The best Postgres extensions, according to hackers
14 Postgres extensions were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 5 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended Postgres extensions with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Fast enough for many workloads
People recommend it as an easy way to add vector search inside PostgreSQL, avoiding a separate database; critics say it struggles with very large, fast-changing indexes.
Powerful, feature-packed geospatial tool
People recommend PostGIS for storing, indexing and querying geospatial data inside PostgreSQL, citing speed at scale and a feature-packed set of functions.
Single query across operational and lake data
Free open-source Postgres extension for querying data lake tables alongside operational data in one database. Common caveat: it lacks some Postgres and Parquet types, and CDC is not open source.
All 14 Postgres extensions, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pgvector | 55 | 20 | 73% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 2 | PostGIS | 20 | 3 | 87% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 3 | pg_lake | 18 | 3 | 86% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 4 | ParadeDB | 13 | 1 | 93% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 5 | pg_textsearch | 10 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 5 | Tin full-text search for Postgres | 10 | 3 | 77% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | pg_durable | 10 | 6 | 63% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 8 | Citus | 9 | 5 | 64% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 8 | pgrx | 9 | 2 | 82% | 4 | — | — |
| 10 | pg_bm25 PostgreSQL extension | 8 | 1 | 89% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | pg_clickhouse | 7 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | pgvectorscale | 7 | 5 | 58% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | pg_cron | 6 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | Apache AGE | 6 | 2 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same Postgres extension in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to Postgres extensions that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.