Unlock the full potential of PostgreSQL to streamline your technology stack. Explore tailored solutions for various use cases, transforming how you develop and deploy applications.

Caching

Use Postgres for caching instead of Redis with UNLOGGED tables and TEXT as a JSON data type. Use stored procedures to add and enforce an expiry date for the data just like in Redis.

Also: You Don't Need a Dedicated Cache Service, readyset (src)

Message Queue

Use Postgres as a message queue with SKIP LOCKED instead of Kafka (if you only need a message queue). Or as a job queue in Go with River.

Also: Choose Postgres queue technology, PGMQ (src)

Time Series

Use Postgres with TimescaleDB (src) as a time-series database

In-memory OLAP

Use Postgres with pg_analytics as an in memory OLAP with Apache Datafusion

Store JSON documents

Use Postgres with JSONB to store Json documents in a database, search and index them - instead of Mongo

Cron Demon

Use Postgres as a cron demon to take actions at certain times, like sending mails, with pg_cron or pg_timetable (src)

Geospacial queries

Use Postgres for Geospacial queries (src)

Use Postgres for Fulltext Search instead of Elastic.

Also: ParadeDB (src), pgvector, Torus: seamlessly integrates search into Elixir (Ecto) (src), Postgres Full Text Search

Generate and return JSON without backend

Use Postgres to generate JSON in the database, write no server side code and directly give it to the API

Audit Logs

Use Postgres for auditing with pgaudit (src)

Also: temporal_tables, supa_audit, pgMemento

Deliver GraphQL

Use Postgres with a GraphQL adapter to deliver GraphQL if needed. Also: PostGraphile, hasura (src)

Column Oriented

Use Postgres as Column Oriented database with Hydra Columnar or cstore_fdw or ParadeDB pg_analytics and pg_lakehouse

NoSQL

Use Postgres as NoSQL database with FerretDB or Microsoft DocumentDB

Also: Pongo (src), dox

Graph Data

Use Postgres for Graph Data with Apache Age or Gel (src)

Foreign Data

Use Postgres with foreign data via wrappers (src)

Alternative Query Langauges

Use Alternative Query Langauges in Postgres with plprql (src) or pg_graphql

Make HTTP requests

If you need to make an HTTP requests from your SQL you can use pgsql-http or pg_net

In-browser Postgres sandbox with AI assistance

Instantly spin up an unlimited number of Postgres databases that run directly in your browser with database-build

Pub/Sub

If you need a publish/subscribe or job server at any point in your project, try using Postgres

ML/AI

Eliminate the need for separate systems and data transfers. Perform ML operations directly on your data where it resides. With PostgresML (src)

Authentication & Authorization

Store and handle JSON Web Tokens with pgjwt

Sensitive Data

Store encrypted secrets and other data in your database with Supabase Vault

PDFs

Work with PDFs in an ACID-compliant way using pgpdf (src)

REST API

Serve a fully RESTful API from any existing PostgreSQL database with PostgREST (src)

Change Data Capture (CDC)

Listen to change events on your Postgres tables to perform appropriate actions using SQL notify, Walex, or debezium (src)

Stream/Replicate Data

Stream/Replicate data from Postgres to Data Warehouses, Queues and Storage engines with PeerDB (src)

Render HTML

Render HTML or automatically build a UI on top of SQL queries using SQLPage (src), pg_render, plmustache, or Omnigres (src)

SVG

Create SVG graphics with pg_svg

Airtable alternative

Use Postgres as alternative to Airtable to organize, render and integrate your data with NocoDB (src), appsmith (src), or Baserow (src)

Data Visualization

Create Business intelligence and give everyone ability to work with data using Metabase (src) or evidence (src)

WASM

Embed Postgres in browser with real-time and reactive bindings using PGlite (src) or instant (src)

Real-time Sync

Use Electric (src) to stream PostgreSQL changes to clients with shape-based, partial replication

Attribution

2024-08-11

Insights and technical guidance are derived from the article "Just Use Postgres for Everything" by Stephan Schmidt

2024-08-31

More cases added from PostgreSQL is Enough by Chase Pursley

2025-04-06

Added "In-browser Postgres Sandbox" and "Pub/Sub"

2025-05-25

Added "PostgresML", "pgjwt", "Supabase Vault", "Microsoft DocumentDB", "Gel Graph DB", "pgpdf", "PostGraphile", "hasura/graphql-engine", "PostgREST", "CDC", "PeerDB", "Render HTML", "pg_svg", "Airtable alternative", "Data Visualization", "WASM" from PostgreSQL is Enough and other sources

2025-11-06

Added "Electric", updated "Vecto" → "Torus"

Contacts

If you would like to submit use case, give any feedback, or simply say "Thank You" please send me an email.

This webpage is provided free of charge and with no ads. It takes time to maintain, and hosting does cost money, so if you’ve found the content helpful, a small contribution to help keep it up and running would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Buy Me a Coffee

Made by Anton