PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Most Relational Database Management Systems rely on SQL, but two of the most popular RDBMS – PostgreSQL and MySQL – deliver different value propositions. IBM Master Inventor Martin Keen explains which might be appropriate for your needs. A lot of it comes down to the simple question: what’s more important to you, performance and scalability or ease of use and speed? Plus, Martin gets AI to tell a joke.

[wadesworld]

You missed the biggest differentiator between the two: licensing. Depending on what you do, your use of MySQL may require a commercial license. Even if not, MySQL Community Edition is licensed under GPLv2 which contains some strict rules and requirements. Postgres is licensed under the PostgreSQL License, which basically says "do whatever you want with it, including embedding it in your product. Your only requirement is to include our license notices.'

[mmoncure]

Problem with many 'feature, checkmark' comparisons is that they often skip important nuance and depth. postgres's json support blows away anything else in the market because it's directly embedded into the type system, you can do things like, "select json_agg(f) from foo f;" Relating to this comparison, the distinction between performance and speed doesn't make any sense. One of the specific features relating to speed, partial indexes, is in both databases.

[bjelinski]

I loaded PostgresQL and MySQL (Maria.. too) with half a million selects, insert and updates per hour on an old PC. No tuning, just "apt-get install". MySQL died immediately, Postgres has worked like a charm ever since, I couldn't believe it as processors run on maybe 20% of their capacity (both via JDBC and some Rust connector), magic. I thought the opposite for 30 years, "mysql is lightweight and fast, Postgres is a complicated, object-oriented engine". My employer, the biggest IT environment in a European country, uses Postgres only now for all new projects, slowly migrating Oracle DBs. How stupid we all have been not trusting Postgres?!

[professortrog]

Actually the full text capabilities of Mysql are abysmal. In Postgresql using the gin_trgm index is an absurd amount faster then anything accomplishable in mysql. (This creates trigrams, allowing one to do superfast searches on fragments)

[sachinrawat]

Best feature of postgres over mysql that i found is returning results in update queries, very helpful for bulk update use case scenario

[yuryzhuravlev]

As an ex PostgreSQL developer, I can say that it's a completely wrong explanation and hides tons of essential details.

[laci]

What is the difference between performance and speed ?

[tmnr]

Very interesting. I am very impressed at your skill of being able to write neatly in mirror form.

[alfbravobarbosa]

You forgot the mysql h.a. with innodb cluster and mysqlbackup for doing online compress backups

[georgehelyar]

I recently had to choose between the two. We went with postgres because citus is kept up to date with postgres, but vitess is very out of date and missing many features of modern mysql, including some features that were important for us.

I wouldn't really say mysql was any easier to develop with etc though. There are a few differences like citext extension vs case insensitive collations but not really had any problems with it.

[MaulikParmar]

Just remember CAP theorm. Most of your db related choice will start to make sense.

Apps do scale, and data structures do change over time. What matters is how well you manage it and organise it for smooth transitions between these tools :)

[yakunats]

Always love to see the impassioned debates generated by software paradigm comparisons.

[superbombyman]

The AI has the humor of a software engineer

[amadensor]

We use postgresql for the power of relational and flexibility of no schema all in one platform by putting gin indexes on jsonb fields.

[amadensor]

Remember that MySQL speed is very dependent on the storage engine used. Myisam is very fast if you don't need transactions or acid compliance. If you need transactions and rollback and triggers, then the storage engine you need will remove the speed benefit.

[JoseHenrique-xglp]

I think the only thing that I've ever missed in mySQL was recursive queries.... other than that, I love things like delete and updates using inner joins. Postgres's biggest selling point to me are the modules such as UUID and geospacial data. That's my point of view as a developer but I know a lot of people who would much rather rely on OracleDB

[practical-skills-school]

I love Supabase, which is a BAAS based on Postgres with amazing free quota and visual interface.

[gdd]

You explained very good thank you so much.
BTW the final joke was really awkward.

[MorkaiAU]

Man, it's so strange to be searching for info on PostgreSQL and stumble across Martin "Homebrew Challenge" Keen.

[DenisKashirskiy]

Thank you for this quick and fun comparison video