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PlanetScale VS PostgreSQL

Compare PlanetScale VS PostgreSQL and see what are their differences

PlanetScale logo PlanetScale

The last database you'll ever need. Go from idea to IPO.

PostgreSQL logo PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.
  • PlanetScale Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15
  • PostgreSQL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

PlanetScale features and specs

  • Scalability
    PlanetScale is designed for massive scale, leveraging the Vitess engine that powers YouTube. This makes it suitable for applications requiring high scalability for both read and write operations.
  • Global Distribution
    Offers multi-region deployment, ensuring low-latency access and higher availability, beneficial for globally distributed applications.
  • Serverless Approach
    The platform takes a serverless approach to database management, which means automatic scaling, less infrastructure to manage, and potential cost savings.
  • Branching and Sharding
    Supports database branching for isolated environments like development, testing, and production. It also supports sharding, which helps in distributing data across multiple nodes for better performance and reliability.
  • High Availability
    PlanetScale provides high availability with automated failover mechanisms, ensuring minimal downtime.
  • Strong Data Integrity
    Uses Vitess’s strong consistency models to ensure data integrity across distributed systems.
  • Developer Friendly
    Includes tools and features that make it easier for developers to manage, such as automatic migrations and simplified schema management.
  • Integration
    Can be easily integrated with various cloud service providers, making it flexible for different deployment environments.

Possible disadvantages of PlanetScale

  • Learning Curve
    The platform comes with a learning curve, especially for teams unfamiliar with Vitess or managing distributed databases.
  • Cost
    While it can offer cost savings in some areas, the pricing for large-scale deployments and multi-region setups can be relatively high.
  • Complexity of Advanced Features
    Advanced features like sharding and branching can add complexity to the database management operations.
  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to more established databases, the ecosystem and community around PlanetScale might be smaller, which can affect the availability of third-party tools and community support.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using a proprietary platform can lead to vendor lock-in, making it harder to switch to other database services if needed.
  • Early-stage Platform
    While promising, PlanetScale is relatively new compared to some other established database services, which means it may lack some maturity or have bugs that older platforms have ironed out.

PostgreSQL features and specs

  • Open Source
    PostgreSQL is an open-source database management system, which means it is free to use, modify, and distribute. This reduces the cost of database management for individuals and organizations.
  • ACID Compliance
    PostgreSQL is fully ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliant, ensuring reliable transactions and data integrity.
  • Extensible
    PostgreSQL is highly extensible, allowing users to add custom functions, data types, and operators. This enables tailored solutions to specific requirements.
  • Advanced SQL Features
    PostgreSQL supports advanced SQL features like full-text search, JSON and XML data types, and complex queries, providing powerful tools for database operations.
  • Community Support
    There is a strong and active community around PostgreSQL, offering extensive documentation, forums, and collaborative support, which aids troubleshooting and development.
  • Multiple Indexing Techniques
    PostgreSQL offers a variety of indexing techniques such as B-tree, GIN, GiST, and BRIN, allowing for optimized query performance on various data types.
  • Cross-Platform Availability
    PostgreSQL runs on all major operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix), giving flexibility in deployment and development environments.

Possible disadvantages of PostgreSQL

  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up and configuring PostgreSQL can be complex and time-consuming, especially for beginners, requiring a good understanding of its parameters and best practices.
  • Heavy Resource Consumption
    PostgreSQL can be resource-intensive, consuming significant CPU and memory compared to other database systems, which may affect performance on lower-end hardware.
  • Backup and Restore Process
    The backup and restore process in PostgreSQL is not as straightforward as in some other database systems, requiring more manual intervention and understanding of tools like pg_dump and pg_restore.
  • Replication Complexity
    While PostgreSQL supports replication, setting it up can be more complex than some other databases. Advanced configurations like multi-master replication can be particularly challenging.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Due to its advanced features and extensive capabilities, PostgreSQL can have a steeper learning curve, making it harder for new users to get started compared to simpler database systems.
  • Less Third-Party Tool Support
    PostgreSQL has less support from third-party tools compared to more widely adopted databases like MySQL, which can limit options for auxiliary functions like administration, monitoring, and development.

