MySQL vs Postgres, Again - Is Postgres Better?

I was browsing the web on this lazy Sunday afternoon and ran across a good article on the Rarest Words blog. The author was trying to get Django installed and running with Postgres. From the author's own admissions, he is not a Postgres fanatic.

Well, this and last year I hear everywhere that PostgreSQL is the way to go and that usage of mySQL in 2008 makes people puke… But without any real arguments (besides "Postgres is the way to go").

After some not so compatible errors with these not so compatible databases, the author did get it working and ran some benchmarks. Postgres did not turn out faster than MySQL. If you ask anyone in the Postgres community which database is faster, they will say Postgres. Ask anyone in the MySQL community and there's no telling what answer you'll get. ;-)

I have now worked with quite a few different databases. Over the last decade most of my time has been spent with Oracle but I have also spent some time with MySQL and Postgres. So, I have to tell you, Oracle is faster. ;-) Just kidding.

What I have found is that any claim that one database is the best database is just kind of silly. Every database has a different feature set, a different set of strengths and a different set of weaknesses. Comparisons are good so that people know where a database is best used but it's pointless for claims of "winners and losers".

It's sort of like benchmarks. If you benchmark two databases, the loser fan base will always claim that you didn't tune correctly. Or the benchmark was invalid. Or the wrong engine was used. Or whatever. They may be true but even so, with all things being equal, that does not invalidate the benchmark. Under those conditions, one or the other is faster. Is that significant? Probably not.

So, which is better for Django? I haven't a clue. I don't know much about Django. I'd say the best database is the one you are most comfortable using and have the most experience with.

When switching from one database to another, I think most people have pretty much the same experience as the blog author had. It can be really painful at first. I like it. Not the pain so much but digging in to it. I like understanding the differences between one database and another. But then, I'm sort of weird that way. ;-)

For business reasons, if a database is working fine for your needs, don't switch. Most people don't need the absolute performance that a $250/hour brain surgeon DBA might be able to give you. And if you do, you're probably already running Oracle. ;-)

LewisC

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