What is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is an open-source object-relational database that traces back to the POSTGRES project at UC Berkeley and adopted SQL and its current name in 1996. It supports ACID transactions and multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), native JSON/JSONB storage, and an extension system that adds capabilities such as geospatial queries (PostGIS) or vector similarity search (pgvector) without changing the core engine.
Read the full overview
Sources checked 27 September 2026: About PostgreSQL and extension documentation.
Key capabilities
- Relational core: ACID transactions and MVCC concurrency control.
- Extensibility: a plugin system for custom types, index types, and functions.
- JSON support: native JSON and JSONB column types alongside relational tables.
- License: the permissive PostgreSQL License, with no vendor lock-in on the core engine.
Plan indexing strategy, extension usage, backup and replication approach, and version-upgrade cadence before going to production. Because PostgreSQL is community-maintained, support and patching typically come from in-house expertise, a managed-service provider, or a paid support vendor rather than a single company.
PostgreSQL fits teams that need a general-purpose relational database with strong standards compliance and no per-node licensing cost. It is self-hosted by default, though most major cloud providers also offer managed PostgreSQL services; teams should choose between self-managed and managed hosting based on operational capacity rather than assuming one is required.
PostgreSQL gives teams a mature, standards-compliant relational database without licensing fees, and its extension ecosystem lets it take on roles such as geospatial or vector search without adopting a separate database. The official project page and source repository, checked 27 September 2026, are the most reliable references for current capabilities and release status.
Technical details
- Access
- Self-hosted
- Source model
- Open source
- Founded
- 1996
- Headquarters
- Open Source Project
- Pricing model
- Open source
- Starting price
- 0 USD
- API
- Available
- Website
- www.postgresql.org ↗
Official resources
What to verify for your environment
Start from the users, systems and operating responsibilities the tool needs to support.
- Confirm current features, licensing and support terms with the publisher.
- Validate deployment, data location, access control, backup and recovery requirements.
- Test integrations, export paths and a representative operational workflow before committing.
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Reviews of PostgreSQL
The database that does everything5/5 starsPostgreSQL is our primary database for everything — transactional data, JSON documents, full-text search, and even vector embeddings with pgvector. The extension ecosystem is incredible. We have never hit a limitation that forced us to add another database.
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