It allows us to have an alternative solution to licensed DB's.
Database Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It requires enterprise integration improvements but allows us to have an alternative solution to licensed DB's.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It requires enterprise integration improvements from the security, and audit perspective (AD integration etc.). Also, integration into existing BI tools is not present.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for three years.
How are customer service and support?
They provide a high level of technical support.
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PostgreSQL
November 2024
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Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched due to a common OS integration strategy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We had an RFP process to evaluate between similar product categories.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Business Analyst at a transportation company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Best open source solution for database
What is most valuable?
Backend: 64-bit large objects, Cascading streaming replication, Serializable Snapshot Isolation; Performance:GIN Index performance and size improvements; Security: SSPI authentication via GSSAPI; list goes on...
How has it helped my organization?
Automation, accurateness and concistency of enterprize processes
What needs improvement?
Comercial & Supply Chain
For how long have I used the solution?
9 years
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: 9Technical Support: 9
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
MySQL: scalability; Oracle: cost-benefit
How was the initial setup?
Easy and straightforward
What about the implementation team?
in-house
What was our ROI?
36%
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Oracle and MSSQLServer
What other advice do I have?
I suggest to anyone give it a shot. It'll make your business grow.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
PostgreSQL
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about PostgreSQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Database Expert with 201-500 employees
Worked for years on Oracle, decided to move to PostgreSQL because it's a first class product. The partitioning is basic.
What is most valuable?
The SQL is very close to the standard, the richness of of procedural languages and the strong attitude to the data reliability.
How has it helped my organization?
The product is used to ensure the data delivery and the HA features are used to enforce a non stop service.
What needs improvement?
The partitioning, is still very basic and not touched for years.
For how long have I used the solution?
7 years
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
More a lack of knowledge rather an issue. PostgreSQL implements the data management in a very peculiar way. Ignoring this can result in disasters. And often this does happens. A better explanation about the architecture will reduce the risk.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Not on the production side. I’ve seen a lot of bugs or misconceptions on the HA side. Same as question 7, It’s more a lack of information than an issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product scales pretty well.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: As this is an community managed system there’s no customer service. There are companies offering support, I never used as I don’t need it.Technical Support: Quite good. The mailing list are a good way to have quick response. What really lacks is a centralized knowledge base like the Oracle’s metalink/otn. That is what I’m really missing from the oracle universe.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I worked for years on Oracle. I decided to move on PostgreSQL because I think is a first class product.
How was the initial setup?
Using the packaged way is almost immediate to install the product. Even the compile from source is a task any system administrator or advanced linux user can do it without any problem.
What about the implementation team?
It’s an in house team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Basically zero for both. The product is released under the BSD license and, apart from my salary, my employer have no extra costs on using PostgreSQL
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I considered in the past MySQL and Firebird.
What other advice do I have?
Employ a DBA to work together with the developers.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant at Rpc Data
Intuitive interface, easy to use, but installation lengthy
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has many valuable features such as it easy to use and the interface is intuitive."
- "Instead of the installation agent downloading all the packages for the install, it should allow the user to download the packages separately on their own to do the install."
What is most valuable?
The solution has many valuable features such as it easy to use and the interface is intuitive.
What needs improvement?
Instead of the installation agent downloading all the packages for the install, it should allow the user to download the packages separately on their own to do the install.
In a future release, the installation agent should take less time to create all the databases, especially the small Oracle databases that I was using.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for a couple of months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found the solution to be stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not fully tested the scalability but it has been good enough for what I have been using it for.
How are customer service and technical support?
I did not experience any technical issues to call the support about.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was easy even though it took approximately four hours. The time accumulated from downloading automatic packages from the VM tunnel. You have to download the whole package on your machine.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution requires a license.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution for small organizations.
I rate PostgreSQL a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Unified database with single storage engine, supports a large number of features not available in other storage engines.
Valuable Features:
Out of all the open source database applications available, PostgreSQL is among the best DB storage engines with a single unified database server unlike MySQL which supports multiple storage engines for storing the data. PostgreSQL was specifically designed and developed with a focus on features and standards whereas MySQL was designed with a focus on speed. So, if you are looking for a large number of features and support for various standards, then PostgreSQL is the answer. PostgreSQL supports scalability on write intensive tasks. It also supports asynchronous commit, which is generally missing from other similar DB applications. It is fully ACID compliant.
Room for Improvement:
PostgreSQL does not multiple back-end storage engines unlike MySQL. It does not perform well when dealt with read-only DB queries. It is not very efficient in handling COUNT(*) queries. PostgreSQL does not support queries like 'INSERT IGNORE', which inserts if a row doesn't exist, and 'REPLACE' which replaces the current row, both of which are supported by MySQL. Another query missing from PostgreSQL is "INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE UPDATE ". PostgreSQL does not have an unsigned integer data type. PostgreSQL is limited to 32 columns per index.