PlanetScale videos

PlanetScale Beta - Release Radar

More videos:

  • Review - Using PlanetScale (MySQL) with Next.js and Vercel!
  • Review - PlanetScale and Prisma: building in the cloud - Nick Van Wiggeren | Prisma Day 2021

PostgreSQL videos

Comparison of PostgreSQL and MongoDB

More videos:

  • Review - PostgreSQL Review
  • Review - MySQL vs PostgreSQL - Why you shouldn't use MySQL

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PlanetScale and PostgreSQL)
Databases
20 20%
80% 80
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Relational Databases
14 14%
86% 86
Vitess
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare PlanetScale and PostgreSQL

PlanetScale Reviews

We have no reviews of PlanetScale yet.
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PostgreSQL Reviews

Data Warehouse Tools
Peliqan acts as a bridge, allowing you to e.g. effortlessly pull your PostgreSQL data into Google Sheets for easy access and analysis using its one-click connector. Additionally, Peliqan’s platform provides a user-friendly environment for data exploration, transformation with Magical SQL, and visualization capabilities, all without needing to switch between multiple tools.
Source: peliqan.io
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
For over three decades, the open-source object-relational database system PostgreSQL has maintained its reputation as a top SQL server due to its features, performance, and reliability. (Heck, Redshift is even based on Postgres!) It's the go-to database solution for large corporations and organizations across a variety of industries from ecommerce to gaming to...
Source: blog.panoply.io
10 Best Database Management Software Of 2022 [+ Examples]
Applications Manager offers out-of-the-box health and performance monitoring for 20 popular databases including RDBMS, NoSQL, in-memory, distributed, and big data stores. It supports both commercial databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL, IBM DB2, and MongoDB as well as open source ones like MySQL and PostgreSQL.
Source: theqalead.com
ClickHouse vs TimescaleDB
Recently, TimescaleDB published a blog comparing ClickHouse & TimescaleDB using timescale/tsbs, a timeseries benchmarking framework. I have some experience with PostgreSQL and ClickHouse but never got the chance to play with TimescaleDB. Some of the claims about TimescaleDB made in their post are very bold, that made me even more curious. I thought it’d be a great...
9 Best MongoDB alternatives in 2019
PostgreSQL is a widely popular open source database management system. It provides support for both SQL for relational and JSON for non-relational queries.
Source: www.guru99.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PlanetScale should be more popular than PostgreSQL. It has been mentiond 102 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PlanetScale mentions (102)

  • Ask HN: What's the best free database provider out there?
    Https://planetscale.com/ would be a good bet. - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • List of 45 databases in the world
    PlanetScale — Serverless database platform built on MySQL and Vitess. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Good alternatives to Heroku
    Planetscale - Directly from their website: "PlanetScale is a MySQL-compatible serverless database that brings you scale, performance, and reliability — without sacrificing developer experience.". - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • MySQL or Top Alternatives in 2024 and How to Choose One
    PlanetScale is a MySQL-compatible database that offers scale, performance, and reliability, and many more powerful database features. Leveraging cloud-native architecture, PlanetScale enables organizations to deploy, manage, and scale MySQL-compatible databases with ease. With features such as automatic sharding, distributed transactions, and high availability, PlanetScale enables businesses to handle large... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Breaking the Myth: Scalable, Multi-Region, Low-Latency App Exists And Will Not Cost You A Kidney.
    For MySQL, we've got PlanetScale, and for PostgreSQL, there's Neon. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

PostgreSQL mentions (16)

  • Convert insert mutation to upsert
    In this quick post, we’ll walk through implementing an Upsert operation in Hasura using PostgreSQL and GraphQL. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Perfect Elixir: Environment Setup
    I’m on MacOS and erlang.org, elixir-lang.org, and postgresql.org all suggest installation via Homebrew, which is a very popular package manager for MacOS. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Rust & MySQL: connect, execute SQL statements and stored procs using crate sqlx.
    According to the documentation, crate sqlx is implemented in Rust, and it's database agnostic: it supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and MSSQL. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Really tired. Is PostgreSQL even runnable in Windows 10? pgAdmin4 stucks at Loading whatever I try.
    Solution is just downloading and installilng pgAdmin from official pgAdmin homepage version, not the one that is included in the postgresql.org package. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Why SQL is right for Infrastructure Management
    SQL immediately stands out here because it was designed for making relational algebra, the other side of the Entity-Relationship model, accessible. There are likely more people who know SQL than any programming language (for IaC) or data format you could choose to represent your cloud infrastructure. Many non-programmers know it, as well, such as data scientists, business analysts, accountants, etc, and there is... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PlanetScale and PostgreSQL, you can also consider the following products

Datahike - A durable datalog database adaptable for distribution.

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Datomic - The fully transactional, cloud-ready, distributed database

Microsoft SQL - Microsoft SQL is a best in class relational database management software that facilitates the database server to provide you a primary function to store and retrieve data.

MarkLogic Server - MarkLogic Server is a multi-model database that has both NoSQL and trusted enterprise data management capabilities.

SQLite - SQLite Home Page