Comments on: Why is MySQL more popular than PostgreSQL?

By: Egesa Ronald Leonard

Egesa Ronald Leonard — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:14:00 +0000

I have worked with MySQL for the last 7 years and built a number of projects, but particularly in one finance application, when data increased over 4 years, I needed advanced features and the move to PostgreSQL has been inevitable.

Put simple, if you are handling small apps or apps that are not data-heavy, MySQL is for you and if you want to deal with a programmable database, PostgreSQL is the one for you!

By: John Ibn Smith

John Ibn Smith — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:58:05 +0000

MySQL is used by a lot of people who own a very small web sites and is not a developer, just a some kind of advanced user. In general it is comparison of apples and oranges. They should be compared in a commercial context.

By: rvt

rvt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:21:53 +0000

Often I hear MySQL is simpler then PostgreSQL, yet I never could understand why MySQL is simpler.

I have worked extensively with both and still I fail to see why people find MySQL simpler. I find them both as simple to use and I don’t see why MySQL is simpler.

If you look deep down my heart however, I feel that PostgreSQL is simpler to sue then mysql for the following reasons:

1) PG puts out clear error messages when something is wrong, MySQL doesn’t output anything or just try to make up something in comparison to PG. This makes PG easer to understand when teh DB shows values different then what was inputted

2) explain analyze shows much more detailed values in PG then MySQL’s explain making it easer to optimize.

3) pgAdmin rocks making PostgreSQL administration a beeze, I couldn’t find a good open source or free tool for MySQL doing the same, honestly phpmyadmin simply sucks…

4) PostgreSQL default access policy is simpel and secure while MySQL’s default adds root for one reason or the other to access all databases, making MySQL more hard to secure properly on default installations.

5) My personal experience is that MySQL documentation is more obscure then PostgreSQL’s version.

6) Creating solutions in PG is often easer then MySQL. For example if you need a transaction save DB with full text capabilities then MySQL fails to create this without using external tools, InnoDB and FTS doesn’t work, in PG that’s a breeze.

Often is said that PostgreSQL installation is a harder because of the initdb step, but honestly read the fine manual!!

Ries

By: santosh

santosh — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:25:28 +0000

from my experience,

Mysql is for smaller and least complex projects, while Postgres is for the other.

Mysql has horizontal but Postgres has steep learning curve, for the beginners.

By: Johandk

Johandk — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:54:55 +0000

I’ve used both Postgres and Mysql and unlike most developers love them both for very different reasons.

It’s comparing apples to oranges. MySQL aims to be simple. Postgres aims to be advanced. The one isn’t better than the other, it solely depends on what the requirements are.