Hey, Threadiverse! I’m looking for informed opinions on database choices.
I can stand up an Internet-facing application and have it use either MySQL or PostgreSQL. Which is the better choice, and why do you think so?
Thanks!
As someone that admins hundreds of MySQL at work, I’d go with PostgreSQL.
Same.
Postgres is a more robust and better designed and developed product, also it’s not owned by fucking Oracle.
PostgreSQL is just better. It’s supports transactions on DDL (things like altering table structure) and enforces unique constraints after transactions complete … so you can actually do a bunch of important stuff (like update your table structure or swap unique values between rows) safely.
You aren’t exposing the database right?
Another vote for Postgres, MySQL kind of blows.
Postgres, hands down. It’s far better than MySQL in every way.
Postgres also had the advantage of great support for JSON elements, which gives you the power of a no-sql system like mongo in the package. A major selling point if your schema is evolving.
Postgres. It’s more strict by default, which leads to a lot fewer surprises.
Here’s my rule of thumb:
- SQLite - if it’s enough
- Postgres
- MariaDB - if you don’t care about your data and just want the thing to work
- MySQL - if you sold your soul to Oracle, but still can’t afford their license fee
- Something else - you’re a hipster or have very unique requirements
Avoid MySQL and MariaDB at all cost.
I used MariaDB for school projects, what exactly is wrong with it? Asking because I’m just unaware
Many things, too many to even remember.
Very bad SQL implementation is a good start, still bad replication support (compared to Postgres), various bugs present for too long…
https://www.sql-workbench.eu/dbms_comparison.html this comparison is a bit out of date, but explains a lot
While there was a time, where those databases were considered “good”, they are only this famous because they have been free or open source for ages. Professors love open source stuff. This does not necessarily mean it is a good product in terms of database functionality. They have been stuck in the old age and simply get outperformed by almost anything. Professors also hate to change their slides and to learn something new. Because their priority is on functionality, not on real world use. And when you want to use a product in the real world, non-functional properties gain a lot of value. One of them is performance.
If you want to have a fast, reliable, open source database, use ClickHouse.
Generally speaking, if a professor recommends something, it probably sucks. Their information is incredibly outdated and is usually whatever they used in their own undergrad program.
At school I learned:
- Java
- PHP
- MySQL
- C#
- C++
- Racket (Lisp)
Each of those has a better alternative, with C# being the least bad. For example:
- Java -> Kotlin
- PHP -> Python
- MySQL -> SQLite or Postgres
- C# -> Python (desktop QT GUIs) or web stack (e.g. Tauri for desktop web stack)
- C++ -> Rust (non-games) or a game engine
- Lisp -> Haskell
Formal education is for learning concepts, learn programming languages and tools on your own.
Click house is for OLAP workloads
It was. Now compare the benchmark of OLTP tasks and you will be surprised
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Smear campaign with an open source product? Are you sure you still have a working organ between your ears?
That being said, my recommendation is based on using databases in big data environments for 15 years. But I am glad that your home lab is working fine with MariaDB. Does not mean it is a good product. And your comment just proves my point.
Postgres, the extensions and open source community have been very helpful.
Postgis for images
CloudNative-pg for running DB clusters in kuberneties.
The answer is impossible to answer until you tell us more about your needs. Better choice considering what?
In general, untill you have terabytes of data or a significant amount of traffic (operations per second) database choice does not matter and you should be using cheaper option, where the cost should be assessed as a derivative of price of hosting, cost per operation, cost to deliver (how familiar you are with it).
When you have significant amount of data or traffic - only then you should worry about database kind or language. Until then this could be a premature optimization.
I have historically gone with PostgreSQL and had no complaints. The licensing issues concerning MySQL also give one pause (Oracle are greedy bastards who will use any excuse to extract money from captive customers, so depending on their properties is to be avoided). Having said that, these days, SQLite is probably sufficient for many workloads and has the advantage of not requiring a database server.
PostgreSQL is the more feature rich, but if you don’t care about all those features like saving and searching in json structures, Geo data structures and a to of other stuff because you have a simple APO then MySQL is good enough, maybe even SQLite.
Its query planner is also much, much more powerful. Like it’s not even close.
There’s hardly any good reason to use MySQL today. Postgres is easier and nicer to work with, with a strong community backing it.
SQLite is completely different from both and has entirely different usecases.
Choosing is not so much about whether it’s internet facing or not. From the programmer’s perspective and an administrator’s perspective there are pros and cons to both. As someone looking to self-host, if you want to run a service that works with either, I would make the choice based on what seems the most supported, or which one you feel the most comfortable looking up and performing administrative tasks on. I tend to use postgresql more just because I have more experience with it and can recommend it if that’s what you need, but mysql can be just as good or better in many circumstances. Pick whichever one looks easier to you.
Absolutely depends on what do you want it for and what resources can you apply on it (learning, set-up, etc).
That said, MySQL is owned by Oracle. The more-or-less blessed alternative IIRC is MariaDB.
It’s not My SQL, it’s Orcales.
TheirSQL
