PostgreSQL

The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Database

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source, ACID compliant object-relational database system with over 30 years of active development that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, feature robustness, and performance. It uses an extremely liberal open source license, making it free to use and distribute – unlimited & forever!

History

PostgreSQL (or Postgres) began its life in 1986 as POSTGRES, a research project of the University of California at Berkeley, led by highly influential database researcher Michael Stonebraker.

Who uses PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is everywhere. To illustrate this, we’ve highlighted a handful of the hundreds, if not thousands, of uses of PostgreSQL that touch every person as they lead their normal day-to-day life.

Some Cool Facts

PostgreSQL runs on all major operating systems including many variants of Linux, Windows, Unix, macOS, Solaris, and BSD. It complies with the SQL:2011 standard. See below for some of its main characteristics.

Database Size	Unlimited
Table Size	32 TB
Row Size	1.6 TB
Field Size	1 GB
Rows per table	Unlimited
Columns per table	250 – 1,600 (depending on column types)
Indexes per table	Unlimited

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

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There are radical differences between PostgreSQL and MySQL. An informed decision must be made after evaluating the differences and trade-offs between the two systems. We’ve provided a summary of similarities and differences of the most commonly evaluated features and abilities between PostgreSQL and MySQL.

Business case for PostgreSQL

We present an analysis based on hard and soft financial factors, as well as risk. Our objective is to look at a comparative 5-year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) against other major commercial database systems.

FAQs

#1

What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced? What is Postgres?

PostgreSQL is pronounced Post-Gres-Q-L. (An audio file is available.)

PostgreSQL is an object-relational database system that has the features of traditional proprietary database systems with next-generation DBMS enhancements. PostgreSQL is free and the complete source code is available.

PostgreSQL development is performed by a team of mostly volunteer developers spread throughout the world and communicating via the Internet. It is a community project and is not controlled by any company. While 2ndQuadrant are very well represented among these volunteer developers, they are by no means a controlling commercial entity, nor is any other company.

Postgres is a widely-used nickname for PostgreSQL. It was the original name of the project at the University of California at Berkeley. For more on this, see PostgreSQL – the story so far. If you find ‘PostgreSQL’ hard to pronounce, call it ‘Postgres’ instead.

#2

#3

What is the licence of PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is distributed under a licence similar to BSD and MIT. It allows users to do anything they want with the code, including reselling binaries without the source code. The only restriction is that you not hold the original developers legally liable for problems with the software (although this is, of course, separate from any agreement that you might make with 2ndQuadrant). There is also the requirement that this copyright appear in all copies of the software.

#4

#5

What drivers are available for PostgreSQL for my preferred programming environment?

The PostgreSQL install includes only the C and embedded C interfaces. While there is a huge number of drivers that target various different programming environments, all other interfaces are independent projects that are separately distributed; This allows them to have their own release schedule and development teams.

Some programming languages like PHP include an interface to PostgreSQL. Interfaces for languages/environments like Python, Perl, .Net, JDBC and many others are available.

#6

PostgreSQL

The World’s Most Advanced Open Source Database

History

Who uses PostgreSQL?

Some Cool Facts

PostgreSQL vs MySQL

Business case for PostgreSQL

FAQs

What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced? What is Postgres?

Who controls PostgreSQL?

What is the licence of PostgreSQL?

What platforms does PostgreSQL support

What drivers are available for PostgreSQL for my preferred programming environment?

Does PostgreSQL have a GUI admin tool?

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