stability.

Features: PostgreSQL supports scalability for write-intensive tasks, adheres to strict SQL standards, and offers diverse programming language support. ClickHouse efficiently processes real-time data with its columnar storage system and is known for speed and cost-efficiency when managing large datasets.

Room for Improvement: PostgreSQL struggles with read-only query efficiency and lacks some SQL commands available in other databases like MySQL. It also has slower processing for large records and a smaller community compared to MySQL. ClickHouse needs improved integration with third-party tools and better documentation. It also faces challenges with transactional data handling.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PostgreSQL offers flexible deployment options, extensively used in on-premises and hybrid cloud setups, backed by strong community support, though official customer service is limited. ClickHouse is similarly used in varied deployments, noted for its ease of setup by users.

Pricing and ROI: Both PostgreSQL and ClickHouse are open source, entailing no direct licensing costs. PostgreSQL requires investment in training and infrastructure support, yet offers strong ROI. ClickHouse, free and particularly effective when self-hosted, delivers efficient ROI with minimal deployment costs, ideal for budget-conscious projects.

To learn more, read our detailed ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL

January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ClickHouse

Ranking in Open Source Databases

4th

Ranking in Vector Databases

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

PostgreSQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

2nd

Ranking in Vector Databases

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of ClickHouse is 6.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 14.3%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
PostgreSQL	14.3%
ClickHouse	6.4%
Other	79.3%

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

Yush Mittal

Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Data observability has enabled real‑time analytics and cost savings but needs smoother inserts and cleanup

ClickHouse could be improved concerning data insertion, especially given the high amount of data handled. Constant efforts are made to optimize the features on its own, but with merges and inserts, only a single insert query can be performed allowing for the input of only 100,000 rows per second. It would be beneficial to insert more data and have configurations that are less user-operated. Ideally, ClickHouse would optimize itself to handle these processes automatically, reducing the need to contact the ClickHouse support team for infrastructure optimization. Additionally, delays are experienced when trying to delete databases with corrupt data, taking too much time and causing major outages, which necessitate contacting multiple teams across continents for resolution. The community surrounding ClickHouse also seems limited, providing a reliance on documentation, and there is a scarcity of developers working with ClickHouse, which hinders growth. If ClickHouse were more user-friendly and technically feasible, it would likely see greater expansion in usage.

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Akhilesh Chipre

Senior Assosiate Consultant at Applied Materials

Real-time data capture optimizes database performance but Views create problems

One of the most valuable features is real-time data capture; it optimizes database performance. I think using real-time data capture reduces job running time and the amount of data sent at once with batch loads. Replicating the same data daily isn't optimal, so real-time reception improves application performance and reduces latency.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We faced a challenge with deploying ClickHouse onto Kubernetes. Recently, we've been using ClickHouse Cloud, and the main issue is the high cost of the cloud service. The pricing isn't very competitive, especially for startups. I would instead buy a server and self-host if I have enough disk space. Besides that, ClickHouse has done very well, with clear goals and effective execution."

"ClickHouse is open source with no vendor lock-in, providing excellent freedom to choose any vendor without restrictions."

"ClickHouse has positively impacted my organization by replacing PostgreSQL, which required complex foreign tables for queries, and with ClickHouse we now have Cube.js for easier data visualization."

"Regarding performance, we tried multiple solutions when Kibana was failing, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, and even MongoDB for log ingestion of huge volumes, but ClickHouse outperformed all databases we tested, leading us to choose it for further use cases."

"The best thing about the tool is that I can set it up on my computer and run queries without depending on the cloud. This is why I use it every day."

"ClickHouse is much faster than traditional databases like MySQL and MongoDB. Its column-row searching strategy makes it very efficient. With ClickHouse, we can manage multiple databases, automatically insert data from other databases and delete data as needed. It supports real-time query performance, allowing simultaneous data insertion and retrieval. ClickHouse has improved significantly over the past two years, adding more functions and queries, as well as top functionality."

