We use PostgreSQL in our company for test systems.
Senior Analyst Applications, Projects and Processes at ADVA Optical Networking Israel LTD.
A powerful and easy-to-manage solution that has multiple features
Pros and Cons
- "PostgreSQL is very powerful, easy to manage, and has many features."
- "PostgreSQL’s performance could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
PostgreSQL is very powerful, easy to manage, and has many features.
What needs improvement?
PostgreSQL’s performance could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using PostgreSQL for 17 years.
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PostgreSQL
December 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
PostgreSQL is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We added some more volume to PostgreSQL, and it works fine. More than 200 users are using the solution in our organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use the open-source version of PostgreSQL and not the enterprise edition.
What other advice do I have?
I started with PostgreSQL version 8, and currently, I have version 15. I would recommend PostgreSQL to other users.
Overall, I rate PostgreSQL a nine 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.
HEAD OF ENGINEERING at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Performs analysis quickly but lacks integration
Pros and Cons
- "The system can perform faster analysis by providing it with a lot of memory. Speed is crucial for analytics. Currently, the main reason we haven't adopted Elasticsearch is that we lack the necessary expertise to manage it."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
It is a backend database for security. We dump the data, collect the database, and then analyze it using some BI tools.
What is most valuable?
The system can perform faster analysis by providing it with a lot of memory. Speed is crucial for analytics. Currently, the main reason we haven't adopted Elasticsearch is that we lack the necessary expertise to manage it.
What needs improvement?
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. But it is more secure than MySQL.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using PostgreSQL for three years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are a team of about 32 people, three of them are focused on software development and installations. We also collaborate with a software company that handles the software development. We then present it to the customer. Our work is primarily focused on security.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Some applications focus on MySQL, while others use Postgres. MySQL to be more is versatile. MySQL seems to have more users, tools, and applications deployed on it, which is why many people default to it over Postgres.
MySQL may have an advantage because it supports more applications and has broader compatibility.
How was the initial setup?
The tool is very easy to deploy and manage. It takes one or two days to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
We are primarily a service provider rather than a software developer, though we do have teams experienced in software development. We collaborate with an external provider to develop security and cybersecurity software.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Sep 9, 2024
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PostgreSQL
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about PostgreSQL. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Geologist at a government with 10,001+ employees
Reliable, user-friendly, and viewing and analyzing data is easy
Pros and Cons
- "The tool is user-friendly."
- "The search option is not very good."
What is our primary use case?
We use the product to manage large datasets. We also use it for forecasting. The product is integrated into our application to test the data.
What is most valuable?
The processes are quick. The data is arranged well. The tool is user-friendly. We are working on a Windows app. It is easy to view and analyze the data. The logs are valuable. The solution is reliable. It is a Windows-based application.
What needs improvement?
The search option is not very good. If I need to see data in a table, I must go into the table. The solution must provide filter options in the log files so that we can search for a particular range of data.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for four to five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had any performance issues with the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. Though the data grows with time, the performance stays the same. Four to five people are using the solution in our organization. We are expecting an increase in the number of users soon. The data processed is large since we work on forecasting.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
We do not use the product for web application development. The management decided to use the product. I recommend the tool to others. If the data format is okay, we will face no problem using the tool. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Apr 12, 2024
Flag as inappropriateA stable solution that can be used for operations monitoring
Pros and Cons
- "We often use PostgreSQL for operations monitoring because we are a manufacturing company."
- "We often find the solution's datetime datatype challenging."
What is most valuable?
We often use PostgreSQL for operations monitoring because we are a manufacturing company.
What needs improvement?
We often find the solution's datetime datatype challenging.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using PostgreSQL for four years and five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
PostgreSQL is a stable solution, and we haven’t faced any performance issues.
How was the initial setup?
We faced no difficulty in installing PostgreSQL.
What about the implementation team?
It took us five minutes to deploy the solution.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate PostgreSQL an eight 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.
Senior Database Administrator at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Open-source, simple to install, and has helpful community support
Pros and Cons
- "The performance is good."
- "I have noticed that user and access management should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it as a database to store information.
What is most valuable?
Postgres SQL is quite a good database.
