head to head · open source
postgrest vs postgres
postgrest has 27,670 GitHub stars, 1,229 forks, 400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. postgres has 8,730 stars, 374 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. postgrest leads on adoption by 217% (27,670 vs 8,730 stars). postgrest is written in Haskell under MIT; postgres is written in JavaScript under Unlicense. postgrest has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, postgres 4%. postgrest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (database, postgres, postgresql), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| postgrest | postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | MIT | Unlicense |
| Written in | Haskell | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 374 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick postgrest if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Haskell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick postgres if
- You want the postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postgres fits your workflow better
About postgrest
PostgREST is a Haskell written server that serves a fully RESTful API from any existing PostgreSQL database, and it is aimed at developers, database administrators, and operators who want a standards compliant HTTP API without writing and maintaining one from scratch.
read the full postgrest overview →
About postgres
Postgres.js is a full featured PostgreSQL client for JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes — Node.js, Deno, Bun and Cloudflare — published to npm as postgres , and it is aimed at developers who need to query a PostgreSQL database from application code without adopting a heavier ORM or query builder.
read the full postgres overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is postgrest or postgres more popular?
postgrest has 27,670 GitHub stars and postgres has 8,730. postgrest has the larger community by that measure.
Are postgrest and postgres free?
Both are open source. postgrest is licensed under MIT and postgres under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between postgrest and postgres?
postgrest is written in Haskell and postgres in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, postgrest or postgres?
Choose postgrest if you want the larger community (27,670 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose postgres if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.