I’m often asked what do I think the future for Postgres holds, and my answer has been mostly the same for probably 8 years now, maybe even longer. You see for Postgres itself stability and reliability is core. So where does the new stuff come from if it’s not in the stable core… extensions.
Extensions within Postgres are unlike most other databases allowing you to modify or well extend the standard Postgres behavior. You can build other storage backends, new types, etc. Postgres itself ships with a number of extensions within the “contrib”. The list of contrib extensions hasn’t changed any time recently, but even contrib is a small sampling of what is possible. Beyond core there is a whole world of extensions, I want dig into just a smalls sampling starting with a few in core…

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The future of Postgres lies significantly in its extensions, which allow users to modify and extend standard behavior. Notable extensions include pg_stat_statements for query logging, auto_explain for performance debugging, Citus for sharding and distribution, and pg_search for full-text search capabilities. These extensions enhance the functionality, scalability, and performance of Postgres, offering solutions for various needs from scheduled jobs with pg_cron to efficient file handling with pg_parquet.

The future of Postgres?

<p>I just wish building and deploying pgrx-based extensions was a bit smoother—it can be pretty frustrating as it stands</p>