Other Advice:
PostgreSQL is one of the best open source DB storage application which supports only one backend storage engine. PostgreSQL is well known for the number of features it supports and the standards followed. PostgreSQL is pretty slow when dealing with queries like COUNT(*) and many of the queries like 'INSERT IGNORE', which inserts if a row doesn't exist, and 'REPLACE' which replaces the current row. It is also limited to 32 columns per index. If you are looking for a speed, then you have to look for other DB engines available e.g. MySQL.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BI Expert at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It has easy integration with a lot of visualization tools such as QlikView and Tableau.
Valuable Features
GIS function. Geography is a very important function/dimension for our f. Postgres helps analyse that easily.
Improvements to My Organization
It provides access to data for analytics. It has a lot of free tools available for data access, and has easy integration with a lot of visualization tools such as QlikView and Tableau.
Room for Improvement
They need to develop an easy way to do a cross-DB query and some basic report visuals and alert systems would make it awesome, if they are possible.
Use of Solution
>2 years
Deployment Issues
We had no deployment issues.
Stability Issues
The product is quite stable.
Scalability Issues
There's been no issues with scaling it for our needs.
Customer Service and Technical Support
It has a great support community.
Implementation Team
It's very easy, and you only need to familiarize yourself with its file structure. Sometimes you need to write your own plugin, so sometimes it is better to have it implemented by a vendor.
Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing
It's free as it's open source.
Other Solutions Considered
For me all SQL tools/products are similar, except for a few important differences like GIS functions in PostgreSQL, and programming abilities in Oracle PL/SQL, etc.
Other Advice
Go ahead with the product which has the best use case for your organization. Cost is never an issue.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Digital Development Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Simple installation and it does not consume a lot of resources.
Valuable Features:
- It's open source product not need to license, so economic
- It provides a graphical interface (pgAdmin) simple, intuitive and efficient
- Simple installation
- It does not consume a lot of resources
- Really suitable for business n-tier solutions
- Rich documentation
- An interactive community
Improvements to My Organization:
The strength of this product is set in the timeliness of SELECT queries with lots of joins. compared with other DBMS, it is really optimized for joins.
Room for Improvement:
I think that due to the lack of functionality for data warehousing, it is more suitable for operational information systems instead of BI systems. Besides, it only allows Relational Online Analytical Processing (ROLAP) not Multidimensional Online Analytical Processing (MOLAP).
Deployment Issues:
There have been no issues with the deployment.
Stability Issues:
We have had no issues with the stability.
Scalability Issues:
It's been able to scale for our needs.
Other Advice:
Because we use it in many information systems (Financial, Human Resources, Inventory Management) in several large companies with significant data flow, we have not had problems. It was effective as a product.
Read the product documentation well and know the configuration parameters because just one incorrect parameter can affect the entire database.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Technology Technician at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Has robust backup and recovery integration, but should consider including the possibility to use query routers on sharded clusters
What is our primary use case?
We use PostgreSQL for most part of our mission critical applications.
The solution has a very robust backup and recovery integration, and has good ANSI SQL language.
How has it helped my organization?
We are considering migrating to this platform due to its robust backup and recovery solution, among many other features.
What is most valuable?
- Robust backup and recovery integration.
- Follows ANSI SQL.
- opensource
- easy to integrate with applications and high level programming languages such as; python, ruby, java, C, perl, php...
What needs improvement?
- Possibility to use query routers on sharded clusters.
- Remove the limitations of how many changes one can have on the databases before it requires to reset all blocks, which are very painful.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Yes, as the database grows, one has to perform a full vacuum in order to continue to work on the database.
Another issue is that the "archive_command"s are executed in sequence, instead of in parallel, and as the WAL size is fixed to 16MB, and it is not possible to change in a configuration file, this will have a huge impact of protecting the WAL logs to a backup system.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
10 out of 10.
Technical Support:
10 out of 10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switch to this solution due to its stability and that it is open source.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it in-house.
What was our ROI?
The software is free, and very easy to find for skilled people.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Use backup software that integrates with the solution.
We selected "DB Protection for PostgreSQL", which has some nice features to perform block level incremental forever using IBM Spectrum Protect.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: November 2024
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Learn More: Questions:
- What is the best GUI tool for development and management of a PostgreSQL database?
- How does Firebird SQL compare with PostgreSQL?
- When evaluating Open Source Databases, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
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As all the database systems can be optimized according to their environment, so it is very difficult to compare them with regard to their performance without paying due attention to their configuration and environment. Both Postgres and MySQL provide various technologies to improve performance.