The performance is good.
What needs improvement?
I have noticed that user and access management should be improved. Connection pooling should be improved. We rely on connection pooling.
Monitoring is incompatible. It is open source. To advance, you must access the internet and download and test various other tools, or develop your own tools. With Microsoft server, it is one single platform that provides you with everything, but with Postgre you have to install or check different tools to integrate with it. That's the annoyance, but it's still the way open source technology works.
I would like to see better management in PostgreSQL.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
PostgreSQL is easy to scale.
We have a medium-sized company.
How are customer service and support?
We don't have technical support. It is community-based. We get assistance through Github.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have been working with Microsoft SQL.
The main difference between SQL and Postgre is that Postgre is open source. It's completely free.
How was the initial setup?
It's very simple to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Postgre is open source. It is almost completely free.
The community version of Postgre is basically free.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are utilizing the database's active native security features. As a result, we currently have no need for any external security tools. We had, but we worked around it.
What other advice do I have?
The advice would be to go with a managed Postgre. If you're going to install Postgre in the cloud, for example, it's better to go with a managed Postgre rather than handling everything on our own.
I would rate PostgreSQL a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Application Programmer/Analyst, Team Lead at a university with 10,001+ employees
It has excellent support for many programming languages. We've been able to integrate it with Java, PHP, Perl and .NET without any issues.
What is most valuable?
PostgreSQL has excellent support for many programming languages. We've been able to integrate it with Java, PHP, Perl and .NET without any issues.
Replication is also working pretty good in a master to read only replica setup in AWS.
How has it helped my organization?
We've been able to cut costs on databases over our previous solution with Microsoft SQL Server and migrate many applications into Amazon web services. Performance has been decent.
What needs improvement?
By far the biggest limitations are in replication support. A native master to master replication option would make things much easier as we're in need of an easier method to load balance traffic with Spring Data.
PostgreSQL is slower than MySQL with insert performance. While using COPY can make an application fast, we often use ORMs which cannot benefit from this.
9.4 seemed to have some regressions with the query planner and multi table joins are slower than in previous versions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using PostgreSQL for 5 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Finding the right configuration to balance performance and connections was a little challenging in our setup.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've encountered some CPU bound scalability issues with multi table joins (3-4) and the query planner seems to ignore indexes at times.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Initially applications at my current employer used Microsoft SQL Server. The cost for licensing/maintaining windows systems was more than we liked. PostgreSQL has offered similar performance for our workloads with lower cost.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sr. Database Engineer at a non-tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It allows us to maintain a highly customized configuration that is still supported by third-party vendors.
What is most valuable?
Twice now, I have been involved in the decision by a company to migrate away from MS SQL Server to Postgres. The first time, it was simply a matter of scalability. Once you approach 10 TB of data, managing it in MSSQL becomes problematic. You reach limits on performance, backup/recovery and general maintainability. The second company that I assisted in performing this migration chose Postgres due to the TCO as well as the ability to scale the databases horizontally.
The feature that I find most useful (and in fact critical) is the extensibility of Postgres. We installed the extensions that were important to us and ignored anything that wasn’t useful. This allows us to maintain a highly customized configuration that is still able to be supported and maintained by third-party vendors.
How has it helped my organization?
One of the key ways that Postgres has improved the functioning of our organization is by freeing up financial resources that can then be applied to upgrading existing infrastructure. A side benefit, of course, is that by bringing in another platform, we have given current staff the ability to grow their skill set and experiment with a new, feature-rich environment. This improves employee satisfaction and makes our CFO happy at the same time.
What needs improvement?
I would really like to see a more mainstream approach to support what we see as critical extensions. One example is the FDW (foreign data wrapper) for MSSQL. This extension hasn’t been updated in several releases and would benefit from an overhaul. In general, the Postgres community is not as enthusiastic about supporting integration with Windows products (MSSQL, AD, etc.) as they are about other products like Oracle, GIS and full-text searching.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been involved in various aspects of Postgres for approximately two years. This includes both single-node installations as well as multi-node clusters using PostgresXL.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
The only issue I have ever come up against is internal support. Implementing Linux and Postgres in an environment where only Microsoft has lived has been challenging at times. Administering Postgres on Ubuntu (or any other variant) takes a far different skill set than supporting SQL Server on Windows.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As far as scalability goes, I have yet to identify the limits of Postgres. We will be looking at the newer multi-node options from 2nd Quadrant later this year.
