PostgreSQL
Open-source object-relational database system with SQL, extensions, and ACID transactions.
HN commenters like PostgreSQL as a reliable default database that holds up at large scale123 and can also act as a queue, search engine or vector store, so teams run fewer services.456 The most common caveat is vacuum and dead-tuple bloat on update-heavy and queue workloads,789 along with more setup and operational overhead than SQLite for small apps.101112
Why people recommend it
All-in-one · 3
One Postgres instance can cover JSON, full-text search, queues, vectors and workflows, so there is less infrastructure to manage.
“In most of the applications we build or maintain we use PostgreSQL + cloud storage. That's it. And it works very well”
“All you need is Postgres until you scale into TBs of data.”
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“I love the flexibility and all-in-one abilities of Postgres for prototyping and making MVPs.”
Reliability at scale · 3
Users report it rarely fails and handles very large workloads with caching and tuned queries.
“I love Postgres. Im using it for majority of my career in IT. It never failed me, even on very big scale.”
“It was surprisingly easy with a single large Postgres DB, a lot of caching, optimized tables and queries.”
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“We use Postgres because it’s fantastic at the scale and problems it solve”
Job queues · 3
Some teams find Postgres-backed queues simple and dependable, using SKIP LOCKED and advisory locks.
“just worked great for us on Postgres”
“Continuously amazed by what you can do with few tools, as long as Postgres is a part of your toolkit.”
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“We use Postgres for that on https://transport.data.gouv.fr (Elixir app which does a fair bit of processing), and it helps.”
Rich features · 3
Commenters value its strict types, functions, DISTINCT ON, Row Level Security and built-in auth.
“I’m very comfortable in Postgres and the setup cost is basically zero (like SQLite) because Claude does it.”
“My normal mode of operation is via postgres(I like the functions better than sqlite)”
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“We use Postgres for a lot of data. We've used it a ton at the company and have a lot of expertise.”
Server default · 3
Often recommended over SQLite when a server app needs something more robust.
“or postgresql if something more robust on your server”
“I'm the sort of person who leans on Postgres instead of sqlite”
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“Both are amazing technologies.”
Replication & copies · 3
Streaming replication and fast copy-on-write database cloning work well in practice.
“reliable, tested, fault tolerant postgres with streaming replication”
“For larger apps i use postgres (why? replication is easy using pgfailover”
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“This copies arbitrarily sized DBs sub-second - I use it on dbs larger than 1TB regularly”
Caveats and dissent
Vacuum bloat · 3
Dead tuples from MVCC can degrade performance and need aggressive autovacuum tuning.
“dead tuples start to accumulate due to Postgres' way of doing MVCC.”
“I love the idea of pg as a queue, but I'm a more skeptical of it after dealing with it in production”
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Queue limits · 2
Some warn that queue workloads strain the database as queue depth grows, and that purpose-built queues may fit better.
“I love the idea of pg as a queue, but I'm a more skeptical of it after dealing with it in production”
Overhead vs SQLite · 3
It is a separate server to run and is harder to set up than an in-process SQLite file.
“Honestly, I love PostgreSQL, but now I have another server or service to run.”
“I love postgres as much as the next person”
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“both sqlite and postgres are awesome”
Everything-in-Postgres · 3
Using it for everything can add more complexity than tailored tools like Redis.
“I love postgres, but the complexity of using it for everything starts to get pretty high”
“I love Postgres as a DB but, really, this is ridiculous.”
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“I love Postgres, and I agree with the general sentiment.”
Analytics speed · 3
Heavy OLAP or event-volume queries can be slow, so some pair it with ClickHouse.
“i'm still a postgres maximalist (worker queues still in pg [1])”
“Traditional databases(mysql, postgres) are perfect for transactional data.”
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“Postgres is amazing.”
Ops effort · 2
Upgrades and tuning take real time investment.
“Annual postgres upgrades are always exciting (features) and terrifying (ops)”
“I love postgres but it is not a toy and it takes investment of time.”
