Does Postgres Scale?
PostgreSQL demonstrates exceptional scalability for workflow execution, sustaining 144K writes per second (43K workflows/second) on a single server—sufficient for 4 billion workflows daily. The WAL (Write-Ahead Log) flushing mechanism, not CPU or I/O resources, is the primary bottleneck, meaning PostgreSQL's write performance is fundamentally limited by transaction commit serialization rather than hardware constraints. This validates PostgreSQL as a viable enterprise-grade backend for durable workflow systems, potentially reducing infrastructure complexity and costs compared to specialized workflow engines.
Hacker News3 min read
PostgreSQL demonstrates exceptional scalability for workflow execution, sustaining 144K writes per second (43K workflows/second) on a single server—sufficient for 4 billion workflows daily. The WAL (Write-Ahead Log) flushing mechanism, not CPU or I/O resources, is the primary bottleneck, meaning PostgreSQL's write performance is fundamentally limited by transaction commit serialization rather than hardware constraints. This validates PostgreSQL as a viable enterprise-grade backend for durable workflow systems, potentially reducing infrastructure complexity and costs compared to specialized workflow engines.