Thread: PostgreSQL vs Oracle
Hi, I am looking for some recent and hopefully genuine comparisons between Oracle and PostgreSQL regarding their performance in large scale applications. Tests from real world applications would be preferable but not required. Also differentiations in different areas (i.e. different data types, query structures, clusters, hardware, etc.) might be helpful as well. I don't trust the results that Google gives me. Regards, Victor Nawothnig
On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 1:17 AM, Victor Nawothnig <victor.nawothnig@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I am looking for some recent and hopefully genuine comparisons between > Oracle and PostgreSQL regarding their performance in large scale > applications. Tests from real world applications would be preferable > but not required. Also differentiations in different areas (i.e. > different data types, query structures, clusters, hardware, etc.) > might be helpful as well. Due to the terms of the license for Oracle, no one can publish benchmarks without their permission. Having used both Oracle 9 and pgsql from 6.5 to 8.3, I can say that PostgreSQL is competitive for most small to medium loads I've thrown at it, and given the high cost of licensing for oracle, you can throw a LOT of hardware at PostgreSQL to catch up the last 10 or 20% slowdown you might see in some apps. Most of Oracle's advantages are in the more advanced features like partitioning and reporting functions. That said, I find PostgreSQL takes a LOT less administration to keep it happy. Oracle doesn't just allow a wider range of performance tuning, it demands it. If you don't demonstrably need Oracle's advanced features then PostgreSQL is usually a better choice. Last place we worked we developed on pgsql and migrated to oracle in production (this was in the 7.4 era, when Oracle 9 was noticeably faster and better than pgsql for transactional loads.) It was very easy to write for pgsql and migrate to oracle as most SQL queries didn't need any serious changes from one db to the other. PostgreSQL generally tries to follow the SQL specs a little closer, oracle has more crufty legacy stuff in it. So, when you say large scale applications, are you talking OLTP or OLAP type workloads? My experience has been that very few OLTP apps get very large, as they get partitioned before they get over a few dozen gigabytes. OLAP, OTOH, often run into hundreds of Gigs or terabytes. I've found pgsql competitive in both really.
One year ago a Postgres teacher pointed me there: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-soup/postgresql-publishes-first-real-benchmark-17470 http://www.spec.org/jAppServer2004/results/res2007q3/jAppServer2004-20070606-00065.html that would be just like what you're looking for. Regards, Stefano On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 9:17 AM, Victor Nawothnig <victor.nawothnig@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I am looking for some recent and hopefully genuine comparisons between > Oracle and PostgreSQL regarding their performance in large scale > applications. Tests from real world applications would be preferable > but not required. Also differentiations in different areas (i.e. > different data types, query structures, clusters, hardware, etc.) > might be helpful as well. > > I don't trust the results that Google gives me. > > Regards, > Victor Nawothnig > > -- > Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@postgresql.org) > To make changes to your subscription: > http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance >
Victor Nawothnig wrote: > Hi, > > I am looking for some recent and hopefully genuine comparisons between > Oracle and PostgreSQL regarding their performance in large scale > applications. Tests from real world applications would be preferable > but not required. Also differentiations in different areas (i.e. > different data types, query structures, clusters, hardware, etc.) > might be helpful as well. Victor, Oracle expressly forbids, in their license agreement, anyone from publishing performance comparisons between Oracle and any other product. So you will rarely find anyone willing to publicly provide you any performance numbers. Difference in data structures, etc, are fairly easy to determine. Anyone can read the Oracle documentation. -- Guy Rouillier