How to Choose PostgreSQL over MySQL in PostgreSQL

Galaxy Glossary

Why should I choose PostgreSQL instead of MySQL?

PostgreSQL offers advanced features, strict standards compliance, and extensibility that make it a better fit than MySQL for demanding, schema-rich applications.

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Description

Why does PostgreSQL handle complex data better?

PostgreSQL natively supports JSONB, arrays, hstore, and user-defined types, letting you combine relational and semi-structured data in one place without work-arounds.

How do ACID guarantees differ?

PostgreSQL enforces full ACID compliance in every storage engine, ensuring reliable transactions, foreign-key integrity, and consistent snapshots even under high concurrency.

Where does PostgreSQL outperform MySQL in SQL features?

Postgres implements window functions, CTEs, lateral joins, table inheritance, and the SQL:2023 standard MERGE—capabilities either missing or limited in MySQL.

What are real-world ecommerce advantages?

With PostgreSQL, you can store Products attributes in JSONB, run atomic "add-to-cart" operations using INSERT ...ON CONFLICT, and calculate lifetime value via window functions—without additional tooling.

Does PostgreSQL scale vertically and horizontally?

Extensions like pg_partman, Citus, and logical replication enable partitioning and distributed reads/writes, matching or exceeding MySQL’s sharding solutions.

How does licensing impact long-term costs?

PostgreSQL’s permissive PostgreSQL License has no dual-licensing traps; all features are open source, reducing vendor lock-in.

When might MySQL still be preferable?

If you need extremely low-footprint deployments, simple read-heavy workloads, or existing MySQL-specific tooling, MySQL can be sufficient.

Best practices for migrating from MySQL to PostgreSQL?

Audit schema differences, convert TINYINT(1) to boolean, handle AUTO_INCREMENT via sequences, and use pgloader for data transfer.

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Why How to Choose PostgreSQL over MySQL in PostgreSQL is important

How to Choose PostgreSQL over MySQL in PostgreSQL Example Usage


-- List top 5 customers who bought items with low stock using JSONB filter
SELECT c.name, o.id AS order_id, p.name AS product_name, oi.quantity
FROM Customers c
JOIN Orders o      ON o.customer_id = c.id
JOIN OrderItems oi ON oi.order_id = o.id
JOIN Products p    ON p.id = oi.product_id
WHERE (p.attributes ->> 'category') = 'limited'
ORDER BY oi.quantity DESC
LIMIT 5;

How to Choose PostgreSQL over MySQL in PostgreSQL Syntax


-- JSONB product attributes
CREATE TABLE Products (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name TEXT NOT NULL,
    price NUMERIC(10,2) NOT NULL,
    stock INT NOT NULL,
    attributes JSONB DEFAULT '{}'
);

-- Atomic upsert when a customer adds to cart
INSERT INTO OrderItems (order_id, product_id, quantity)
VALUES (42, 17, 1)
ON CONFLICT (order_id, product_id)
DO UPDATE SET quantity = OrderItems.quantity + EXCLUDED.quantity;

-- Window function to rank customers by spend
SELECT c.id, c.name,
       SUM(o.total_amount) AS lifetime_value,
       RANK() OVER (ORDER BY SUM(o.total_amount) DESC) AS spend_rank
FROM Customers c
JOIN Orders o  ON o.customer_id = c.id
GROUP BY c.id, c.name;

Common Mistakes

Assuming MySQL’s INSERT IGNORE equals Postgres ON CONFLICT: INSERT IGNORE silently drops errors, risking data loss. ON CONFLICT lets you update or raise an explicit exception—use it to keep data consistent.
Migrating without adjusting character types: MySQL’s VARCHAR(255) defaults to case-insensitive collation. In Postgres you must set <code>citext</code> or appropriate COLLATE to preserve search behavior.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is PostgreSQL slower than MySQL?

For simple point reads MySQL’s InnoDB can be slightly faster, but Postgres matches or exceeds performance in complex queries, concurrency, and write-heavy loads.

Can PostgreSQL handle millions of transactions daily?

Yes. Features like partitioning, logical replication, and connection pooling (PgBouncer) allow linear scaling on commodity hardware.

Does Postgres support sharding natively?

Core Postgres offers table partitioning; the Citus extension provides transparent horizontal sharding with distributed SQL.

Want to learn about other SQL terms?

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dbt utils

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