Comparison 📅 January 1, 2025 📖 15 min read

PostgreSQL vs MySQL 2025: Complete Performance Comparison

PostgreSQL now leads database rankings with 49% developer adoption. Discover real performance benchmarks, feature comparisons, scalability insights, and complete migration strategies for 2025.

The database landscape has shifted dramatically in 2025. PostgreSQL has overtaken MySQL to become the most popular database, used by 49% of professional developers worldwide. This shift isn't just hype—it reflects fundamental changes in how modern applications handle data, scale, and integrate with emerging technologies like AI and cloud infrastructure.

This comprehensive guide compares PostgreSQL and MySQL across every dimension that matters: performance, features, scalability, cost, and real-world use cases. Whether you're building a new application or considering migration, you'll get the data you need to make an informed decision.

The 2025 Database Landscape: Why PostgreSQL Leads

According to the latest Stack Overflow Developer Survey and industry reports, PostgreSQL has achieved unprecedented dominance:

What Changed in 2025:

PostgreSQL's rise correlates directly with three major industry shifts: the explosion of AI/ML workloads requiring vector search capabilities (pgvector), the maturation of cloud-native architectures where PostgreSQL's extensibility shines, and the growing demand for JSON and NoSQL flexibility within relational systems.

Performance Benchmarks: Real-World Data

Read Performance

PostgreSQL excels in complex read operations, particularly queries involving joins, subqueries, and analytics:

-- Complex analytical query performance (10M rows)
-- PostgreSQL: 2.3 seconds
-- MySQL: 4.1 seconds

SELECT
    c.category,
    COUNT(DISTINCT o.user_id) as unique_customers,
    AVG(o.total_amount) as avg_order_value,
    SUM(o.total_amount) as revenue
FROM orders o
JOIN products p ON o.product_id = p.id
JOIN categories c ON p.category_id = c.id
WHERE o.created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY c.category
HAVING COUNT(*) > 100
ORDER BY revenue DESC;

Key findings:

Write Performance

MySQL traditionally held the edge in simple INSERT operations, but the gap has narrowed:

Operation PostgreSQL 16 MySQL 8.4 Winner
Single INSERT (1M rows) 12.3 sec 10.8 sec MySQL (+12%)
Bulk INSERT (1M rows) 8.1 sec 8.4 sec PostgreSQL (+4%)
UPDATE with index 15.2 sec 18.7 sec PostgreSQL (+23%)
Concurrent writes (100 connections) 2,850 TPS 2,340 TPS PostgreSQL (+22%)

Verdict: MySQL retains a slight edge in simple single-row inserts, but PostgreSQL dominates bulk operations and concurrent write scenarios—critical for modern high-traffic applications.

Indexing Performance

PostgreSQL offers superior index types that dramatically improve specialized queries:

-- PostgreSQL partial index example
CREATE INDEX idx_active_users ON users (email)
WHERE status = 'active' AND email_verified = true;

-- Reduces index size by 80% while maintaining query speed
-- MySQL requires full index on email column

Feature Comparison: What Each Database Offers

Data Types & Flexibility

PostgreSQL advantages:

MySQL advantages:

Advanced Features

Feature PostgreSQL MySQL
Window Functions Full support since 8.4 (2009) Added in 8.0 (2018)
Common Table Expressions (CTEs) Recursive & non-recursive Limited support
Full-text Search Native, highly configurable FULLTEXT indexes (basic)
Materialized Views Yes, with refresh options No (requires workarounds)
Stored Procedures Multiple languages (PL/pgSQL, Python, etc.) SQL/PSM only
Triggers Row & statement-level Row-level only
Partial Indexes Yes No
Vector Search (AI) pgvector extension No native support

PostgreSQL's AI & Modern Workload Advantages

The pgvector extension has become a game-changer in 2025, enabling PostgreSQL to handle AI/ML workloads natively:

-- Store and query AI embeddings in PostgreSQL
CREATE TABLE documents (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    content TEXT,
    embedding vector(1536)  -- OpenAI embedding size
);

-- Create vector similarity index
CREATE INDEX ON documents
USING ivfflat (embedding vector_cosine_ops);

-- Semantic search query
SELECT content, 1 - (embedding <=> query_embedding) AS similarity
FROM documents
ORDER BY embedding <=> query_embedding
LIMIT 10;

This capability positions PostgreSQL as the database of choice for:

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Scalability & High Availability

Horizontal Scaling

PostgreSQL:

MySQL:

Real-World Scale:

PostgreSQL powers Instagram (handling billions of photos), Uber (geospatial queries), and Netflix (analytical workloads). MySQL runs Facebook's social graph and Wikipedia. Both can scale to massive deployments, but PostgreSQL's feature set makes complex scaling scenarios more manageable.

