Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

PostgreSQL pros and cons

Vendor: PostgreSQL

4.2 out of 5

125 reviews
96% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

PostgreSQL is open-source and cost-effective, supporting diverse database environments from small businesses to enterprises with robust performance for structured and unstructured data. While it offers seamless Oracle compatibility and data migration tools, installation is simple, yet integration with .NET and security features are limited. Performance can falter under heavy loads, lacking temporal SQL support, and memory management is less efficient compared to rivals like MySQL.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

PostgreSQL is valued for its stability and scalability, making it suitable for both small and enterprise environments.

It is an open-source database management system, providing high performance without licensing costs.

There is significant compatibility with Oracle, facilitating smooth data migration.

PostgreSQL supports structured and unstructured data, making it versatile for various applications.

It efficiently handles complex queries and offers powerful built-in features, enhancing database operations and performance.

CONS

Documentation and technical support for PostgreSQL could be improved, especially in terms of maturing and enhancing backup features.

PostgreSQL lacks built-in high availability tools, relying on external options instead.

Integration with platforms and deployment in microservices architecture require enhancement.

PostgreSQL has higher memory usage compared to competitors under demanding loads with many concurrent connections.

Memory management in PostgreSQL is less effective than in other databases like MySQL.

PostgreSQL Pros review quotes

DR

Implementation Engineer at aldaris spa

Nov 6, 2020

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.

Read full review

reviewer1442025

Senior Database Administrator Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Nov 25, 2020

It is easy to install and easy to manage. There is no license on it, so it is free. There is high compatibility with Oracle, and there are many tools for the migration of data from Oracle to Postgre.

Read full review

reviewer1353249

Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Nov 26, 2020

The database has excellent performance.

Read full review

Free Report: PostgreSQL Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about PostgreSQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

JT

Jason Tumusiime

Software Developer at a healthcare company with 1-10 employees

Dec 7, 2020

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.

Read full review

reviewer1425756

Chief technical officer at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

Dec 12, 2020

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

Read full review

KÇ

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Dec 27, 2020

The product is quite flexible.

Read full review

reviewer1481757

IT Innovation & Strategy | Real Estate Strategy, Asset Management & Enabling Functions | GSUS at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 13, 2021

What I like is that it's quite powerful in terms of performance.

Read full review

KV

Karel Van Der Walt

Data Architect at ACPAS Loan Management Software

Feb 1, 2021

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.

Read full review

Faustine Chisasa

System Administrator at TZ Telecom Ltd.

Feb 10, 2024

We managed to reduce the storage space needed to 10% of the original size, without affecting data integrity, and we significantly improved the performance.

Read full review

reviewer1490673

Principal Engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

Feb 14, 2021

It has completely met our needs. It works, and it is robust. We haven't had any problems with what PostgreSQL does for us and the way it does it. That's why we've been using it for so long. We understand it, and it does the job.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 48)

PostgreSQL Cons review quotes

DR

Implementation Engineer at aldaris spa

Nov 6, 2020

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.

Read full review

reviewer1442025

Senior Database Administrator Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Nov 25, 2020

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.

Read full review

reviewer1353249

Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Nov 26, 2020

The user interface could be a bit better.

Read full review

Free Report: PostgreSQL Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about PostgreSQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

JT

Jason Tumusiime

Software Developer at a healthcare company with 1-10 employees

Dec 7, 2020

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

Read full review

reviewer1425756

Chief technical officer at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees

Dec 12, 2020

The database and applications can become very slow.

Read full review

KÇ

Data Analytics and Business Intelligence Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Dec 27, 2020

The pricing could be better.

Read full review

reviewer1481757

IT Innovation & Strategy | Real Estate Strategy, Asset Management & Enabling Functions | GSUS at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jan 13, 2021

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

Read full review

KV

Karel Van Der Walt

Data Architect at ACPAS Loan Management Software

Feb 1, 2021

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.

Read full review

Faustine Chisasa

System Administrator at TZ Telecom Ltd.

Feb 10, 2024

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.

Read full review

reviewer1490673

Principal Engineer at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

Feb 14, 2021

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.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 48)

Product Categories

Product Categories

Open Source Databases

Vector Databases

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Elastic Search vs PostgreSQL

Redis vs PostgreSQL

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs PostgreSQL

MariaDB vs PostgreSQL

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs PostgreSQL

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL

Faiss vs PostgreSQL

Milvus vs PostgreSQL

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Qdrant vs PostgreSQL

InfluxDB vs PostgreSQL

See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

Open Source Databases

Vector Databases

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

MySQL vs PostgreSQL

Firebird SQL vs PostgreSQL

Elastic Search vs PostgreSQL

Redis vs PostgreSQL

Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB vs PostgreSQL

MariaDB vs PostgreSQL

MongoDB Enterprise Advanced vs PostgreSQL

Chroma vs PostgreSQL

ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL

Faiss vs PostgreSQL

Milvus vs PostgreSQL

LanceDB vs PostgreSQL

OpenSearch vs PostgreSQL

Qdrant vs PostgreSQL

InfluxDB vs PostgreSQL

See all alternatives

Related questions

45

What is the best GUI tool for development and management of a PostgreSQL database?

61

How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?

47

When evaluating Open Source Databases, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

41

Did you switch from a different solution to MySQL? Can you list a few pros and cons for making the move?

91

Which database is the best for session cashing?

37

Why is Open Source Databases important for companies?

142

Which low-code (no-code) database solution do you prefer?