EDB tops new ranking of commercial Postgres backers

EnterpriseDB has published a new framework ranking commercial contributors to PostgreSQL, as competition intensifies among cloud and data platform providers around the open source database.

Its Postgres Vitality Index measures the breadth and depth of contributions that influence PostgreSQL's direction, as more organisations standardise on the technology for data and AI work.

EDB ranked itself first, claiming more than 30% of the contributions it tracks. It listed AWS and Microsoft next, followed by Fujitsu, Snowflake (through Crunchy Data), Databricks (through Neon), Percona, Google, and Cybertec.

PostgreSQL, commonly referred to as Postgres, has a long history as a community-developed database and is often a default choice for application development and data modernisation. EDB framed the trend as a shift in strategic investment by large technology companies, particularly for AI-related workloads.

Market research cited in the announcement linked increased corporate investment to Postgres's role in modern enterprise stacks.

"The world's largest cloud and data companies are now deeply investing in Postgres, a clear signal of its growing role in modern enterprise and AI workloads. As corporate investment increases, EDB remains one of the project's most consistent contributors," said Devin Pratt, Research Director, IDC.

How it works

EDB described the index as assessing 12 factors across three areas: core contributions to the PostgreSQL code base; ecosystem contributions such as extensions and tooling; and "community nurture", defined as sustained investment in the health and growth of the Postgres community.

The index draws on publicly available information and focuses on what EDB described as the nine largest commercial contributors. It does not attempt to measure the full range of community activity, including work by individuals, universities, and smaller vendors on code, testing, documentation, and support.

EDB positioned the index as a way to highlight stewardship alongside adoption, arguing that rising commercial use does not automatically translate into long-term development effort.

EDB's senior engineering leaders said the index supports their view that Postgres is now central to enterprise systems, including high-criticality deployments.

"Developers have long loved Postgres for its extensibility, flexibility, and open innovation model. Now global enterprises are recognizing that same value, making Postgres a strategic decision and running mission-critical data systems on it. That transition doesn't happen by accident," said Jozef de Vries, SVP, Core Database Engineering, EDB.

"For nearly 20 years, EDB has invested in advancing the core, strengthening the ecosystem, and nurturing the community to ensure Postgres is ready not just for today's demands but for the future now unfolding," de Vries said.

Sovereignty focus

Alongside the index, EDB outlined its product direction around a platform it calls EDB Postgres AI, which it said targets data sovereignty and governance requirements that can arise when organisations deploy AI systems across multiple environments.

EDB pointed to a gap between ambition and delivery in AI platform consolidation, citing figures that 95% of enterprises aim for unified data and AI platforms, while 13% have achieved that at scale.

It also drew a distinction between Postgres adoption within hyperscaler services and the needs of enterprises running mixed estates. Many newer offerings embed the Postgres engine inside cloud or lakehouse products, but EDB argued this does not, on its own, meet governance and control requirements-particularly for hybrid deployments and sovereignty constraints.

EDB said its platform approach centres on a "hybrid-by-design" architecture and a single Postgres foundation for transactional, analytical, and AI workloads, while linking the approach to ongoing upstream contribution.

Chief executive Kevin Dallas described the shift as a move from broad popularity to operational criticality in AI-oriented environments.

"The market has validated Postgres. The next challenge is making it enterprise-ready for AI at scale," said Dallas. "EDB Postgres AI meets this demand by unifying transactional, analytical, and AI workloads on a sovereign platform designed for control, governance, and performance-across any environment. That's the difference between adopting Postgres in the mainstream and making it mission-critical for enterprise AI."

EDB also highlighted its publishing activity on Postgres and AI architecture, including an O'Reilly guide titled Building a Data and AI Platform with PostgreSQL. It said copies will be distributed to 25,000 attendees at Nvidia's GTC event this month.

The index comes as major vendors expand managed Postgres offerings and Postgres-compatible services, while specialist companies build tooling around security, observability, and distributed deployments. EDB said it plans to continue investing in upstream development and its Postgres-based platform roadmap as enterprise AI programmes move from pilots to larger-scale deployments.