MySQL vs PostgreSQL comparison

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MySQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

PostgreSQL and MySQL are both key players in the open-source database category, with PostgreSQL often considered superior for complex queries and diverse applications due to its advanced features, while MySQL is favored for its speed and simplicity in platforms that demand quick read and write operations.

Features: PostgreSQL provides advanced features that support complex queries and offers scalability in write-intensive operations, maintaining full ACID compliance. It is known for its extensibility and custom data types. MySQL focuses on delivering high-speed performance and simplicity, which makes it suitable for rapidly changing data environments. It supports multiple storage engines, making it a versatile choice for developers.

Room for Improvement: PostgreSQL could improve by enhancing its capabilities in managing complex read-only queries and incorporating additional SQL features such as 'INSERT IGNORE.' The setup process can be complex, and it has a smaller community. MySQL struggles with performance issues when using InnoDB and lacks certain advanced features, such as active directory integration. It also might be less robust compared to some proprietary databases.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: PostgreSQL offers flexibility with deployment in both on-premises and cloud environments, backed largely by community support unless third-party options are chosen. MySQL also supports diverse deployment setups but has some gaps in debugging and management tools, although it benefits from strong community engagement and comprehensive documentation.

Pricing and ROI: Both PostgreSQL and MySQL offer their core database systems for free under open-source licenses. PostgreSQL demands investment in skilled personnel for optimum setup and use but provides significant ROI due to minimal operational costs. MySQL's ROI can fluctuate depending on the complexity of deployment and any additional licensing needed for enterprise features, yet both systems offer a cost-effective alternative to proprietary database solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed MySQL vs. PostgreSQL Report (Updated: March 2025).

MySQL vs. PostgreSQL

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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

MySQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

148

Ranking in other categories

Relational Databases Tools (3rd)

PostgreSQL

Ranking in Open Source Databases

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of MySQL is 11.4%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PostgreSQL is 18.2%, down from 21.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

Muzzamil Hussain

Assistant Vice President at National Bank of Pakistan

Native encryption ensures secure data management with a simple deployment

The most valuable feature is the on-premises data encryption facilities. By default, we can provide encryption, and this feature in MySQL is why we prefer it over other databases. The native encryption in MySQL encourages us to use this database model more frequently compared to Oracle and other databases. With Oracle, we have to buy another solution for encryption and masking, but MySQL supports native encryption, which enhances our return on investment. It perfectly supports our ROI, and we have no issues with its functionality.

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AdityaSharma3

Vice President Business at Techmagnate: Digital Marketing Agency

Transaction processes are fast and good replication capability

Use cases include querying data warehouses and databases to fetch data for clients already working on PostgreSQL. We also use Postgres for building reports It's a transactional database, so we use Postgres for most of our reporting. That's where it's helping. The query speed is fast, and the…

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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

"For sure, the solution is very stable."

"The connectivity with PHP is quite good."

"MySQL is the best option for the Laravel PHP framework."

"MySQL has cross-platform support for multiple operating systems. The backups on a Linux machine can be restored on a Windows machine, and vice versa."

"A lot of the software components have been trialed and tested for often more than 10 years."

"MySQL is easy and convenient for me. I don't need to rely on anyone. I can write the code and extract the information. It is fast if you know how to use it. The solution is not expensive, and most of the developers know how to use it. It is easy to create tables. The solution is stable and has good performance. The connection with AWS gives regular updates, which is manual otherwise and a nightmare."

"Like other databases, it has a rich set of functions, such as stored procedures and its own procedural language, which is akin to Oracle SQL. It also has trigger and cursor commands you would expect with a good database language."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is its ubiquity. MySQL is everywhere, so if I need to find a developer to do things to it that I don't know, it's very easy to find someone who has expertise in it."

More MySQL pros

"Scalable, stable, and easy to manage database system, with a straightforward installation."

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

"The initial setup is quick and easy."

"PostgreSQL is very powerful, easy to manage, and has many features."

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

"The most valuable features are the price, stability, it is scalable and is used by our clients in small business environments, and it is a simple product to use."

"The solution provides complete support in terms of the SQL dialect and behaves nicely when it comes to transactions."

"The performance is good."

Cons

"I would like to see more integrations of the solution with other platforms and improve the support on different data types."

"The analytics features are in need of improvement."

"If the customer is already using or has already used Oracle for a long time they will know the look and feel and the character of this database that can fit into their business."

"MySQL's performance needs to be improved for enterprise-level applications compared to Oracle and Postgres."

"In the next release, I would like to see the scalability features improved to allow you to configure it and reduce the complexity with the configuration, making it easier for the end-user to scale. Make it as simple as it can be."

"The solution could improve the monitoring. At the present time, you need to use third-party monitoring solutions."

"The integration with other systems can be improved as can the integration between other databases."

"I feel that some tools which make it easier to create queries or make it easier for other functions would be really interesting to see."

More MySQL cons

"They need to have a better graphical interface. There is a tool called pgAdmin 4 that they use, which is free. It is written in Java, and it is slow. They need to have a better product that is similar to Toad for Oracle, but, of course, it is hard to get something that's really great and free. Other than that, it is great."

