PostgreSQL
| License | FOSS problems | Maintenance | SSO | Users | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL LicensePermissive license. An MIT/BSD-style permissive license — use, modify, and redistribute freely, including in proprietary products, with no obligation to share changes. | — | Active | — | Unlimited | ✅ |
Description
PostgreSQL is a general-purpose, object-relational database — the default across most of this project's own stack already, since it's what Coolify's own database and most services deployed through it default to.
Features
- Standards compliance — strong adherence to SQL standards, not a dialect that drifts from them.
- JSONB — semi-structured data as a first-class type, not bolted on.
- Extension ecosystem — PostGIS for geospatial, pgvector for embeddings, letting it grow into roles a plain relational database usually can't.
Usage patterns
- The default engine here already — what Coolify's own database and most services deployed through it default to; sticking with it means one database engine to operate, back up, and understand instead of several.
- Extension-dependent deployments — a strength that cuts both ways: easy to end up depending on an extension like pgvector in a way that pins a deployment to a specific Postgres build or hosting option.
- Not for pure analytical workloads — the wrong shape of tool for large-dataset analytics — see ClickHouse.
License and governance
PostgreSQL License — about as permissive as licenses get, no dual-licensing, no single company that owns it to relicense the way MySQL's owner can.
Conclusion
Why you would — genuinely open, already the default across most of this project's own stack, and versatile enough (JSONB, PostGIS, pgvector) to cover roles a plain relational database usually can't.
Why you wouldn't — heavier to run than SQLite for something genuinely small and single-user, and its extension ecosystem can pin a deployment to a specific build or hosting option if leaned on too heavily.