Every few months someone posts "MySQL or PostgreSQL?" and the comments turn into a religion war within minutes. I have run both in production — MySQL behind WordPress sites and a legacy CRM, PostgreSQL behind Nextcloud, a couple of Django apps, and most of what I build today. This is the comparison I wish someone had given me before I picked sides: no benchmarks with suspicious methodology, just what actually differs when you live with these databases.

The one-paragraph answer

If you are starting something new in 2026, pick PostgreSQL unless you have a specific reason not to. If you are running WordPress or an older PHP app, stay on MySQL/MariaDB because that is what the ecosystem expects and there is no prize for swimming upstream. The interesting part is why.

Where PostgreSQL genuinely wins

Data types and correctness. PostgreSQL has jsonb with real indexing, arrays, ranges, proper UUID types, and constraints that actually constrain.…