MySQL vs PostgreSQL for a new web application?
asked 4 months ago362 viewsen
Starting a new SaaS. The team knows MySQL a little. Is there a strong reason to choose PostgreSQL instead?
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1 Answer
Both are excellent and will handle far more load than most SaaS products ever see. PostgreSQL has become the common default because of:
- Richer features: JSONB with indexing, arrays, CTEs and window functions (MySQL 8 has these too now), partial and expression indexes, RETURNING, transactional DDL (a failed migration rolls back cleanly). - Extensions: PostGIS (maps), pg_trgm (fuzzy search), pgvector (AI embeddings), TimescaleDB. - Ecosystem: Supabase, Neon and most managed platforms are Postgres-first.
Choose MySQL if you're on a stack that assumes it (WordPress, some PHP hosting), your team's operational expertise is there, or you need Vitess/PlanetScale-style sharding.
The SQL knowledge transfers. The main new things to learn are Postgres roles, VACUUM, and some syntax differences.
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