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InfluxDB vs PostgreSQL comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

InfluxDB
Ranking in Open Source Databases
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Non-Relational Databases (5th), Network Monitoring Software (62nd), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (49th), NoSQL Databases (6th)
PostgreSQL
Ranking in Open Source Databases
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Vector Databases (9th)
 

Featured Reviews

PedroCampos - PeerSpot reviewer
A powerful, lightweight time series database with a simple query language and easy setup
Influx has TICK Stack, which contains multiple services and multiple products that work together. InfluxDB is just a time series database, and it works really well. I haven't yet had the time to look into the new stack based on Influx 2.0, but currently, as a time series database, InfluxDB is working the way it is supposed to work. In terms of features that I would like to see or have, in the community version, some features are not available. I would like to have clustering and authentication in the community version. I would also like to have high availability features, such as replication, active-active, etc. If they can put an extra plugin or service on top of it, it would be something interesting. I am not sure if they have high availability to make it data center-aware for clustering. For example, I am not sure whether you can have it at different locations with big clusters that are location-aware. Even in their documentation or presentation, they talk too little about high availability and extended clusters with different locations. They might already have it in the newer versions. We have Influx 1.8 in our production in the stage and internal workloads environments. The other products in their ecosystem, such as Chronograf, can be improved. Chronograf is a dashboarding or visualization layer product, and that, for sure, can be improved.
AdityaSharma3 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of InfluxDB are the documentation and performance, and the good plugins metrics in the ecosystem."
"InfluxDB's best feature is that it's a cloud offering. Other good features include its time-series DB, fast time-bulk queries, and window operations."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is we can use InfluxDB to integrate with and plug into any other tools."
"The platform operates very quickly. It is easy to configure, connect, and query and integrates seamlessly with Grafana."
"The user interface is well-designed and easy to use. It provides a clear overview of the data, making it simple to understand the information at hand."
"InfluxDB is a database where you can insert data. However, it would be best if you had different components for alerting, data sending, and visualization. You need to install tools to collect data from servers. It must be installed on Windows or Linux servers. During installation, ensure that the configuration file is correct to prevent issues. Once data is collected, it can be sent to InfluxDB. For visualization, you can use open-source tools like Grafana."
"In our case, it started with a necessity to fill the gap that we had in monitoring. We had very reactive monitoring without trend analysis and without some advanced features. We were able to implement them by using a time series database. We are able to have all the data from applications, logs, and systems, and we can use a simple query language to correlate all the data and make things happen, especially with monitoring. We could more proactively monitor our systems and our players' trends."
"The most valuable features are aggregating the data and integration with Graphana for monitoring."
"PostgreSQL is very powerful, easy to manage, and has many features."
"PostgreSQL is stable. It's available, stable, and reliable."
"The solution provides complete support in terms of the SQL dialect and behaves nicely when it comes to transactions."
"I like that you can move any relational database from Oracle to PostgreSQL. I also like that it's pretty stable."
"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."
"The product is very similar to the SQL Server."
"Scalable, stable, and easy to manage database system, with a straightforward installation."
"It is very scalable and comes with a bonus: no licensing issues as you scale with your databases."
 

Cons

"The error logging capability can be improved because the logs are not very informative."
"InfluxDB can improve by including new metrics on other technologies. They had some changes recently to pool data from endpoints but the functionality is not good enough in the industry."
"The solution doesn't have much of a user interface."
"InfluxDB cannot be used for high-cardinality data. It's also difficult and time-consuming to write queries, and there are some issues with bulk API."
"The solution's UI can be more user-friendly."
"In terms of features that I would like to see or have, in the community version, some features are not available. I would like to have clustering and authentication in the community version."
"InfluxDB is generally stable, but we've encountered issues with the configuration file in our ticket stack. For instance, a mistake in one of the metrics out of a hundred KPIs can disrupt data collection for all KPIs. This happens because the agent stops working if there's an issue with any configuration part. To address this, it is essential to ensure that all configurations are part of the agent's EXE file when provided. This makes it easier to package the agent for server installation and ensures all KPIs are available from the server. Additionally, the agent cannot encrypt and decrypt passwords for authentication, which can be problematic when monitoring URLs or requiring authentication tokens. This requires additional scripting and can prolong service restart times."
"I've tried both on-premises and cloud-based deployments, and each has its limitations."
"The interface climate could be better."
"The pricing could be better."
"PostgreSQL is a stable system, but from a security point of view, it still needs improvement."
"I had some issues when I integrated with the Jupyter Notebook."
"It needs more integration."
"Sometimes, it becomes slow because of the network. So, there is room for improvement in performance."
"The database and applications can become very slow."
"As PostgreSQL is an open-source product, you do have to do a bit more configuration and management yourself."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is an open-source product."
"We are using the open-source version of InfluxDB."
"InfluxDB recently increased its price. It is very expensive now."
"InfluxDB is open-source, but there are additional costs for scaling."
"We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition."
"PostgreSQL is open-source, so if capable admins are available then the setup cost can be $0."
"We do not pay for licensing."
"PostgreSQL is a free and open-source database."
"It is free. There is no license on it."
"Our company pays for it. There are free versions available, but for advanced features, you obviously have to pay."
"It is free. In terms of operating costs, it basically needs the same platform on which Oracle runs."
"The tool is cheaply priced compared to other RDBMS providers in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about InfluxDB?
InfluxDB is a database where you can insert data. However, it would be best if you had different components for alerting, data sending, and visualization. You need to install tools to collect data ...
What needs improvement with InfluxDB?
InfluxDB is generally stable, but we've encountered issues with the configuration file in our ticket stack. For instance, a mistake in one of the metrics out of a hundred KPIs can disrupt data coll...
What is your primary use case for InfluxDB?
I use the solution to store and manage data from various sensors in a production environment. I have developed a system where data from these sensors is communicated through an OPC UA receiver and ...
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.
 

Comparisons

 

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Sample Customers

ebay, AXA, Mozilla, DiDi, LeTV, Siminars, Cognito, ProcessOut, Recommend, CATS, Smarsh, Row 44, Clustree, Bleemeo
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Find out what your peers are saying about InfluxDB vs. PostgreSQL and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.