I love the annual StackOverFlow Developer Survey. The survey contains simple questions with direct, simple answers. I’s also about something that I love following and keeping up with: the software developer technology stack. Questions like, “What programming language do you use?”, “What IDE?”, “What web framework?” along with many other tools developers use. It not only asks, “What do you use?” but also “What would you prefer to be using?” and “What technology in the category do you admire/love?”
Working at a database company, the questions that interest me most are the questions about databases. In the 2025 Stackoverflow Survey Postgres is the most used, the most desired, and most admired database. However, that was not always the case and is something that developed over the past eight years.
This will be a two-part blog:
- Part 1: Presenting the data from the stack overflow over the past eight years and how Postgres has risen to the top. This part will mostly be “just the facts,” showing how answers have shifted and noting significant changes in certain places in time.
- Part 2: In part two, I will provide my thoughts on why Postgres has ascended over the years and also why Postgres was not number one in all categories from the very beginning (it was a distant fourth in a few cases).
So again–Part 1: the facts, Part 2: My opinions about the data.
On to Part 1.
The data
It is important to note, while the questions differ a bit over the years, the spirit of the questions remain roughly the same. With a little digging you can see the trends over the years.
In 2017, the survey introduced questions about databases. Prior to that, the survey made no mention of them. The questions took slightly different forms over the years. However, roughly speaking, the questions were:
- What database do you use the most?
- What database do you want to use the most?
- What database do you admire the most?
The most used database
Here are the results from 2017 for the question “what database do you use?” vs. the results from 2025.
In 2017 Postgres was the fourth most used database. It trailed the leader MySQL by almost 30 percentage points. In 2025 Postgres is the most used database by developers by over 15 percentage points–a swing of just under 45% in 8 years. There were two notable jumps in usage: from 2017 to 2018, and from 2024 to 2025. I’ll have more to say about those periods in Part 2.
I have watched the technology developers prefer for decades, regularly checking sources like the Tiobe Index and DB-Engines. I can only recall one other swing of this magnitude in such a short period of time: The rise of Java.
The Java programming language hit the streets in 1995 and I believe it became the most used programming language in the world in less than 10 years. The rise of Java was quite different. Java was a newcomer rising up to the top. Postgres rose to the top as a technology that has been around as long as or longer than its competitors. I can’t think of any other case where that has happened. Only a new up and comer takes out the champ. Not somebody who has been around as long or longer than the champ
So according to the survey, Postgres is the database most used by developers.
Is it really the database they want to use? The survey data is able to provide insights into that question as well.
The graph below shows the trend in results based on which database developers want to use.
It is notable that Mongo was a strong first in 2017. I have some opinions on why that was the case - but that comes in Part 2 of this series. This graph may be a bit mis-leading in that it appears there was a change in the way the question was asked, or the way the data was presented between 2022 and 2023. However, by any metric and any approach Postgres is far and away the database developers want to use and has been for several years.
Regarding what happened to the question between 2022 and 2024.
From 2017 to 2022, the data was presented in the way represented in the picture below from the 2017 survey.
The presentation and style changed a bit during this time. However, the graph always showed the percentage of what was wanted.
In 2023, the data was presented as what database is “desired” by developers as opposed to what database is wanted. It also co-located with what database you admire. The below graph is from 2025 and is representative of how things were presented from 2023 to 2025.
For the purpose of the analysis, I have equated “wanted” to “desired.” However, I strongly suspect there is another element that will explain this ramp in between 2022-2024, although I decided not to track down why that is prior to writing this blog.
The most loved database
OK, now on to the final database question in the survey: What is the most loved/admired database trend over the years? Today, it is Postgres. Here is the stack overflow data between 2017 and 2025:
Postgres and Redis were neck-and-neck for the top spot for 6 years. Then Redis took a plunge in the 2023 time frame, eventually dropping to being the fourth most loved / desired database behind SQLite, Valkey and Postgres in 2025. From looking at the graph it is hard to understand why everything moves down and to the right between 2024 and 2025. As far as I can tell, this is a result of a new player in the mix. That new player is Valkey, which made its debut in the Stack Overflow survey in 2025. It received a whopping 64.7% as the most loved database. I believe having another top player dragged everybody else's results down. Postgres just barely beat it out as the 2025 winner, giving Postgres its fourth consecutive title in this category. Datomic first appeared on the list in 2024. Its debut was a score of 70.7. Enough to catch everybody but Postgres. I will be very interested to see how Valkey performs in 2026. Will it have staying power or will it take a hard plunge as Datomic did?
Note: Just as I was about to publish this blog, I learned that Valkey is a fork of Redis that is committed to a BSD license. So very interested to see where this goes.
Conclusion
Postgres has surpassed all databases in the Stack Overflow Developer survey in every major category. It has following ratings multiple years running:
- Most loved / admired database 4 consecutive years 2022 - 2205 inclusive.
- Most wanted / desired database 5 consecutive years 2021 -2025 inclusive.
- Most used database 3 consecutive years 2023 - 2025 inclusive.
I look forward to sharing with you my insights as to why Postgres rose to the 1) Most Used, 2) the Most Wanted and Desired 3) most Loved / Admired database with developers in just 8 short years. I hope to have this article available in early September.