Learn more about these open-source databases including advantages, disadvantages and uses.

PostgreSQL vs. MySQL: What Are They?

PostgreSQL and MySQL are well-known and often-used relational database managers worldwide. They provide 24/7 support and are considered very stable for the services they offer. They’re designed to create scalable databases and perform everything related to stored procedures, functions, triggers and automatic jobs, among others.

PostgreSQL vs. MySQL: What Are Their Histories?

MySQL was developed by a Swedish company MySQL AB in 1995. The platform developers were Michael Widenius, David Axmark and Allan Larsson. Their idea was to create an efficient platform to handle data for businesses — as well as normal, everyday people who needed to handle extensive data.
MySQL was initially developed by mixing code between C and C++ but over time everything was migrated to MySQL Server and MySQL Cluster, using only the C++ Language.
Web programmers use MySQL to make changes to websites in a simple way. Since it allows for quick and easy changes, programmers also don’t have to modify the web code.  When using MySQL with PHP it becomes a powerful tool to carry out applications that require the use of a fast, secure and powerful database. If we use, for example, WordPress, the database used is MySQL —  and all its processes are managed through the said database.
The history of PostgreSQL begins in 1986 with a project by Professor Michael Stonebraker and a team of developers from the University of Berkeley (California). The product’s original name was  POSTGRES.
In 1996 the name changed to PostgreSQL, returning to the original sequence of versions, thus releasing the new version 6.0. The latest version, 14.0, was released in 2021 and is stable.
An interesting feature of PostgreSQL is multi-version concurrency control, or MVCC. This method adds an image of the database state to each transaction. This allows us to make consistent transactions, offering us great performance advantages.

PostgreSQL vs. MySQL: What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages?  

MySQL Advantages
  1. MySQL software is Open Source.
  2. Speed (at low scales).
  3. Thanks to its low consumption of resources, it is possible to use it on machines with little performance, which improves the cost of its use.
  4. Easy installation and configuration.
MySQL Disadvantages
  1. Little documentation of all the services you can offer.
  2. When the database structure must be modified, there may be slight errors.
  3. It is not intuitive, like other programs like ACCESS for example.
PostgreSQL Advantages
  1. Stability: Postgres is categorized as one of the most stable database managers worldwide.
  2. Power and Robustness: It is designed in such a way that it does not allow interference between each of the parallel processes that we can execute.
  3. Extensibility: It can be used by the vast majority of programming languages since a connection form has been created for all of them.
PostgreSQL Disadvantages
  1. For small databases, it is not recommended as it is slow for inserts.
  2. Official support: It does not have quick access support.
  3. Learning the language and using it and maintaining it because of its complexity can be difficult.

SingleStoreDB

SingleStoreDB is the world's fastest database for data-intensive applications and real-time analytics. SingleStoreDB unifies transactions and analytics in a single engine to drive low-latency access to large datasets, simplifying the development of fast, modern enterprise applications.
Built for developers and architects, SingleStoreDB is based on a distributed SQL architecture, delivering 10-100 millisecond performance on complex queries — all while ensuring your business can effortlessly scale.
SingleStoreDB is MySQL wire compatible and offers the familiar syntax of SQL, but is based on modern underlying technology that allows infinitely higher speed and scale versus MySQL. This one of the many reasons that SingleStore is the #1 top-rated relational database on TrustRadius.
For more information on how SingleStore is related and can turbocharge your open-source databases, visit our pages on MySQL or PostgreSQL.
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