What is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL (often called Postgres) is a powerful, open-source object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) with over 35 years of active development. It is known for its standards compliance (SQL:2016), extensibility, and robustness. PostgreSQL supports advanced data types (JSON, arrays, hstore, UUID, geometric), full-text search, custom functions, stored procedures, triggers, and foreign data wrappers. It uses MVCC (Multi-Version Concurrency Control) to handle concurrent access without read locks. Popular in web applications, analytics, and geospatial systems (via the PostGIS extension), PostgreSQL is the default database for many frameworks including Rails and Django.