Survey Methodology
In 2019, Timescale—the company behind TimescaleDB, the relational database for time series and events—launched the first State of PostgreSQL report, advancing our desire to provide greater insights into the vibrant and growing PostgreSQL user base. Following a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we resumed the initiative in 2021 and have been asking questions about the community's experience with PostgreSQL every year since.
The 2023 survey ran for six weeks, between August 1 and September 15. During that time, 888 people provided responses, which we (Timescale) aggregated to generate this report.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to these supporters who helped us distribute the survey: Aiven, Basedash, Command Prompt, EDB, Grant Fritchey, OnGres, Postgres Weekly, Supabase, Timbira, and Postgres Conference. Their invaluable support and collaboration have amplified our reach, enabling us to connect with more developers across diverse channels. Thank you, supporters, for your dedication to knowledge-sharing and community building. In addition to sending the survey to past participants and through our supporters, we promoted the survey on social media, email newsletters (our own and third-party), Timescale and PostgreSQL Slack channels, PostgreSQL mailing lists, Reddit, and Hacker News.
The 2023 survey includes many of the same questions to capture how responses evolve over time (we've noted where the question format changed). We have also included new questions about learning resources, third-party tools, production systems, and the use of AI. Please note that some of the percentages are rounded to the nearest full number for simplicity. We made minor grammatical edits to featured responses (e.g., capitalization, punctuation) but did not change the wording. The raw data includes wholly unedited responses.
This is the fourth State of PostgreSQL report. Check out the second and third report editions.
We look forward to issuing the survey annually and continuing to provide valuable insights for both new and experienced PostgreSQL users.
Summary
In a world where software longevity isn't long at all, the resilience of PostgreSQL, one of the world's leading open-source databases, is nothing short of remarkable. With more than 30 years of active development, PostgreSQL has stood the test of time, establishing a rich ecosystem of connectors and tools, honing a second-to-none developer experience, and maintaining the unmatched reliability it is well-known for.
These and other features have earned the open-source database a loyal following of enthusiasts and contributors, of which Timescale is proud to be a part of. Currently in its fourth edition, the State of PostgreSQL survey is our way of giving back to a community that has always supported us. By sharing the users' experience with PostgreSQL and how it's evolving, we hope to make it more inclusive, innovative, and successful.
Here are some of the main takeaways from the 2023 survey:
- Most users rate their first experience with PostgreSQL as positive, with an average rating of 3.7 on a scale of 1-5.
- PostgreSQL's usage is on the rise: 51.2% of respondents said that they use the open-source database more or a lot more today than a year ago.
- More than one-third of PostgreSQL users use AI tools in their workflow.
We hope these insights pique your interest in the full report. Keep reading to learn what the State of PostgreSQL is in 2023.
PostgreSQL
experiences
What is your primary geographic location?
Mirroring the 2021 and 2022 survey results, respondents from EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) account for almost half of all respondents, but this year APAC (Asia-Pacific) has increased to 20.3%, up 9.3 percentage points from last year (11%).
How long have you been using PostgreSQL?
According to DB engines, PostgreSQL’s popularity remains steady. Unsurprisingly, the number of new PostgreSQL users experimenting with the database for less than a year has grown from 6.1% in 2021 to 6.4% in 2022 and now 8.1% in 2023.
What is the main reason you choose to use PostgreSQL over other options?
This is the second year in a row that the #1 reason people choose PostgreSQL is because it’s open source (23.4%), up 4.1 percentage points from last year (19.3%). Feature set is the #2 highest ranked (15.1%), followed by reliability (12.4%), down 4.1 percentage points from last year (16.5%).
Interestingly, the reason why people choose PostgreSQL changes as the experience grows. Open source is the most important factor for choosing PostgreSQL for those who started using PostgreSQL in the past 5 years. Reliability and open source are important for those using PostgreSQL for 6-10 years. People using PostgreSQL between 11-15 years choose PostgreSQL because of its reliability.
Note: In 2023, we added features set and merged open source and license into one option.
Have you ever contributed to PostgreSQL?
