PostgreSQL Crowned Database of the Year 2024!
Today, the renowned database popularity ranking site DB-Engines announced its Database of the Year for 2024. PostgreSQL has claimed this honor for the fifth time. Of course, PostgreSQL was also crowned Database of the Year in 2023, 2019, 2018, and 2017. If Snowflake hadn’t stolen the spotlight in 2020 and 2021, pushing PostgreSQL to second place, we’d be looking at a seven-year winning streak.
PostgreSQL Claims the Crown as “Database Management System of the Year” for 2024
DB-Engines has officially announced that PostgreSQL has once again been crowned “DBMS of the Year” - marking its second consecutive win and fifth overall triumph following its dominance in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Snowflake secured the runner-up position with its impressive momentum, while Microsoft claimed third place. Over the past year, PostgreSQL has emerged as the most popular database management system, surpassing all other 423 databases monitored by DB-Engines.
Rewind nearly 35 years to when “Postgres” first burst onto the scene. Since then, PostgreSQL has continuously evolved to keep pace with database technology trends, growing more powerful while maintaining rock-solid stability. PostgreSQL 17, released in September 2024, pushed this “evergreen tree” to new heights with enhanced performance and expanded replication capabilities. In today’s open-source landscape, PostgreSQL stands as a shining example of how to maintain both popularity and technical excellence.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Looking at DB-Engines’ popularity score increments this year, Snowflake gained 28 points while PostgreSQL increased by 14.5 points. Following their usual calculation rules for Database of the Year (based on popularity scores from January 2024 to January 2025), Snowflake should have technically claimed the title. Yet, the editors still chose PostgreSQL as Database of the Year.
Of course, I don’t believe DB-Engines’ editors would make such an elementary mathematical error. To be frank, given PostgreSQL’s remarkable growth and impressive metrics in 2024, if they hadn’t named PG as Database of the Year, it would have only damaged the credibility of their rankings (much like how a gaming publication would lose face if they didn’t recognize Breath of the Wild or The Witcher 3 as Game of the Year). I suspect the editors had no choice but to crown PostgreSQL as No. 1, even if it meant going against their own metrics.
To be honest, compared to first-hand, large-sample surveys like the StackOverflow Annual Global Developer Survey, popularity rankings like DB-Engines should only be taken as rough references. While their standardized methodology makes them valuable for tracking a database’s historical popularity trends (vertical comparability), they’re less reliable for comparing different databases head-to-head (horizontal comparability).
Original DB-Engines Blog Post
PostgreSQL Named Database Management System of the Year 2024
By Tom Russell, January 13, 2025
https://db-engines.com/en/blog_post/109
DB-Engines has officially announced that PostgreSQL has been crowned “DBMS of the Year” - marking its second consecutive win and fifth overall triumph following its dominance in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023. Snowflake secured the runner-up position with its impressive momentum, while Microsoft claimed third place. Over the past year, PostgreSQL has emerged as the most popular database management system, surpassing all other 423 databases monitored by DB-Engines.
Rewind nearly 35 years to when “Postgres” first burst onto the scene. Since then, PostgreSQL has continuously evolved to keep pace with database technology trends, growing more powerful while maintaining rock-solid stability. PostgreSQL 17, released in September 2024, pushed this “evergreen tree” to new heights with enhanced performance and expanded replication capabilities. In today’s open-source landscape, PostgreSQL stands as a shining example of how to maintain both popularity and technical excellence.
Snowflake, this year’s runner-up, is much more than just a “snowflake” - it’s a cloud-based data warehouse service that has attracted a massive following with its unique architecture separating storage and compute. Combined with multi-cloud support and data sharing capabilities, it has become an industry hot spot. Snowflake’s rising rankings clearly demonstrate its growing influence in the field.
Microsoft, securing third place, remains a “veteran” in the database arena: Azure SQL Database offers fully managed relational database services with AI-driven performance optimization and elastic scaling, while SQL Server bridges the gap between on-premises and cloud with hybrid cloud capabilities. Microsoft’s continuous database innovations, coupled with its comprehensive data service ecosystem, make it a force to be reckoned with.