# Thinking of going back to MySql from PgSql. Your thoughts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [September 1, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201 "2010-09-01T02:44:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/1 "2010-09-01T02:44:00Z")
Just thinking out loud. about switching from pgsql to mysql. So far, haven’t experienced any differences between the two databases. I’ve been using mysql for the past few years. I like it more because am a mac interface junkie and mysql has sequel pro. Not that this is a determining factor. But pgsql also has navicat (in my opinion, not as good as sequel pro). The more important thing is, web hosts that I have spoken to have said that pgsql takes up a considerable amount of RAM than mysql… More RAM on a web host means more $$$. Moreover, since I’ve switched from Symfony PHP. Most of my other web projects will be hosted with a mysql db. I am sure there may be other more significant differences. But for my every day use as a web developer, I don’t really notice the internal features that pgsql has over mysql. What are you thoughts ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/2 "2010-09-01T03:04:29Z")
They make Navicat for MySQL too. I love it, couldn’t do without it. That being said, if you really can’t tell the difference between PGSQL and MySQL then you’re probably better off with MySQL 🙂 Most developers make the switch to PG because they realize they need more advanced DBA features that MySQL doesn’t offer. If you’re not missing these features, why bother? My $0.02. _Cue PG fan trashing MySQL based on technical merits here_ * * * > **[Expert design & software engineering](https://subimage.com/)** > > Subimage LLC is a digital agency based in Silicon Valley. > We're focused on creating high quality experiences your customers will love. [http://twitter.com/subimage](http://twitter.com/subimage) On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Christian F. ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/3 "2010-09-01T03:50:44Z")
One has said that he/she had to switch to pgsql because of scaling problems with mysql. Is this true? Just thinking of the future ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/4 "2010-09-01T04:49:30Z")
Christian F. wrote: > Just thinking out loud. about switching from pgsql to mysql. You would be making a huge mistake. > So far, > haven’t experienced any differences between the two databases. That’s nearly unbelievable unless you haven’t been using either much, or unless you’ve been using the most absolutely basic features. > I’ve > been using mysql for the past few years. I like it more because am a > mac interface junkie and mysql has sequel pro. Not that this is a > determining factor. But pgsql also has navicat (in my opinion, not as > good as sequel pro). Don’t choose your DB server based on pretty graphical clients. MySQL is far inferior to Postgres in virtually every respect. Postgres performs better, lets you have referential integrity along with a fast storage engine, and is more extensible (PostGIS would not be possible in MySQL, for example). I think MySQL is _still_ too brain-dead to scan table indices backwards, and its procedural language (if you ever need it) is so bad as to be nearly useless. Also, Postgres’ syntax adheres more closely to the SQL standard. MySQL’s advantages over Postgres include ease of setup and (so I’ve heard) clustering…and that’s it. For most projects, it is a mistake to choose MySQL over Postgres. > The more important thing is, web hosts that I have spoken to have said > that pgsql takes up a considerable amount of RAM than mysql… Never heard this. > More > RAM on a web host means more $$$. So configure your Postgres install to use less RAM. Or use Heroku, which has Postgres ready configured. > Moreover, since I’ve switched from Symfony PHP. Most of my other web > projects will be hosted with a mysql db. That’s just compounding the mistake. 🙂 > I am sure there may be other more significant differences. But for my > every day use as a web developer, I don’t really notice the internal > features that pgsql has over mysql. > > What are you thoughts You’ll notice the difference as soon as you try to do something non-trivial. Stick with Postgres. It’s by far the better product. The fact that the differences are under the hood doesn’t make them less important. There are also no commercial entities causing uncertainty as to its fate. Best, –Â Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid Sent from my iPhone ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/5 "2010-09-01T05:13:52Z")
On Aug 31, 2010, at 5:43 PM, Christian F. wrote: > Just thinking out loud. about switching from pgsql to mysql. So far, I wouldn’t. > haven’t experienced any differences between the two databases. I’ve Try inserting an invalid date into each database. See what it does. Unless it’s changed mysql will insert it as 0000-00-00. PostgreSQL will give you an error. I think mysql will set a warning, but it will still do the insert. Create a VARCHAR(100) field. Now stuff 101 characters into it. MySQL will truncate the data. PostgreSQL will give you an error. You might be lucky and never run into these but they are a PITA when you do. > I am sure there may be other more significant differences. But for my > every day use as a web developer, I don’t really notice the internal > features that pgsql has over mysql. Not sure how old these are, but might be interesting… [http://sql-info.de/mysql/gotchas.html](http://sql-info.de/mysql/gotchas.html) [http://sql-info.de/postgresql/postgres-gotchas.html](http://sql-info.de/postgresql/postgres-gotchas.html) Awhile back I had the exact same Rails site running on MySQL and PostgreSQL. Database created via Rails migrations. Data inserted via the same load scripts. Identical in every way. A query that joined two tables of about 30K and 100K rows respectively took 30 seconds in MySQL. It took \<1 on PostgreSQL. I was floored. The reason? The conditions were complex enough that MySQL wouldn’t use all the available indexes. This is a fairly well known problem. And it can be a killer. What good are creating indexes if it won’t use them? (for the record I may have some of my numbers wrong, but it was an incredible difference and the explain/analyze output clearly showed mysql wasn’t picking up indexes that were available). > What are you thoughts Don’t change. Write a letter to Sequel Pro and tell them you’d like them to support PostgreSQL 🙂 -philip ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/6 "2010-09-01T06:19:26Z")
Thanks for the feedback. @Philip, @Marnen, I will definitely review these points. Thanks for passing the information. @marnen I got an email from one of the web hosts I am communicating with. They have said this “Yes, PostgreSQL can be installed with our Managed VPS’s. Many use with cPanel but keep in mind it’s resource intensive so RAM usage will definitely be higher then MySQL.” @seth, the only thing I dont like about navicat is that it has to open up a new window for various tasks. i.e. open the table or query view. ---
**Author:** ![zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/d78d45/32.png) [@zurich\_by\_night](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zurich_by_night)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 9:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/thinking-of-going-back-to-mysql-from-pgsql-your-thoughts/194201/7 "2010-09-01T09:23:12Z")
On Wednesday 01 September 2010, Christian F. wrote: > Just thinking out loud. about switching from pgsql to mysql. So far, > haven’t experienced any differences between the two databases. […] As for the databases themselves: Add or delete a column to/from an existing large table, say \> 1M rows. Or add/remove an index. In PostgreSQL these operations will all be well below a minute. In MySQL I’ve experienced them to take so long as to become prohibitive. Also, if anything goes wrong during your migration, PostgreSQL behaves properly transactional. MySQL will leave you with a partially applied migration where you have to sort out the mess manually. Possibly it is a matter of taste or familiarity, but I think the PostgreSQL reference docs are much better and particularly much better organized. As a bonus, on Debian Linux I have all the command and SQL language references as man pages. The psql commandline tool, in my opinion, is far superior to mysql. For one thing, auto-completion works. > The more important thing is, web hosts that I have spoken to have > said that pgsql takes up a considerable amount of RAM than mysql… > More RAM on a web host means more $$$. I haven’t been there myself, as I mostly work on small-scale apps, but I take it that properly configured for a high load, both DBMS take lots and lots of RAM – and use it to improve performance. If you are concerned about the RAM use, you ought to look into how these systems are configured. Their default configurations are meant to work, but are in no ways optimized for what you might be doing with your databases. Michael – Michael S. [mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [http://www.schuerig.de/michael/](http://www.schuerig.de/michael/)