"ClickHouse provides responses within a few seconds, typically two to three seconds, which is impressive."

"There is no better option than ClickHouse in all OLAP-based databases, so I think it is best to use ClickHouse in that regard."

More ClickHouse pros

"The solution is scalable, it is very good."

"The initial setup is quick and easy."

"This is an open-source solution, operates at a high speed, and supports more than one SQL language."

"Initial setup is simple."

"It's a standard reliable database management system."

"The solution is quite stable."

"The product's deployment is easy."

"Clustering will be the number 1 feature. It is also open-source so it is free. It can also be clustered, to allow fault tolerance."

Cons

"We had a lot of troubles while deploying a whole cluster."

"In terms of improvements, it's not designed for very frequent small writes, making it less scalable in write-intensive workloads, and it's not flourishing in transactional use cases or when ingesting streaming data, such as batching or buffering, which is something ClickHouse will improve."

"Additionally, delays are experienced when trying to delete databases with corrupt data, taking too much time and causing major outages, which necessitate contacting multiple teams across continents for resolution."

"The open-source version of ClickHouse is not very scalable."

"ClickHouse could be improved further in several areas."

"The main issue is the lack of documentation. Many features are available but are not fully documented, which can make finding information challenging."

"ClickHouse has its own concept of database triggers and doesn't support traditional database triggers."

"ClickHouse could be improved with self-hosting capabilities and better documentation for how to host it at scale."

More ClickHouse cons

"Integration with other platforms could be improved."

"It could be improved by using parallelization. You want basically, distributed computing."

"It still needs to be more mature and have some backup feature. We are normally dealing with Oracle's data, and we have very strong online tools to back up the data and do other things. PostgreSQL still needs to do more in this area as well as in the high availability area. There are many external tools that you can use for PostgreSQL's high availability, but there is no embedded tool within PostgreSQL for high availability. It could have a feature similar to Oracle for working on a distributed system. It can have some scripts to improve the monitoring and some tools to do performance analysis. We have a workaround for most of such requirements except for the support for a distributed system, which is very difficult to have. This area should be included in the core of the database itself."

"When you get a large number of records in a database and start doing various queries, it can adversely impact the performance of the live running systems. That's an area we continue to look at and mean to improve, but it is not only because of PostgreSQL. It is also because of the way the schemas are put together, and certain events are triggered. So, it is because of both parties."

"It would be great if the solution offered even more integration capabilities."

"Sometimes, the views create problems. If you don't have the view, sometimes what happens is you need to have the drivers properly set up for PostgreSQL."

"It is possible that in the newer version this has been addressed, but I would like the deployment in microservices architecture could be improved."

"The performance of PostgreSQL could improve."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For pricing, if you use the self-hosted version, it would be free. Cloud services pricing would be an eight out of ten. I try to minimize costs but still have to monitor usage."

"If you have an in-house deployment on Kubernetes or something, it's going to be very cheap since you'll be managing everything."

"ClickHouse has an open-source version, which is free to use and has almost all the features."

"The tool is open-source."

"The tool is free."

"ClickHouse Cloud is not expensive compared to other databases, costing a few dollars per month while providing fast performance."

"We used the free, community version of ClickHouse."

"Our company pays for it. There are free versions available, but for advanced features, you obviously have to pay."

"This solution can offer a cheaper choice for customers since it is open-source."

"The solution requires a license."

"It is an open-source platform."

"We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition."

"It is free, but if you need support, you can go for the commercial version called EnterpriseDB. They provide paid support, and they can even do hosting for you if you want standby and support."

"It could be much cheaper. If you would like to build an application on Amazon today, PostgreSQL is the standard database with Redshift. If you want other databases, you can add them, but PostgreSQL is the basis of everything. It's a question of money, that's it."

"The licensing model is good."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	57
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	46

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ClickHouse?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was such that the setup costs were just my own bandwidth, while licensing and pricing were done by other members of the team so it was abstract...