How are customer service and technical support?
Like any open source product, your mileage may vary. There are several VERY good third-party options for technical support. That being said, this product is not for the faint of heart or the technically unsophisticated shop.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
See my answer above. We evaluated both open-source as well as proprietary solutions. Of the open-source solutions we examined, Postgres has the best track record for innovation and enhancements. While the user base is smaller than some of the more established solutions, the fact that it has been able to avoid being “acquired” by a major player is, in my opinion, a plus.
How was the initial setup?
Postgres will work straight out of the box on most platforms. However like all of the database vendors in the Unix space, the ability to modify the configurations are extensive. The degree of complexity is less than Oracle or Sybase but certainly more complex than something like SQL Server. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you must understand how your operating system handles memory. The most complex part of the Postgres installation is, by far, security. I would recommend getting help before tackling the HBA configuration file.
What about the implementation team?
Both times I have been involved in an initial Postgres implementation, we have handled it in-house. It isn’t too hard to implement but you do need some base tech skills including Unix. I would not recommend trying to implement it on a Windows server.
What was our ROI?
For us, the ROI was almost immediate. We saved several $100k in license costs alone. Overall, the manpower costs to support Postgres and Linux will depend on whether those skills already exist in your enterprise. If you plan to take a Postgres system live in production, I strongly encourage you to look into commercial support.
What other advice do I have?
If you can, do it!
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Global Data Architecture and Data Science Director at FH
Useful for structured and unstructured data, cost-effective, stable, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "It is very useful for both structured and unstructured data. You can store unstructured and structured data in PostgreSQL. It is easy to use. You can easily manage things through PostgreSQL Admin. It is cost-effective. Its on-premise version is free. It is agnostic of on-premise or cloud. You can install it on the cloud or on-premises. It is available with all clouds, and you can also install it on desktop or Windows Servers."
- "It would be good to have machine learning functionality in this solution, similar to Microsoft SQL Server and other solutions. Machine learning capability for a basic level or a common user would be useful. It can also have good reporting capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
I have used it in the past for some web applications and back-end databases. In my current organization, we are using Microsoft SQL Server.
What is most valuable?
It is very useful for both structured and unstructured data. You can store unstructured and structured data in PostgreSQL. It is easy to use. You can easily manage things through PostgreSQL Admin.
It is cost-effective. Its on-premise version is free. It is agnostic of on-premise or cloud. You can install it on the cloud or on-premises. It is available with all clouds, and you can also install it on desktop or Windows Servers.
What needs improvement?
It would be good to have machine learning functionality in this solution, similar to Microsoft SQL Server and other solutions. Machine learning capability for a basic level or a common user would be useful.
It can also have good reporting capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
PostgreSQL has been in the market for a long time. It is quite stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. In my past organization, its usage had increased a lot. I had implemented data management and many other things on PostgreSQL.
In terms of the number of users, we had hundreds of users who used this solution. For development, we had seven or eight developers. We also had technical support and application teams.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not interacted with the support of Postgres because when it is on the cloud, it is managed by the respective cloud provider's team.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to provide service to various clients, and we were also providing internal services. We used different solutions in parallel, such as Amazon Redshift, MySQL. MySQL is also free. I have also used Oracle and IBM Db2 in other organizations.
How was the initial setup?
Its installation is simple and easy. If it is in the cloud, you have to go for a subscription. On a desktop, you can install it with normal Unix commands.
I have not done full server version installation myself. If we go for Azure Cloud, its API is available. It takes five minutes to get it up and running on the cloud version. For desktop deployment, you can complete your setup within half an hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is open-source. If you use it on-premise, it is free. It also has enterprise or commercial versions. If you go for the cloud version, there will be a cost, but it is lower than Oracle or Microsoft.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend this solution. It is a very good database to have. It is also very good as compared to other tools.
I would rate PostgreSQL a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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