# Compare various solutions to deploy PostgreSQL in Kubernetes

There are multiple ways to deploy and manage PostgreSQL in Kubernetes. Here we will focus on comparing the following open source solutions:

* [Crunchy Data PostgreSQL Operator (PGO)](https://github.com/CrunchyData/postgres-operator)
* [CloudNative PG](https://github.com/cloudnative-pg/cloudnative-pg), vendor-neutral, originally created by EDB
* [Stackgres](https://github.com/ongres/stackgres) from OnGres
* [Zalando Postgres Operator](https://github.com/zalando/postgres-operator)
* [Percona Operator for PostgreSQL](https://github.com/percona/percona-postgresql-operator/)

## Generic

| Feature/Product        | Percona Operator for PostgreSQL |        Stackgres            |                     CrunchyData                     |       CloudNativePG         | Zalando |
|------------------------|:-------------------------------:|:---------------------------:|:---------------------------------------------------:|:---------------------------:|:-------:|
| Open-source license    |          Apache 2.0             |            AGPL 3           | Apache 2.0, but images are under Developer Program  |          Apache 2.0         |   MIT   |
| PostgreSQL versions    |          12, 13, 14             |              14             |                      12, 13, 14                     |     11 - 14, 15 in Beta     | 11 - 14 |
| Kubernetes conformance | Various versions are tested     | Various versions are tested |             Various versions are tested             | Various versions are tested | AWS EKS |

## Maintenance

| Feature/Product  |   Percona Operator for PostgreSQL   |               Stackgres            |       CrunchyData       |      CloudNativePG      |            Zalando            |
|------------------|:-----------------------------------:|:----------------------------------:|:-----------------------:|:-----------------------:|:-----------------------------:|
| Operator upgrade |         :white_check_mark:          |         :white_check_mark:         |  white_check_mark:      |    :white_check_mark:   |  :white_check_mark:           |
| Database upgrade |            Automated and safe       |          Automated and safe        |          Manual         |          Manual         |              Manual           |
| Compute scaling  | Horizontal and vertical             | Horizontal and vertical            | Horizontal and vertical | Horizontal and vertical |    Horizontal and vertical    |
| Storage scaling  |          Automatic                     |          Manual                    |          Manual         |          Manual         | Manual, automated for AWS EBS |

## PostgreSQL topologies

| Feature/Product    | Percona Operator for PostgreSQL |     Stackgres        |       CrunchyData      |         CloudNativePG          |      Zalando       |
|--------------------|:-------------------------------:|:--------------------:|:----------------------:|:------------------------------:|:------------------:|
| Warm standby       |       :white_check_mark:        |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| Hot standby        |       :white_check_mark:        |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| Connection pooling |       :white_check_mark:        |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| Delayed replica    |        :no_entry_sign:          |   :no_entry_sign:    |    :no_entry_sign:     |       :white_check_mark:       |  :no_entry_sign:   |
| Tablespaces        |       :white_check_mark:        |   :no_entry_sign:    |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       |  :no_entry_sign:   |

## Backups

| Feature/Product   |      Percona Operator for PostgreSQL       |      Stackgres       |      CrunchyData       |         CloudNativePG          |      Zalando       |
|-------------------|:------------------------------------------:|:--------------------:|:----------------------:|:------------------------------:|:------------------:|
| Scheduled backups |             :white_check_mark:             |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| WAL archiving     |             :white_check_mark:             |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| PITR              |             :white_check_mark:             |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| GCS               |             :white_check_mark:             |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| S3                |             :white_check_mark:             |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| Azure             |              :no_entry_sign:               |  :white_check_mark:  |   :white_check_mark:   |       :white_check_mark:       | :white_check_mark: |
| Volume snapshots  |             :no_entry_sign:                |  :no_entry_sign:     |   :no_entry_sign:      |       :white_check_mark:       | :no_entry_sign:    |

## Monitoring

| Feature/Product |  Percona Operator for PostgreSQL  |               Stackgres               |           CrunchyData          |             CloudNativePG              |  Zalando |
|-----------------|:---------------------------------:|:-------------------------------------:|:------------------------------:|:--------------------------------------:|:--------:|
| Solution        | Percona Monitoring and Management | Exposing metrics in Prometheus format | Prometheus stack and pgMonitor | Prometheus metrics & Grafana dashboard | Sidecars |

## Miscellaneous

| Feature/Product                    |        Percona Operator for PostgreSQL     |            Stackgres             |           CrunchyData            |             CloudNativePG        |        Zalando                   |
|------------------------------------|:------------------------------------------:|:--------------------------------:|:--------------------------------:|:--------------------------------:|:--------------------------------:|
| Customize PostgreSQL configuration |             :white_check_mark:             |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |
| Helm                               |             :white_check_mark:             |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |
| Transport encryption               |             :white_check_mark:             |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |
| Data-at-rest encryption            |      Through storage class                 |       Through storage class      |       Through storage class      |      Through storage class       |      Through storage class       |
| Create users/roles                 |           limited                          |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |        :white_check_mark:        |          limited                 |