Forty-four percent of PostgreSQL users with 15+ years of experience have contributed to PostgreSQL at least once. In fact, regardless of their experience, users across the board have contributed to the PostgreSQL community.
Note: The graph above combines data points from two questions, “Have you ever contributed to PG?” and “How long have you been using PG?”
PostgreSQL
at work
Compared to one year ago, is PostgreSQL being used more or less in your organization?
A total of 51.2% of respondents said that PostgreSQL is being used more or a lot more today in their organizations than a year ago. Small and medium businesses (0-50 employees) continue to use PostgreSQL more today than one year ago.
How big is your team?
Almost half of respondents (44.1%) work in organizations with 50 or fewer employees. Regardless of the company's size, respondents reported usually working on a team of 2-10 people.
Use cases
How would you define your personal and professional use case?
Seventy-three percent of respondents report using PostgreSQL for personal projects, while 94% use PostgreSQL at work. Forty percent use PostgreSQL for both personal and professional projects.
This year's top five results mirror those of 2022. App development and dashboarding remain in the top two spots for personal and professional use cases. The AI/Machine Learning category is new to the survey this year and seems to be gaining traction in the top six.
Which best describes the industry your organization is in?
In 2023, we added a few new options, Academia & Research, E-commerce, Government, Information Technology, Non-profit organization, and Security.
Community
How would you rate your ability to connect with the PostgreSQL community?
In the last three years, connecting with the PostgreSQL community has become increasingly difficult. After looking at previous years, we noticed a slight tilt away from “extremely easy” responses to “medium.” This year has seen the most significant increase in medium responses (41.1%) compared to 2022 (36.2%).
888 out of 888 people answered this question
In your experience, what’s the best thing about the PostgreSQL community / what do you like the most?
Over 489 respondents shared one or more aspects of the community they like the most. We have included a few responses below.
Ecosystem and
tools
What are your top 3 favorite or most frequently used PostgreSQL extensions?
Respondents shared their favorite PostgreSQL extensions in this freeform question. The 2023 top 10 responses were quite different from the previous year, with several new extensions such as pg_fdw, pg_repack, and pg_cron making the list this time around.
What languages do you most frequently use to access PostgreSQL?
Consistent with responses from the previous two years, SQL, Python, Java, and JavaScript/TypeScript were cited as the most commonly used languages to access PostgreSQL. New to the top five list is Go. PostgreSQL users with 0-5 years of experience are more likely to use JavaScript or TypeScript than Java.
Users with 6+ years of experience are more likely to use shell scripts to access the database than less experienced users.
Which of the following tools do you use most often to connect to PostgreSQL?
Responses to this question are consistent with results from 2022. The highest percentage of respondents said they use psql to connect to the PostgreSQL database. Other top answers include pgAdmin, DBeaver, Datagrip, and IntelliJ.
Note: Respondents could select as many options as desired.
What other third-party tools do you regularly use with PostgreSQL to assist with application development?
Almost half of the respondents (43.5%) said they do not use other third-party tools—of those who use one, Depesz EXPLAIN and pgBouncer were the most common responses.
Note: Respondents could select as many options as desired.
Which visualization tools do you use?
While 18% of respondents do not use visualization tools, of those who do, Grafana, pgAdmin, and DBeaver are still the tools they most likely use. These results are consistent with 2021 and 2022 responses.
Note: Respondents could select as many options as desired.
PostgreSQL
and AI
Do you currently use AI tools and what’s your attitude toward them?
It turns out that 45% of respondents have a favorable attitude toward AI tools, 35.2% are neutral, and only 19.7% have an unfavorable opinion. And even though there’s a higher number of favorable views, 36.9% say they are currently using AI tools in their workflow, versus the 63.1% that say they aren’t.
What are the main benefits you receive from using pgvector and PostgreSQL for AI/ LLM workloads?
Of those who responded yes to having used pgvector and PostgreSQL as your vector database for AI/ LLM workloads, a little over one-third (37.7%) said the main benefit is the ability to keep vector and relational data in the same database.
Note: Respondents could select as many options as desired.
Supporters
Thank you to everyone who promoted the State of PostgreSQL 2023 survey.
Thanks for reading!
