Users express concern over outages in PostgreSQL services provided by major cloud providers
In the rapidly evolving world of cloud-based databases, businesses are seeking reliable and high-performing solutions to power their applications. For those currently using PostgreSQL, the demand for near-perfect uptime is paramount, with 91% of organizations stipulating no more than four minutes of downtime per month. This article explores several PostgreSQL and PostgreSQL-compatible services that offer enhanced reliability and uptime beyond traditional hyperscalers.
Recently, PlanetScale, a company known for its distributed MySQL service, launched a PostgreSQL service. Built on open-source PostgreSQL and using a proprietary operator developed by the company, this service aims to provide strong uptime and reliability, although it is not sharded yet. A sharded version is in development. Performance gains have been reported by companies using PlanetScale's new service.
Another contender is pgEdge, a multi-master distributed database built on open-source PostgreSQL. It promises high availability and disaster recovery protection, making it an attractive option for businesses seeking resilience.
CockroachDB, known for its distributed architecture, is designed to provide high availability and resilience, making it well-suited for cloud-native environments. It is often used in applications requiring strong consistency and reliability. YugabyteDB, a PostgreSQL-compatible database, offers enhanced performance and reliability compared to traditional PostgreSQL setups. It incorporates vector indexing libraries to improve performance in AI-related workloads.
Xata, a platform with a decoupled architecture using NVMe over Fabrics for storage and compute separation, offers high performance at lower costs, making it a viable alternative for users seeking reliability and cost efficiency.
Neon and Supabase are two other services offering PostgreSQL-based solutions with unique features and architectures. Neon focuses on serverless PostgreSQL, while Supabase provides a PostgreSQL-based backend-as-a-service with real-time data capabilities. Both can be considered for high uptime needs, depending on specific deployment requirements.
As businesses migrate to cloud-based solutions, concerns about cloud region failures have emerged. Research firm Foundry found that among users of common cloud services for PostgreSQL, 82% expressed concern about cloud region failures, while 21% experienced such failures in the past year.
Traditional hyperscalers, such as AWS and Google, offer basic PostgreSQL services, as well as more tightly integrated options like Amazon Aurora and AlloyDB. While these services offer high uptime, they may not meet the stringent demands of some businesses. For those seeking alternatives, services like CockroachDB, YugabyteDB, pgEdge, Xata, Neon, and Supabase provide a range of options to enhance reliability and uptime.
In the first six months of 2025, database popularity ranking service DB-Engines found PostgreSQL the biggest climber, with a ranking increase of over 13 points. As PostgreSQL continues to gain popularity, businesses will undoubtedly seek out the most reliable and high-performing solutions to power their applications.
- PlanetScale, which provides a PostgreSQL service, aims to offer enhanced reliability and uptime by leveraging open-source PostgreSQL and a proprietary operator.
- Known for its high availability and disaster recovery protection, pgEdge is another PostgreSQL-based system that caters to businesses seeking resilience in the banking-and-insurance, finance, and data-and-cloud-computing industries.
- CockroachDB, a distributed database, is suitable for cloud-native environments due to its ability to provide high availability and strong consistency, especially in AI-related workloads, thanks to its incorporation of vector indexing libraries.
- Xata, with its decoupled architecture, offers high performance and cost efficiency, making it an appealing option for those seeking reliability in the enterprise and technology sectors.
- In the rapidly evolving finance industry, two services, Neon and Supabase, provide PostgreSQL-based solutions with unique architectures, including serverless PostgreSQL and real-time data capabilities, catering to high uptime needs.
