What is PostgreSQL
An advanced, stable and feature-rich database
🎬 This article is a companion to my YouTube video. Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPm6Fa2G_gQ
Introduction
In this video we are going to talk about PostgreSQL — what it is, why it is one of the most popular databases in the world, and why it is the database I use to power my web applications.
What is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL — often called Postgres — is a free, open-source relational database management system. It has been in active development for over 35 years and is widely considered one of the most advanced, stable and feature-rich databases available.
A relational database stores data in tables — rows and columns — and uses SQL to query and manipulate that data. If you have ever worked with a spreadsheet, you already understand the basic concept.
Why PostgreSQL?
ACID compliance
PostgreSQL is fully ACID compliant — Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability. Transactions either complete fully or not at all. If something goes wrong mid-transaction, the database rolls back to the previous state. For financial data, orders, user accounts — anything where data integrity matters — this is critical.
Advanced data types
PostgreSQL supports JSON and JSONB for document storage, arrays, UUID, geometric types, full-text search and more. You get the flexibility of a document database with the reliability of a relational database.
Excellent performance
PostgreSQL handles complex queries, large datasets and high concurrency extremely well. It has a sophisticated query planner and optimizer that makes even complex joins and aggregations fast.
Extensibility
PostgreSQL is highly extensible. PostGIS for geospatial data, pgvector for AI embeddings, and TimescaleDB for time series data are just a few examples of powerful extensions available.
Open source and free
PostgreSQL is completely free and open source with no licensing costs. There is no enterprise tier required to access advanced features.
Widely supported
Almost every major framework, ORM, and tool supports PostgreSQL. Directus, Prisma, Drizzle, Sequelize, Django, Rails — they all work with PostgreSQL out of the box.
PostgreSQL vs MySQL
PostgreSQL is more standards compliant and supports more advanced features out of the box. MySQL is slightly simpler to set up and has historically been faster for simple read-heavy workloads. For modern web applications with complex data requirements, PostgreSQL is generally the better choice.
Why I Chose PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is the database that Directus recommends and works best with. It gives me full ACID compliance, advanced data types, and excellent performance — everything I need for production web applications.
Conclusion
PostgreSQL is a battle-tested, feature-rich, open-source relational database that powers some of the world's largest applications. For modern web development it is one of the safest and most capable choices available.
In an upcoming video we will deploy PostgreSQL alongside Directus on our VPS using Coolify.
References
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