PostgreSQL vs MySQL: Complete Comparison
1. Core Differences
Type:
PostgreSQL: Object-Relational DBMS (ORDBMS)
MySQL: Relational DBMS (RDBMS)
SQL Standards:
PostgreSQL: Closer to SQL standard
MySQL: Follows SQL loosely
ACID Compliance:
PostgreSQL: Full ACID compliance
MySQL: Not fully ACID (MyISAM)
JSON Support:
PostgreSQL: Advanced JSON/JSONB
MySQL: Basic JSON
Concurrency:
PostgreSQL: MVCC
MySQL: Lock-based
Extensibility:
PostgreSQL: Highly extensible
MySQL: Limited extensibility
2. SQL Syntax Differences
AUTO_INCREMENT vs SERIAL:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE users (
id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY
);
PostgreSQL:
CREATE TABLE users (
id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY
);
String Concatenation:
MySQL:
SELECT CONCAT(a, b);
PostgreSQL:
SELECT a || b;
UPSERT:
MySQL:
INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY
PostgreSQL:
INSERT ... ON CONFLICT
Boolean:
MySQL uses TINYINT(1), PostgreSQL uses BOOLEAN
3. Advanced Feature Support
CTEs:
PostgreSQL: Full
MySQL: Since 8.0
Materialized Views:
PostgreSQL: Yes
MySQL: No
Partial Indexes:
PostgreSQL: Yes
MySQL: No
Functional Indexes:
PostgreSQL: Yes
MySQL: No
Check Constraints:
PostgreSQL: Enforced
MySQL: Ignored before 8
Triggers:
PostgreSQL: Advanced
MySQL: Basic
Views:
PostgreSQL: Updatable
MySQL: Limited
4. Use Case Summary
Financial Systems:
PostgreSQL
CMS / Blogs:
MySQL
Analytics:
PostgreSQL
Simple Web Apps:
MySQL
JSON-heavy workloads:
PostgreSQL
