My Story
I spent most of my career working with PostgreSQL. Then I joined a new company that uses MySQL, and I realized a lot of things in MySQL work... differently.
At first, I assumed these were just surface-level differences - different syntax, different commands. But as I dug deeper, I discovered something more interesting: these databases make fundamentally different architectural choices. How they handle connections, organize data on disk, manage concurrent updates, enforce data integrity — there are deliberate trade-offs at each level.
Understanding these differences transformed how I work with both databases. It helped me avoid performance pitfalls, write better queries, and make more informed architectural decisions. More importantly, it helped me understand that the question isn't "which database is better?" — it's "which trade-offs matter for my use case?"
That's why I'm writing this series to share what I learned and help you understand how these databases really work under the hood.
What We're Comparing
We'll be comparing:
- MySQL (InnoDB storage engine): Version 8.4.x
- PostgreSQL: Version 17.x
Why InnoDB specifically? Because it's the default and most widely-used storage engine in MySQL. When people talk about MySQL in production, they're almost always talking about InnoDB.
Note: Both MySQL and PostgreSQL are world-class databases powering some of the largest applications on the internet. This isn't about declaring a winner—it's about understanding the architectural trade-offs each database makes. Sometimes MySQL's choices are better for your use case, sometimes PostgreSQL's are. The goal is to give you the knowledge to make that decision yourself.
Let's dive in.
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