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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Helped 881,707 peers since 2012

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We moved away from Redshift to ClickHouse because of the integration and the flexibility that it provides, which best suited our use case."

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

"ClickHouse is very easy to use; one of the good features is that it has joins, which were not present in Druid, and Druid was quite expensive, especially with our applications at Sam's Club utilizing ClickHouse very quickly."

"ClickHouse Cloud saves a lot of time for our DevOps engineers since there isn't much deployment involved and everything is served directly, leading to increased efficiency and productivity."

"ClickHouse provides great query speeds because it is an OLAP database, so naturally, it provides higher speeds."

"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 has positively impacted my organization, as there was an entire exercise done on which database we were supposed to use for solving our problems, and we found ClickHouse was the one performing the best, which is when we adopted it."

"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."

More ClickHouse pros

"PostgreSQL makes it very adaptable to several descriptions of a record. Instead of having several tables or several relations for one entity, I can adapt this entity. It can be a multiform entity. For example, here in Mexico, a company and a person can be sold to us as a physical entity or a physical person."

"We are able to create many different types of jobs and items with this solution making it one of the most valuable features."

"With the database, you can provide a multi-component at the same service with the same performance, scalability, or all those things."

"The built-in code procedural language is the most valuable. It has a built-in layer for code procedures. Its installation is very easy and quick, and it is free. It is also stable, and its performance is also good."

"The solution is quite stable."

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

"The PostgreSQL database is similar to the SQL Server but has a slightly different technology that has similar resources as well. If the customer has the confidence using SQL Server, they will be fairly comfortable using this solution."

"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."

Cons

"ClickHouse can be improved, and the main challenge I see is its operational complexity."

"ClickHouse could be improved further in several areas."

"Too many issues exist for beginners to set up ClickHouse. Many parameters must be configured, such as maximum scatter part settings that determine when writing to a table stops."

"I would like ClickHouse to work more on integration with third-party tools."

"There are some areas where ClickHouse could improve. Specifically, we encountered incompatibilities with its SQL syntax when migrating queries from MySQL or SQL to ClickHouse. This difference in details made it challenging to figure out the exact issues. Additionally, we faced difficulties due to the lack of a proper Django driver for ClickHouse, unlike MySQL, which Django supports out of the box."

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

"My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that it is very expensive—ClickHouse is the most expensive option."

"The aggregation capability is a valuable feature. It's highly efficient, allowing us to review entire transaction histories and user activities in the market. We've tried MongoDB, Postgres, MariaDB, and BigQuery, but ClickHouse is the most cost-efficient solution for collecting data at high speeds with minimal cost. We even used ClickHouse Cloud for a month, and it proved to be a great setup, especially for startups looking to handle big data. For example, if there is a need for 2-4 terabytes of data and around 40 billion rows with reasonable computing speed and latency, ClickHouse is ideal. Regarding the real-time query performance of ClickHouse, when using an API server to query it, I achieved query results in less than twenty milliseconds in some of my experiments with one billion rows. However, it depends on the scenario since ClickHouse has limitations in handling mutations. Additionally, one of ClickHouse's strengths is its compression capability. Our experimental server has only four terabytes, and ClickHouse effectively compresses data, allowing us to store large amounts of data at high speed. This compression efficiency is a significant advantage of using ClickHouse."

More ClickHouse cons

"The user interface for the clients could be easier to use as they are small businesses. From a technical support perspective, the documentation could be improved."

"The interface climate could be better."

"PostgreSQL doesn't have a feature for temporal SQL, which is useful for gathering versions of data. This feature should be included in PostgreSQL. This feature is available in MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle Database, and DB2."

"I find it difficult to get connectors on the tool. For example, .NET has only one free provider in PostgreSQL. I need to pay the provider if I need something more sophisticated features. Other languages like PHP and Java have good community support. We need community support for .NET."

"We have to set up event API, which takes a lot of events from the user."

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

"I don't think PostgreSQL supports bulk databases, so it needs to have more capabilities in terms of managing the bulk data."

"There could be a plugin to distribute the data on servers for the product."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The tool is open-source."

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

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

"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."

"The tool is free."

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

"The licensing model is good."

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

"It is open source. There is no licensing."

"The tool is cheaply priced compared to other RDBMS providers in the market."

"It is free. In terms of operating costs, it basically needs the same platform on which Oracle runs."

"It is an open-source platform."

"We do not pay for licensing."

"There is an annual license."

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 ...

See all answers

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

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

OpenSearch vs ClickHouse

Compared 9% of the time

VictoriaMetrics vs ClickHouse

Compared 7% of the time

Cassandra vs ClickHouse

Compared 7% of the time

Qdrant vs ClickHouse

Compared 4% 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

Download ClickHouse product report

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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