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What needs improvement with ClickHouse?

ClickHouse can be improved on the documentation side, and there is one small constraint that is mentioned in ClickHouse documentation, which is a partition limit of ten thousand that we hit, so if ...

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What is your primary use case for ClickHouse?

My main use case for ClickHouse is data ingestion and for its OLAP properties, as we had use cases where database locks were slowing us down and because ClickHouse does not have that, we chose to u...

See all answers

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL was designed in a way that provides you with not only a high degree of flexibility but also offers you a cheap and easy-to-use solution. It gives you the ability to redesign and audit yo...

See all answers

What do you like most about PostgreSQL?

It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PostgreSQL?

The tool is free of cost. For now, it's not about making money. But once we perfect it, we can offer it to customers willing to pay for support and other services. Most of my deployments are free.

See all answers

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Compared 7% of the time

Cassandra vs ClickHouse

Compared 7% of the time

SingleStore vs ClickHouse

Compared 5% of the time

More ClickHouse Competitors

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 23% of the time

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Compared 9% of the time

MariaDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 7% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 5% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

PostgreSQL

January 2026

Download PostgreSQL product report

Overview

ClickHouse is renowned for its speed, scalability, and real-time query performance. Its compatibility with SQL standards enhances flexibility while enabling integration with popular tools.

ClickHouse leverages a column-based architecture for efficient data compression and real-time analytics. It seamlessly integrates with tools like Kafka and Tableau and is effective in handling large datasets due to its cost-efficient aggregation capabilities. With robust data deduplication and strong community backing, users can access comprehensive documentation and up-to-date functionality. However, improvements in third-party integration, cloud deployment, and handling of SQL syntax differences are noted, impacting ease-of-use and migration from other databases.

What features make ClickHouse outstanding?

Speed and Scalability: Enables rapid deployment and scalability, particularly on Kubernetes.
SQL Compatibility: Aligns with SQL standards for flexible database management.
Column-based Structure: Offers efficient data compression and quick query performance.
Integration Support: Works with Kafka, Tableau, and other popular platforms.
Data Deduplication: Manages complex data duplication efficiently.

What benefits should users consider?

Cost-Efficiency: Reduces expenses while managing large datasets effectively.
Real-Time Analytics: Provides fast data processing for real-time insights.
Flexibility: Offers multiple integration points and compatibility options.
Robust Documentation: Backed by an active development community, ensuring comprehensive support.

ClickHouse is deployed in sectors like telecommunications for passive monitoring and is beneficial for data analytics, logging Clickstream data, and as an ETL engine. Organizations harness it for machine learning applications when combined with GPT. With the ability to be installed independently, it's an attractive option for avoiding cloud service costs.

ClickHouse

PostgreSQL is a versatile and reliable database management system commonly used for web development, data analysis, and building scalable databases.

It offers advanced features like indexing, replication, and transaction management. Users appreciate its flexibility, performance, and ability to handle large amounts of data efficiently. Its robustness, scalability, and support for complex queries make it highly valuable.

Additionally, PostgreSQL's extensibility, flexibility, community support, and frequent updates contribute to its ongoing improvement and stability.

PostgreSQL

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

1. Apple 2. Cisco 3. Fujitsu 4. Instagram 5. Netflix 6. Red Hat 7. Sony 8. Uber 9. Cisco Systems 10. Skype 11. LinkedIn 12. Etsy 13. Yelp 14. Reddit 15. Dropbox 16. Slack 17. Twitch 18. WhatsApp 19. Snapchat 20. Shazam 21. SoundCloud 22. The New York Times 23. Cisco WebEx 24. Atlassian 25. Cisco Meraki 26. Heroku 27. GitLab 28. Zalando 29. OpenTable 30. Trello 31. Square Enix 32. Bloomberg

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL

January 2026

Free Report: ClickHouse vs. PostgreSQL

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