Cloud-Native Deployments

In 2025, cloud-managed database services dominate:

Cost comparison (AWS RDS, db.m5.large instance):

Use Case Recommendations

Choose PostgreSQL When:

Choose MySQL When:

Migration Strategies: MySQL to PostgreSQL

With PostgreSQL's growing dominance, many organizations are migrating from MySQL. Here's how:

Step 1: Assessment

-- Identify incompatible SQL features
-- Common issues:
-- 1. MySQL's LIMIT offset,count vs PostgreSQL's LIMIT count OFFSET offset
-- 2. AUTO_INCREMENT vs SERIAL/GENERATED ALWAYS
-- 3. DATE_FORMAT() vs TO_CHAR()
-- 4. MySQL's backticks vs PostgreSQL's double quotes

-- Example conversion:
-- MySQL:
SELECT `user_id`, DATE_FORMAT(created_at, '%Y-%m-%d')
FROM `users`
LIMIT 10, 20;

-- PostgreSQL:
SELECT "user_id", TO_CHAR(created_at, 'YYYY-MM-DD')
FROM "users"
LIMIT 20 OFFSET 10;

Step 2: Schema Migration

Use tools like pgLoader for automated schema conversion:

-- Install pgLoader
apt-get install pgloader

-- Migrate entire database
pgloader mysql://user:pass@localhost/mydb \
          postgresql://user:pass@localhost/mydb

-- pgLoader automatically handles:
-- - Data type conversions
-- - Index creation
-- - Foreign key constraints
-- - Sequence generation

Step 3: Application Code Updates

Update queries and ORM configurations:

// Sequelize (Node.js) - Change dialect
const sequelize = new Sequelize('database', 'user', 'pass', {
  // dialect: 'mysql',  // Old
  dialect: 'postgres',  // New
  dialectOptions: {
    ssl: { require: true }
  }
});

// Django - Update settings.py
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        # 'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',  # Old
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',  # New
        'NAME': 'mydb',
        'USER': 'user',
        'PASSWORD': 'pass',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
    }
}

Step 4: Testing & Validation

Migration Gotchas:
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Cost Analysis: TCO Comparison

Licensing & Open Source

Both databases are open source, but with important differences:

For SaaS applications, both are free to use. MySQL's dual licensing only affects software vendors embedding the database.

Operational Costs

Cost Factor PostgreSQL MySQL
Cloud hosting (managed) Same pricing tier Same pricing tier
Developer time (complexity) Higher for simple apps Lower for beginners
Maintenance overhead VACUUM required (automated) Lower maintenance
Performance tuning More complex, more powerful Simpler configuration
Ecosystem tools (free) pgAdmin, DBeaver, Postico MySQL Workbench, phpMyAdmin

Community & Ecosystem

Development Velocity

Extension Ecosystem

PostgreSQL's extensibility is unmatched:

MySQL has fewer impactful extensions, though plugins exist for specific use cases.

Security & Compliance

Both databases offer enterprise-grade security:

Conclusion: Which Database Should You Choose?

The data is clear: PostgreSQL is the better choice for most modern applications in 2025. Its superior feature set, performance in complex queries, AI/ML capabilities, and vibrant ecosystem make it the database of the future.

Choose PostgreSQL if:

Stick with MySQL if:

For teams managing databases, tools like SQL Data Builder provide visual interfaces that work seamlessly with both PostgreSQL and MySQL, eliminating vendor lock-in while you evaluate or migrate between systems.

The future is PostgreSQL—but MySQL remains a solid, battle-tested choice for specific use cases. Make your decision based on your application's actual needs, not just industry trends.

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