Databases · alternatives
Alternatives to PostgreSQL
23 databases tools sit alongside PostgreSQL in this directory. Below is what separates each from PostgreSQL on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 23
- With a free tier
- 18
- Cheaper to start
- -
- PostgreSQL starts at
- Free
Why people look past PostgreSQL
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. PostgreSQL has a free tier. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
The open source relational database for the enterprise
Priced and rated the same as PostgreSQL on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
The world's most popular open source database
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where PostgreSQL does not.
The cloud-native distributed SQL database
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where PostgreSQL does not.
MPP analytical database with a MySQL wire protocol and sub-second aggregation on wide tables
Priced and rated the same as PostgreSQL on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
The Meta-lineage distributed SQL query engine, distinct from the Trino fork
Priced and rated the same as PostgreSQL on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Erlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node
- Publishes an entry price of $234/month, where PostgreSQL does not.
Every PostgreSQL alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL (this page) | Free | - | - | |
| MariaDBOpen-source relational database, MySQL-compatible | Free | - | - | vs PostgreSQL |
| MySQLOpen-source relational database, widely used alternative | Free | Freemium | 3 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Cockroach LabsDistributed SQL database with PostgreSQL compatibility | Free | Freemium | - | vs PostgreSQL |
| Apache Doris | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Presto | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| EMQX | Free, then $234/month | Per month by connection and session volume | 4 | vs PostgreSQL |
| StarRocks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Solace PubSub+ | Free | Quote | 4 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Tinybird | Free, then $25/month | Per month by compute and storage | 4 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Dremio | Free, then $0.2/hour | Per Dremio Compute Unit consumed | 3 | vs PostgreSQL |
| VerneMQ | Free | Quote | 3 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Timeplus | Free, then $199/month | Per month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted | 3 | vs PostgreSQL |
| RisingWave | Free, then $0.227/hour | Per RisingWave Unit hour | 4 | vs PostgreSQL |
| NATS | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Redpanda | Free | Source-available community edition with paid enterprise and cloud tiers | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| RabbitMQ | Free | Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Canary Labs | $3000/year | Per tag band per year | 4 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Instaclustr | On request | Quote | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Immuta | On request | Quote | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Privacera | On request | Quote | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| TIBCO Enterprise Message Service | On request | Quote | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Apache Solr | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
| Apache Pulsar | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs PostgreSQL |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the PostgreSQL badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (18)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- MariaDB , Free
- MySQL , Free
- Cockroach Labs , Free
- Apache Doris , Free
- Presto , Free
- EMQX , Free, then $234/month
- StarRocks , Free
- Solace PubSub+ , Free
What you would be giving up
PostgreSQL is most often brought in for transaction processing, data storage, application backend, reporting, data analytics. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If PostgreSQL is broadly right and the question is cost, the PostgreSQL pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Databases category lists everything the directory holds, and best databases tools ranks them.
PostgreSQL runs on linux, windows, macos, bsd, unix. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about PostgreSQL alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to PostgreSQL?
- 23 other databases tools are listed in this directory, led by MariaDB, MySQL, Cockroach Labs, Apache Doris. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to PostgreSQL?
- 18 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: MariaDB, MySQL, Cockroach Labs, Apache Doris, Presto.
- Is there a reason to switch away from PostgreSQL?
- Nothing in the data flags one. PostgreSQL has a free tier. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from PostgreSQL?
- PostgreSQL is most often brought in for transaction processing, data storage, application backend, reporting, data analytics. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to PostgreSQL?
- None of the databases tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these PostgreSQL alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Databases, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare PostgreSQL against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against PostgreSQL covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every databases tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Databases category, 23 tools beside PostgreSQL. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.