Author: Puripong Koomsin

MySQL vs PostgreSQL are approaching open-source relational databases management systems. For decade now open source community has improved upon its quality of software to be more enterprise worthy. This has led to a gradual move from the proprietary, commercial software to open-source software in recent years. A large number of businesses around the world use Linux, the Perl programming language and open source database servers – PostgreSQL and MySQL. Both are time-proven solutions that compete strongly with proprietary database software. MySQL has long been assumed to be the faster but less full-featured of the two database systems, while PostgreSQL was assumed to be a more densely featured database system often described as an open-source version of Oracle. MySQL has been popular among various software projects because of its speed and ease of use.

MySQL has come a long way in adding advanced functionality while PostgreSQL dramatically improved its speed within the last major releases. Although the two open source RDBMS seem to converge somewhere, there exist a fundamental asymmetry between the database servers. PostgreSQL is a unified database server with a single storage engine. MySQL has two layers, an upper SQL layer and a set of storage engines.

The PostgreSQL vs. MySQL debate is a heated one, with passionate communities on either side. These two camps position themselves differently – PostgreSQL, as the world’s “most advanced,” and MySQL as the world’s most “popular.”

The center of the debate between these two open source databases revolves around three key issues: speed, data integrity, and popularity.

Architecture

PostgreSQL is a unified database server with a single storage engine. MySQL has two layers, an upper SQL layer and a set of storage engines. When comparing the two it’s typically necessary to specify which storage engines are being used with MySQL because that greatly affects suitability, performance and sometimes feature availability. The most commonly used storage engines in MySQL are InnoDB for full ACID support and high performance on large workloads with lots of concurrency and MyISAM for lower concurrency workloads or higher concurrency read-mostly workloads that don’t need ACID properties. Applications can combine multiple storage engines as required to exploit the advantages of each.

Speed

Many attest that MySQL is a much faster database than PostgreSQL, and hundreds of benchmarking websites and blogs further this notion. But as loads increase, PostgreSQL seems to win the race. PostgreSQL has made vast improvements in recent releases. MySQL still faster than PostgreSQL?

Data Integrity

Comparing the two on data integrity, we get PostgreSQL getting the overall nod. PostgreSQL has always maintained a strict adherence to the academic principles of “data integrity,” placing it above all else in importance. MySQL on the other hand, started off with a more open attitude on the matter, instead focusing on easy acceptance, increased flexibility, and a high level of forgiveness for the average user.

Popularity

MySQL is still the world’s most popular open source database, with over 50,000 downloads per day. Its accessible attitude fostered high popularity and rapid growth of the MySQL community, something its poor, nerdy brother was never able to compete with.

No doubt MySQL is the epitome of open source database servers and sets an ambitious schedule for designing its high price-performance databases up to enterprise standards. It scores high in runtime performance, availability of third party applications and tools that can attract most frontline developers. MySQL is ahead of PostgreSQL in most respects except certain features like transaction support. However, the advent of version PostgreSQL 8.x shows that it’s going though a process of continuous improvement. In terms of support for external packages it’s now competing with both the commercial offerings and the other open source products. MySQL is working on adding transaction support and including features like sub selects, Postgres is making progress in the performance and stability.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/mysql-vs-postgresql-2823166.html

About the Author

If you enjoy reading this, you may enjoy reading on Mysql vs PostgreSQL and MSSQL vs MySQL or Database Comparison Chart

.

Tagged In web development