> In addition, because MySQL is, in my experience, more widely deployed, it’s easier to find and hire engineers with experience deploying and operating it. Postgres is a fine choice, especially if you already have expertise using it on your team, but I’ve personally been burned too many times.
This is opposite my experience. While I do suspect MySQL is more widely deployed, I've seen MySQL more frequently among less-mature teams, and Postgres more frequently among very-mature teams. I've also seen MySQL burn folks more than Postgres.
I do think, however, that both have enjoyed periods of popularity and stability. Right now, I think they're both quite stable, so it's really a coin toss. I find MySQL's behavior to be pretty weird compared to Postgres, and Postgres knowledge tends to translate pretty well to other databases, which are frequently derived from Postgres (Vertica, Redshift, Snowflake, Cockroach, etc.)
It sounds like the author's conclusion, that he would pick MySQL over Postgres, was heavily influenced by his recent encounter with a Postgres performance cliff where some django ORM code inadvertently uses subtransactions: https://buttondown.email/nelhage/archive/22ab771c-25b4-4cd9-...
What you described is pretty similar to my experience.
I wonder if part of the author's sentiment about it being more widely deployed can be explained in part by stack overflow trends data.
Basically, MySQL used to make up a much larger % of questions on the site (compared to postgres). But postgres had been growing, and MySQL shrinking, so now they're about the same on the site.
This is opposite my experience. While I do suspect MySQL is more widely deployed, I've seen MySQL more frequently among less-mature teams, and Postgres more frequently among very-mature teams. I've also seen MySQL burn folks more than Postgres.
I do think, however, that both have enjoyed periods of popularity and stability. Right now, I think they're both quite stable, so it's really a coin toss. I find MySQL's behavior to be pretty weird compared to Postgres, and Postgres knowledge tends to translate pretty well to other databases, which are frequently derived from Postgres (Vertica, Redshift, Snowflake, Cockroach, etc.)