# PostGIS 20 Hacker News commenters recommended PostGIS and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** People recommend PostGIS for storing, indexing and querying geospatial data inside PostgreSQL, citing speed at scale and a feature-packed set of functions. ## Why people recommend it - Fast spatial indexing at scale (2 comments): "postgres PostGIS index for location finding scaled well enough for Uber" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49048716)) "mainly for its speed at scale and spatial indexing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46927545)) - Powerful, feature-packed geospatial tool (3 comments): "PostGIS should be the standard for anything geospatial, such feature packed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586903)) "very useful addition for storing, indexing, and querying geospatial data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362508)) "Together with PostGIS, it's a powerful tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47288397)) - Fits mapping and spatial analysis work (3 comments): "Linking SagaGIS with PostGIS to do pre/post wildfire analysis was my jam." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064499)) "PostGIS is arguably a better match for what this project is doing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48680233)) "It got PostgreSQL+PostGIS (it's a mapping app), that's it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48666798)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [pgvector](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pgvector.md): 55 recommend - [pg_lake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pg-lake.md): 18 recommend - [ParadeDB](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paradedb.md): 13 recommend - [pg_textsearch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pg-textsearch.md): 10 recommend - [Tin full-text search for Postgres](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tin.md): 10 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "PostGIS", https://hackerapproved.com/p/postgis/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).