
Just Use Postgres!
All the Database You Need
Manning · Print & ebook · December 16, 2025
You probably don’t need a collection of specialty databases.
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- Who it’s for
- Explore Postgres across transactional workloads, modern SQL, search, JSON, AI, geospatial data, and time series.
- Themes
- Postgres for diverse workloads, Modern SQL and indexing, Postgres instead of specialty databases
- Genres
- Database Administration, SQL & Databases, Machine Learning
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Start with this bookAbout this book
You probably don’t need a collection of specialty databases. Just use Postgres instead! Written for application developers and database pros, Just Use Postgres! shows you how to get the most out of the powerful Postgres database. In Just Use Postgres!
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you’ll learn how to: • Use Postgres as an RDBMS for transactional workloads • Develop generative AI, geospatial, and time-series applications • Take advantage of modern SQL including window functions and CTEs • Perform full-text search and process JSON documents • Use Postgres as a message queue • Optimize performance with various index types including B-trees, GIN, GiST, HNSW, and more Over the decades, PostgreSQL, aka Postgres, has grown into the most powerful general-purpose database and has become the de facto standard for developers worldwide. Just Use Postgres! takes a modern look at Postgres, exploring the database’s most up-to-date features for AI, time-series, full-text search, geospatial, and other application workloads. Foreword by Josh Long. Afterword by Vlad Mihalcea. About the technology You know that PostgreSQL is a fast, reliable, SQL compliant RDBMS. You may not know that it’s also great for geospatial systems, time series, full-text search, JSON documents, AI vector embeddings, and many other specialty database functions. For almost any data task you can imagine, you can use Postgres. About the book Just Use Postgres! covers recipes for using Postgres in dozens of applications normally reserved for single-purpose databases. Written for busy application developers, each chapter explores a different use case illuminating the breadth and depth of Postgres’s capabilities. Along the way, you’ll also meet an incredible ecosystem of Postgres extensions like pgvector, PostGIS, pgmq, and TimescaleDB. You’ll be amazed at everything you can accomplish with Postgres! What's inside • Generative AI, geospatial, and time-series applications • Modern SQL including window functions and CTEs • Full-text search and JSON • B-trees, GIN, GiST, HNSW, and more About the reader For application developers, software engineers, and architects who know the basics of SQL. About the author Denis Magda is a recognized Postgres expert and software engineer who worked on Java at Sun Microsystems and Oracle before focusing on databases and large-scale distributed systems. Table of Contents Part 1 1 Meeting Postgres 2 Standard RDBMS capabilities 3 Modern SQL 4 Indexes Part 2 5 Postgres and JSON 6 Postgres for full-text search Part 3 7 Postgres extensions 8 Postgres for generative AI 9 Postgres for time series 10 Postgres for geospatial data 11 Postgres as a message queue Appendixes A Five optimization tips B When not to use Postgres Get a free eBook (PDF or ePub) from Manning as well as access to the online liveBook format (and its AI assistant that will answer your questions in any language) when you purchase the print book.
Postgres Beyond Transactions
Explore Postgres across transactional workloads, modern SQL, search, JSON, AI, geospatial data, and time series.
Come here for
- Generative AI, geospatial, and time-series applications
- Full-text search, JSON documents, and Postgres as a message queue
Expect
- Recipes for applications often handled by single-purpose databases
- Coverage of window functions, CTEs, and several index types
Where it sits
| SQL & Databases | 76% |
|---|---|
| Database Administration | 74% |
| Machine Learning | 31% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Database Administration
- SQL & Databases
- Desktop Databases
- Authors
- Denis Magda
- Publisher
- Manning
- Published
- December 16, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Postgres for diverse workloads · Modern SQL and indexing · Postgres instead of specialty databases
- Reading lane
- Database Administration