Just Use Postgres!

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All the database you need
Denis Magda
Foreword by Josh Long
Afterword by Vlad Mihalcea
  • November 2025
  • ISBN 9781633435698
  • 400 pages
  • printed in black & white
  • available in Korean, Russian
print book available Nov 24, 2025
ePub + liveBook available Nov 24, 2025

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Look inside
You probably don’t need a collection of specialty databases. Just use Postgres instead!

Written for application developers and database pros, Just Use Postgres! shows you how to get the most out of the powerful Postgres database.

In Just Use Postgres! you’ll learn how to:

  • Use Postgres as an RDBMS for transactional workloads
  • Develop generative AI, geospatial, and time-series applications
  • Take advantage of modern SQL including window functions and CTEs
  • Perform full-text search and process JSON documents
  • Use Postgres as a message queue
  • Optimize performance with various index types including B-trees, GIN, GiST, HNSW, and more

Over the decades, PostgreSQL, aka Postgres, has grown into the most powerful general-purpose database and has become the de facto standard for developers worldwide. Just Use Postgres! takes a modern look at Postgres, exploring the database’s most up-to-date features for AI, time-series, full-text search, geospatial, and other application workloads.

about the technology

You know that PostgreSQL is a fast, reliable, SQL compliant RDBMS. You may not know that it’s also great for geospatial systems, time series, full-text search, JSON documents, AI vector embeddings, and many other specialty database functions. For almost any data task you can imagine, you can use Postgres.

about the book

Just Use Postgres! covers recipes for using Postgres in dozens of applications normally reserved for single-purpose databases. Written for busy application developers, each chapter explores a different use case illuminating the breadth and depth of Postgres’s capabilities. Along the way, you’ll also meet an incredible ecosystem of Postgres extensions like pgvector, PostGIS, pgmq, and TimescaleDB. You’ll be amazed at everything you can accomplish with Postgres!

what's inside

  • Generative AI, geospatial, and time-series applications
  • Modern SQL including window functions and CTEs
  • Full-text search and JSON
  • B-trees, GIN, GiST, HNSW, and more

about the reader

For application developers, software engineers, and architects who know the basics of SQL.

about the author

Denis Magda is a recognized Postgres expert and software engineer who worked on Java at Sun Microsystems and Oracle before focusing on databases and large-scale distributed systems.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn many new things from this book.

From the Afterword by Vlad Mihalcea

An excellent guide covering everything from basics to cutting-edge features.

Dave Cramer, PostgreSQL JDBC Maintainer

Pleasant, easy to read with tonnes of great code.

Mike McQuillan, McQTech Ltd

Well-organized and easy to search.

Edward Pollack, Microsoft Data Platform MVP

The missing guide to understanding and using Postgres.

Mehboob Alam, POSTGRESNX, Inc.
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choose your plan

team

monthly
annual
$49.99
$399.99
only $33.33 per month
  • five seats for your team
  • access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
  • choose another free product every time you renew
  • choose twelve free products per year
  • exclusive 50% discount on all purchases
  • renews monthly, pause or cancel renewal anytime
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  • Just Use Postgres! ebook for free