"PostgreSQL uses high memory compared to its counterparts when a highly demanding load is involved, especially one that makes many concurrent connections to the database."

"I'd like to see better memory management. I think that that's one of the few areas that Postgres does not handle as well as MySQL does or did."

"I had some issues when I integrated with the Jupyter Notebook."

"There are several features I would like to improve that aren't working as expected. It's likely that the latest version is doing something that was missed in the previous versions. For example, the output parameters — the stored procedures — is something new in PostgreSQL that Firebird has already had for a long time."

"Sometimes, it becomes slow because of the network. So, there is room for improvement in performance."

"PostgreSQL’s performance could be improved."

"Postgres should focus on building a stronger knowledge base. They also need to expand their integration capabilities, so more tools and resources are available to manage it."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is open source. We prefer it for POCs because it saves the license cost."

"MySQL is released under an open-source license, so you have nothing to pay to use it."

"There is no licensing fee."

"I don't pay for a license."

"Microsoft licensing for SQL Server is probably ten times more expensive. I used to work for the government, and I remember when we were looking into upgrading to the enterprise version of SQL Server 2019, the licensing was going to cost 350,000. To get the equivalent in the cloud, it was going to be about four grand to get the same processing power and everything else. With MySQL, it was going to be about 300 for the same licensing. Cost-wise, for sure, there is a huge difference. Would you prefer to pay 300 a month or 3,000 to have the same amount of data resources? You might lose a few options that you need, but it isn't worth the price difference."

"There is a license for this solution. A lot of the time the solution gets bundled with other hardware or software purchases."

"We've never bought a commercial license. We just use the open-source community edition."

"I am using the Community Edition, which is available free of charge."

More MySQL pricing and cost advice

"The licensing model is good."

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

"We do not pay for licensing."

"There is an annual license."

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

"It is free. There is no license on it."

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

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Why are MySQL connections encrypted and what is the biggest benefit of this?

MySQL encrypts connections to protect your data and the biggest benefit from this is that nobody can corrupt it. If you move information over a network without encryption, you are endangering it, m...

Considering that there is a free version of MySQL, would you invest in one of the paid editions?

I may be considered a MySQL veteran since I have been using it since before Oracle bought it and created paid versions. So back in my day, it was all free, it was open-source and the best among sim...

What is one thing you would improve with MySQL?

One thing I would improve related to MySQL is not within the product itself, but with the guides to it. Before, when it was free, everyone was on their own, seeking tutorials and how-to videos onli...

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...

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.

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.

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Comparisons

Firebird SQL vs MySQL

Compared 28% of the time

SAP HANA vs MySQL

Compared 8% of the time

MariaDB vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

Teradata vs MySQL

Compared 6% of the time

SQL Server vs MySQL

Compared 5% of the time

More MySQL Competitors

Compared 37% of the time

EDB Postgres Advanced Server vs PostgreSQL

Compared 11% of the time

MariaDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 8% of the time

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

Compared 7% of the time

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

Compared 4% of the time

Product Reports

MySQL

Download MySQL product report

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Overview

MySQL is a cost-efficient and scalable relational database management system widely used in web, mobile applications, and academic projects.

MySQL is utilized for backend operations, data analysis, reporting, financial transactions, and ERP databases. It supports deployment on local servers, Cloud, and Kubernetes. Its free, open-source nature along with strong community support make it popular among companies. MySQL's compatibility with multiple platforms and programming languages enhances its appeal. While it remains stable and easy to use, areas such as replication, clustering, and backup require improvement to better serve enterprise applications. Enhanced security, error messages, and monitoring tools are also desired for a better user experience.

What are the most important features of MySQL?

Free and Open-Source: No licensing costs, perfect for budget-conscious projects.
Compatibility: Works with multiple platforms and programming languages.
High Performance: Efficient performance across large datasets.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing business needs.
Clustering and Replication: Ensures data availability and redundancy.
Easy Installation: Quick setup process on various operating systems.
Community Support: Extensive resources and community assistance.
Cross-Platform: Operates seamlessly on different operating systems.
Data Management Interface: Simplifies data handling and manipulation.

What are the benefits of using MySQL?

Cost Efficiency: Reduce expenses with a free, open-source database.
Scalability: Adapt to increasing data demands effortlessly.
Performance: Handle large datasets with ease and speed.
Community Support: Access a vast pool of knowledge and resources.
Flexibility: Integrate with various platforms and languages for diverse use cases.
Data Reliability: Clustering and replication for high data availability.

In multiple industries, MySQL supports internal applications, billing systems, academic teaching purposes, and ERP databases. Companies leverage MySQL for Cloud and local deployments, ensuring effective data manipulation and backend operations in diverse projects. Its role in financial transactions and reporting further emphasizes its versatility.

Oracle

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.

Sample Customers

Facebook, Tumblr, Scholastic, MTV Networks, Wikipedia, Verizon Wireless, Sage Group, Glassfish Open Message Queue, and RightNow Technologies.

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

MySQL vs. PostgreSQL