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MySQL vs PostgreSQL – Full Comparison With Examples

MySQL vs PostgreSQL – Full Comparison With Examples

Below is the ultimate enterprise-grade comparison between MySQL and PostgreSQL, covering architecture, performance, indexing, JSON, search capabilities, extensions, ACID behavior, transactions, concurrency, geospatial features, replication, stored procedures, tree structures, and full SQL examples.

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1. SQL Compliance

PostgreSQL

  • Almost fully SQL standard compliant
  • Supports advanced SQL features including:
  • Window functions
  • Materialized views
  • Recursive CTE
  • Full OUTER JOIN
  • Custom operators
  • Table inheritance
  • Full-text search
  • CROSS APPLY / LATERAL

Example – LATERAL join:

SELECT *
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN LATERAL (
    SELECT *
    FROM orders o
    WHERE o.user_id = u.id
    ORDER BY created_at DESC
    LIMIT 1
) last_order ON TRUE;

MySQL

  • Lower SQL compliance
  • No native full outer join
  • Fewer advanced SQL features
  • Window functions only became usable in MySQL 8

2. Performance

PostgreSQL performs best for:

  • Analytics
  • Complex queries
  • Heavy joins
  • OLAP workloads
  • JSON + relational hybrid applications

MySQL performs best for:

  • Simple CRUD
  • Read-heavy traffic
  • High-speed small to medium applications
  • Lightweight workloads

3. Index Types

PostgreSQL (Very Rich):

Supports:

  • B-tree
  • GiST
  • GiN
  • BRIN
  • Hash
  • Expression indexes
  • Partial indexes

Example – Partial index:

CREATE INDEX idx_users_active
ON users (email)
WHERE active = true;

MySQL

Supports:

  • B-tree
  • Hash (Memory engine only)

Advanced index types like GiST and GiN are not available.


4. JSON Handling

PostgreSQL

  • Industry-leading JSON support
  • Full indexing
  • JSONPath
  • Custom operators
  • Advanced querying

Example:

SELECT data->'address'->>'city'
FROM users
WHERE data @> '{"role": "admin"}';

MySQL

  • Has JSON data type
  • Limited operators
  • No full JSON indexing

5. Full Text Search

PostgreSQL

  • Built-in text search engine
  • Ranking, weighting, stemming
  • GiN index support

Example:

SELECT *
FROM articles
WHERE to_tsvector(content) @@ to_tsquery('database & engine');

MySQL

  • Basic full-text search
  • Limited ranking
  • No stemming
  • Few supported languages

Example:

SELECT *
FROM articles
WHERE MATCH(content)
AGAINST ('database engine' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);

6. Extensions & Customization

PostgreSQL

Extremely extensible. Supports modules such as:

  • ltree (hierarchical data)
  • postgis (geospatial)
  • pgvector (AI embeddings)
  • pg_cron
  • uuid-ossp
  • hstore

MySQL

  • Limited extension ecosystem
  • Must wait for vendor updates

7. Tree Structures (Hierarchical Data)

Adjacency List Example (Supported by both)

SELECT * FROM categories WHERE parent_id = 5;

Recursive CTE Example (PostgreSQL & MySQL 8+)

WITH RECURSIVE c AS (
    SELECT * FROM categories WHERE id = 12
    UNION ALL
    SELECT child.*
    FROM categories child
    JOIN c ON child.parent_id = c.id
)
SELECT * FROM c;

PostgreSQL executes this significantly faster.


PostgreSQL LTREE Example (PostgreSQL only)

Descendants:

SELECT * FROM categories
WHERE path <@ 'lms.programming';

Ancestors:

SELECT * FROM categories
WHERE path @> 'lms.programming.php.laravel';

MySQL

  • No LTREE
  • Must rely on VARCHAR + LIKE, which becomes slow at scale

8. Concurrency (MVCC)

PostgreSQL

  • True MVCC implementation
  • Readers do not block writers
  • Excellent for high-concurrency systems

MySQL

  • MVCC depends on InnoDB
  • More locking than PostgreSQL

9. Transactions & ACID

PostgreSQL

Fully ACID with:

  • Serializable isolation
  • Savepoints
  • Nested transactions

Example:

BEGIN;
INSERT INTO orders VALUES (...);
SAVEPOINT s1;
UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100;
ROLLBACK TO s1;
COMMIT;

MySQL

  • ACID only under InnoDB
  • No nested transactions

10. Stored Procedures

PostgreSQL

Supports multiple languages:

  • PL/pgSQL
  • Python
  • Perl
  • JavaScript
  • C

Example:

CREATE FUNCTION add_user(name text)
RETURNS void AS $$
BEGIN
    INSERT INTO users(name) VALUES(name);
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

MySQL

  • Only SQL-based stored procedures
  • Much more limited

11. Replication

PostgreSQL

  • Logical & physical replication
  • CDC (Change Data Capture)
  • Streaming replication
  • Bidirectional replication

MySQL

  • Strong replication support
  • Master–slave replication
  • Group replication

12. Security

PostgreSQL

  • Role inheritance
  • Row-level security (RLS)
  • Rich permission model

Example:

ALTER TABLE users ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

MySQL

  • No row-level security
  • Basic privilege system

13. GIS (Geospatial)

PostgreSQL (PostGIS)

  • Industry standard
  • Most advanced geospatial features available for SQL databases

Example:

SELECT ST_Distance(a.location, b.location)
FROM areas a, areas b;

MySQL

  • Basic GIS
  • Not suitable for complex geospatial applications

14. AI & Vector Search

PostgreSQL (pgvector)

  • Used by major AI platforms
  • Supports vector indexing and ANN search

Example:

SELECT *
FROM items
ORDER BY embedding <-> '[0.1, 0.2, 0.3]'
LIMIT 5;

MySQL

  • No vector support
  • Not suitable for AI workloads

Full Summary Table

FeatureMySQLPostgreSQLSQL Standard ComplianceLowHighPerformanceStrong for simple workloadsStrong for complex workloadsIndex TypesBasicAdvancedJSONGoodExcellentFull Text SearchBasicEnterprise-gradeExtensionsLimitedExtensiveTree StructuresWeakExcellent (LTREE + CTE)MVCCPartialFullGISBasicAdvanced (PostGIS)AI Vector SearchNot availableAvailable (pgvector)ReplicationGoodAdvancedSecurityBasicStrong with RLSStored ProceduresLimitedMulti-language