PostgreSQL Project

United States · www.postgresql.org · 9 vendors

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source object-relational database system that uses and extends the SQL language. It originated as the POSTGRES project at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. The software is developed and maintained by the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, an unincorporated association of volunteers and companies, and is known for its reliability, robust features, and extensibility.

Resilience scores

Technology vendors

Services catalogue

3 services in catalogue across 2 categories; runs on 9 sub-vendors.

Insights

Last updated 2026-08-14 · revision 7

9 direct vendors, 147 subvendors

Direct vendors by controlling owner country (sample)

Subvendors by controlling owner country (sample)

Migration Readiness: 9/10

Assessed by AI based on technology stack characteristics (cloud-native vs legacy, containerization, microservices), regulatory environment, data residency requirements, financial stability, and vendor lock-in risks. The score ranges from 0-10, where higher scores indicate better readiness for technology migration.

The PostgreSQL Project exhibits very high migration readiness, primarily driven by its open-source nature and the inherent adaptability of the PostgreSQL database software. As an open-source project, there are no licensing barriers or proprietary formats that typically lead to vendor lock-in, which is a major advantage for migration. The 'Total Vendors: 0' explicitly indicates an absence of direct vendor lock-in for the project itself, making it highly flexible for any potential infrastructure migration. The tech stack is modern and widely supported across various environments, including cloud platforms, and is highly compatible with containerization and microservices architectures. Features like logical replication facilitate data migration strategies. While the project's own infrastructure might face challenges due to the 'Assessment Required' status for GDPR and ISO 27001, and the lack of traditional financial resources for funding a large-scale migration, these are minor concerns compared to the overwhelming strengths. The project itself has no specific mandatory data localization requirements, offering flexibility in choosing migration targets. The extensibility of PostgreSQL, while powerful, could present a minor challenge if highly customized extensions are not easily portable, but this is generally manageable given the widespread community support.

Compliance

5 in-scope frameworks identified; showing 3.

US Export Administration Regulations — Assessment Required

PostgreSQL is a US-origin open-source software project. US export control regulations (EAR, administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security) apply to the export of software, including open-source software with encryption capabilities. PostgreSQL includes cryptographic functionality (SSL/TLS support, pgcrypto extension). While open-source software generally benefits from License Exception ENC and TSU under EAR, the project must ensure it meets the notification and classification requirements. Risk is Medium because non-compliance with export control notification requirements, even for open-source software, can result in penalties, and the project's global distribution makes this relevant.

Evidence: https://www.postgresql.org/about/, https://www.postgresql.org/download/

CPRA — Assessment Required

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its amendment CPRA apply to for-profit businesses meeting specific thresholds (annual gross revenue >$25M, buying/selling/receiving personal information of 100,000+ consumers/households, or deriving 50%+ of revenue from selling personal information). The PostgreSQL Project is a non-profit open-source community project and likely does not meet the for-profit business threshold for CCPA applicability. Risk is Low because the project's non-commercial nature likely exempts it from CCPA, though this should be formally confirmed.

Evidence: https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/privacy/, https://www.postgresql.org/about/donate/

Open Source License Compliance — Compliant

The PostgreSQL Project distributes its software under the PostgreSQL License, a permissive open-source license similar to the BSD/MIT licenses. The project itself is the originator and steward of this license, making self-compliance inherent. Risk is Low as the project controls its own licensing terms and has maintained consistent licensing for over 35 years.

Evidence: https://www.postgresql.org/about/licence/, https://www.postgresql.org/about/policies/

Financials

Three-year financials

Financial Resilience Score: 8/10

PostgreSQL is not a commercial entity but an open-source database software project stewarded by the PostgreSQL Global Development Group (PGDG). Traditional financial resilience metrics do not apply as the project has no revenue, EBIT, equity, or employees. However, its resilience as a project is extraordinarily high due to its 35+ year track record dating to the POSTGRES project at UC Berkeley (1986), its distributed governance model, and its permissive PostgreSQL License which prevents forced re-licensing that has destabilized other OSS projects like MySQL, MongoDB, Elastic, Redis, and HashiCorp. The project benefits from massive commercial ecosystem underwriting, with major contributors paid by employers including EDB, Crunchy Data, Microsoft, AWS, Google, Fujitsu, NTT, VMware/Broadcom, Cybertec, Percona, Aiven, Supabase, Neon, and Timescale. This diversified corporate sponsorship makes contributor funding highly resilient and eliminates single-point-of-failure risk. Because PostgreSQL is not owned by any company, it cannot go bankrupt, be acquired, or have its license changed by a private-equity buyer. Key risks include the absence of a central treasury to fund large strategic initiatives, marketing, or legal defense at scale; contributor concentration risk where a handful of committers do a disproportionate share of core work; trademark and infrastructure dependency on a few non-profits with modest budgets (low six-figure euro/USD range); and competitive pressure from cloud vendors (AWS Aurora, Google AlloyDB, Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL) that monetize PostgreSQL heavily but contribute back variably.

Key strengths: 35+ year track record with continuous development since 1986, Distributed governance model with no single point of failure, Permissive PostgreSQL License preventing forced re-licensing, Diversified corporate sponsorship from EDB, AWS, Microsoft, Google, Fujitsu, NTT, and many others, Named DBMS of the Year by DB-Engines three times (2017, 2018, 2023), Most-used database among professional developers per Stack Overflow 2023 and 2024 surveys, Multiple non-profit associations supporting infrastructure (PGDG, PGEU, PgUS, JPUG)

Risk factors: No central treasury for large strategic initiatives, marketing, or legal defense, Contributor concentration risk among key committers, Trademark and infrastructure dependency on non-profits with modest budgets, Competitive pressure from cloud vendors monetizing without proportional contribution, No commercial support obligations - users must buy support from third parties

Signed-in users can see whether their own company is exposed to this vendor's disruption, plus the full sub-vendor list and country breakdowns, every in-scope compliance framework plus gaps and next steps, and alerts when any of it changes.

View the full interactive report