Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Tim Perdue of PHPBuilder has an excellent article comparing PostGRES and MySQL. The results are not all that surprising but the detail he used to compare and benchmark the two is impressive and neccessary. This appears to be a very valid web database test using some complex joins and the Apache benchmarking tool to accurately simulate load and database activity on a high volume web site (120 concurrent connections per second.) I would like to see a similar comparison on PostGRES, MySQL, Oracle and say DB2 (I know, so do it, what am I waiting for, time my friend, time.)

The results of the PostGRES vs. MySQL comparison are just what you would expect. MySQL is faster, 2-3 times faster per page view and MySQL was not greatly affectd by PHP persisitent database conenctions. PostGRES is hardier and holds up much better under pressure PostGRES handled many more concurrent connections without slowing down and even when tiwas overwhelmed did not crash, but rather chugged along, MySQL will die when stressed. PostGRES also did benefit from persistent connections and yielded a 30% greater response when they were present (alluding to a high PostGRES connection overhead.)

The final tally still stands, MySQL can do 90% of websites, if you need more than say 250,000 page views per day that are database driven, then you may want to get more robust and go PostGRES but you will sacrifice some performance for the stability. If you need transactional support then currently PostGRES is the only player (on the free open source market, of course you can always go Oracle and pay $100+ per CPU cycle, ouch!)

Note that the new rev of MySQL uis supposed to support transactions, the perfomance and stability verdict is still out. Also note that as far as logos and mascots go, PostGRES wins hands down, check the sites via the links, the PostGRES elephant is awesome.   PostGRES vs. MySQL: PHPBuilder