# PgQue

8 Hacker News commenters recommended PgQue and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Postgres-based queue that gives durable messaging without running Kafka or RabbitMQ, built on an insert-only event table to avoid bloat. Critics doubt the zero-bloat claim.

## Why people recommend it

- Bloat-free insert-only event design (2 comments): "operates bloat-free (one of the largest operational hurdles in queue-like Postgres workloads)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970347)) "active event table is INSERT-only. Each consumer remembers its own pointer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47820636))
- Well-designed, interesting trade-offs (2 comments): "the different approach is refreshing to see and interesting for different system trade off" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48318355)) "it seems really well-designed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49115729))
- Polished tooling around Postgres queues (2 comments): "There's great projects like https://github.com/NikolayS/pgque and https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/4/4/absurd-in-production/ that give you even some tooling around that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48666944)) "Something like pgque would have made that much more polished." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415730))

## What people warn about

- Zero-bloat claim questioned (1 comments): "the idea of considering a queue built inside a database to be "zero bloat" leaves me scratching my head" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47819905))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Apache Kafka](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-kafka.md): 53 recommend
- [NATS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nats.md): 34 recommend
- [Redpanda](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redpanda.md): 17 recommend
- [RabbitMQ](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rabbitmq.md): 13 recommend
- [PostgreSQL LISTEN/NOTIFY](https://hackerapproved.com/p/postgresql-listen-notify.md): 13 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "PgQue", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pgque/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).