Until few years ago PostgreSQL was dramatically slower than MySQL. As for features it depends how you look for it. From what it can do in terms of queries it wa

Until few years ago PostgreSQL was dramatically slower than MySQL. As for features it depends how you look for it. From what it can do in terms of queries it was more powerful than MySQL, because MySQL just stopped on SQL-92. PostgreSQL also lacked in operational functionality. For example in older version it was your responsibility to take care of shopping WAL files to standby nodes. The PostgreSQL unlike MySQL has a rule that is they implement a feature they want to do it right. It is better to not have the feature than have it and it could cause data corruption. MySQL on the other hand starts with MVP so they can put a check mark and then later work on improving it and fixing bugs. In past year, PostgreSQL not only caught up but also surpassed MySQL in terms of performance (I think MySQL might still be faster if you mostly read the data, but I'm not sure) and operational features, so at this point not only you have as fast (and actually faster for writing workload) but also have more features and much much better reliability. So it is no brainier to use it right now, but earlier you had to choose what was more important to you.