Pigsty v3.7.0 Documentation

    Pigsty is a PostgreSQL distribution: an open-source, local-first RDS-like solution. It isn't a database (DBMS), but rather a management tool, solution, and set of best practices. Think of a database as a car, a DBA as the driver, RDS as a taxi service, and Pigsty as self-driving software.

    Database expertise is scarce and costly—you either hire expensive DBAs or pay a premium for cloud RDS. Now there's a new option: Pigsty (the "self-driving" equivalent). It lets you run databases without a dedicated DBA at under one-tenth the cost of typical RDS, while achieving greater performance and flexibility in a local cloud environment.

    Pigsty packages hard-earned best practices from large, complex PostgreSQL deployments into a reproducible solution. It tackles everything: scalable installs, high availability, connection pooling, monitoring, backup/recovery, parameter tuning, IaC-based cluster management, one-click deployment, and automated ops—letting you avoid common pitfalls and reinventing the wheel.

    Pigsty provides a richer feature set than most RDS offerings: 400+ extensions, support for 9+ Postgres kernels, a unique monitoring system, and proven architecture refined by top-tier enterprise use (Apple, Alibaba, Tantan). It's easy to use, deeply tested, and fueled by genuine passion—at a depth and maturity level typical RDS platforms can't match.

    With Pigsty, you can run what's effectively a ¥400–¥1400/core/month RDS instance on bare-metal resources costing as little as ¥10/core/month—and skip paying a DBA's salary. At scale, total cost of ownership can drop by 90% or more. Pigsty slashes license, service, and personnel costs, so you can channel your budget where it really matters.

    Pigsty integrates 400+ PG extensions for an all-in-Postgres approach—letting you replace Redis, Kafka, MySQL, Elasticsearch, vector databases, and even certain OLAP/big-data use cases with one stack. This boosts developer agility, cuts complexity, and enables self-serve DevOps without needing a dedicated DBA.

    Pigsty's self-healing HA ensures you don't need to scramble when hardware fails—ops and DBAs can sleep easy. Advanced monitoring aids troubleshooting and performance tuning. IaC automates large-scale cluster management. Ops can double as DBAs, and DBAs skip heavy lifting to focus on high-value tasks—or just enjoy a tea break while learning PG.

    Pigsty is primarily developed by @Vonng / Ruohang Feng, a PostgreSQL veteran with a decade of open-source contributions and production experience at Alibaba, Tantan, and Apple. He's the founder of a one-person company (YC China/MiraclePlus S22) offering professional postgres consultancy. He's also a top database/cloud KOL with over 100k followers.

    Pigsty is one of the most active OSS projects in the PG ecosystem (OSSRank). It prevails in extension distribution and monitoring solutions, positioning itself as a challenger to cloud RDS. It's already in wide use across military, government, healthcare, internet, finance, and manufacturing sectors.

    Pigsty was built for massive PostgreSQL clusters, but it's also optimized for simplicity. Even solo developers or small businesses without DBA skills can get going easily. Largest known production scale: 25k vCPUs at 4.5 million QPS over six years. Smallest: a 1c1g VM demo or dev box.

    Pigsty focuses on Postgres best practices and integrates well with complementary open-source tools like Etcd, Redis, MinIO, DuckDB, Prometheus, FerretDB, Babelfish, IvorySQL, PolarDB, OrioleDB, OpenHalo, Supabase, Greenplum, Dify, Odoo, and more.

    Massive production postgres deployment, self-hosting RDS, object storage, caching, data warehousing, Supabase, etc. It can run enterprise apps like Odoo, Dify, wikis, GitLab, or serve as a monitoring hub for existing nodes and DBMS. It also excels at combining multiple PG extensions, powering interactive data apps, data visualization, and websites.

    Yes. Pigsty is 100% free software under the AGPLv3 license. You can use it freely for commercial purposes if you comply with that license. We value software freedom; for non-DBaaS/OEM use, we apply an Apache 2.0–like approach. See the license for details.

    Pigsty itself is free, but we provide commercial subscriptions for those who want assurance and expert support. Subscriptions extend coverage to more OS/PG/CPU architectures, plus consultancy. This delivers top-tier technical expertise and solutions, saving you time, reducing risk, and covering tough issues.

    Yes, under the AGPLv3 license—meaning any derivative work must be open-sourced. We reserve the right to pursue violations by public cloud/database vendors. If you prefer not to open-source derivatives, consider Pigsty Service Subscriptions, which provide explicit licensing and an AGPLv3 exemption for this scenario.