Often compared with
3 moved from PostgreSQL to SQLite
1 moved from PostgreSQL to MySQL
1 moved from Redis to PostgreSQL
3 moved from PostgreSQL to ClickHouse
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“For Ubicloud as a managed Postgres provider, we use strict memory overcommit.”
“Hey I worked on this!”
“fix the scalability issues in core PostgreSQL, so that's what I'm currently working on.”
Threads where it came up
- PostgreSQL for Everything 12 mentions
- Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2026) 6 mentions
- You probably don't need another database 5 mentions
- PostgreSQL Is Enough 5 mentions
- Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2026) 4 mentions
- Does anyone run Postgres without PgBouncer? 3 mentions
Data: postgresql.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 50
“I convert it to UUID before storing in PostgreSQL.”
“a Postgres table can store any of the versions in the same column type”
“Same reason a Postgres root can delete tables of other users.”
“built using go, nats, clickhouse, postgres”
“I run my backend on Postgres with partitioned tables.”
“It's a great addition to an existing Postgres database as it has very tight integration with it's native Postgres extension”
“TypeScript, Ansible, Postgres, Supabase/Neon/Render”
“All in C, fastcgi, FreeBSD, postgresql and h2o-server”
“My normal mode of operation is via postgres(I like the functions better than sqlite)”
“We use Postgres as the catalog store, and it does not get much simpler than that”
“it stores to postgresql running in a different VPS.”
“Python, Django, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Celery”
“PostgreSQL, Kafka, Redis”
“PostgreSQL, Linux/UNIX”
“My stack of choice would be FastAPI + Svelte + PostgreSQL”
“Technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, FastAPI”
“It's the same reason why we use Postgres instead of hire database experts”
“postgresql is almost always good enough in my opinion”
“moved from a managed PostreSQL from fly.io to a self hosted version on a fly.io machine and it saved me around 30$ a month”
“others could run fast reports on our web app with a postgres backend”
“saved me $30 a month”
“I used .NET for many years with Postgres on a huge project.”
“It is not hard to be more than 3x better than Postgres [1].”
“we abused Postgres a lot while serving enterprise customers”
“we use Postgres for both data storage and queue backend”
“I’ve been working with PostgreSQL for 20+ years”
“Annual postgres upgrades are always exciting (features) and terrifying (ops)”
“Custom skills and their versions are stored in postgres”
“Stack is just Next.js / React + PostgreSQL hosted on Vercel + Supabase with GH Actions.”
“I benchmarked Postgres in single- and muti-node setup against CockroachDB a while ago”
“or postgresql if something more robust on your server”
“I've given up hope of it ever happening in PostgreSQL.”
“I love Postgres. Im using it for majority of my career in IT. It never failed me, even on very big scale.”
“For my next application I will use Postgres as primary database.”
“I use Postgres for a lot of things where textbooks say not to, but not caching.”
“It worked very well. PostgreSQL maintained machine state, path planning, sensor readings, faults, operator input, etc.”
“just worked great for us on Postgres”
“i'm still a postgres maximalist (worker queues still in pg [1])”
“I've used Postgres, Sqlite, Duckdb”
“Postgres for all your GPU-based machine learning training and inference needs”
“In most of the applications we build or maintain we use PostgreSQL + cloud storage. That's it. And it works very well”
“It was surprisingly easy with a single large Postgres DB, a lot of caching, optimized tables and queries.”
“both sqlite and postgres are awesome”
“dead tuples start to accumulate due to Postgres' way of doing MVCC.”
“Honestly, I love PostgreSQL, but now I have another server or service to run.”
“I love postgres as much as the next person”
“I love the flexibility and all-in-one abilities of Postgres for prototyping and making MVPs.”
“I love Postgres.”
“All you need is Postgres until you scale into TBs of data.”
“I love the idea of pg as a queue, but I'm a more skeptical of it after dealing with it in production”