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Go ahead, self-host Postgres
📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)
🚀 Project Ideas
PG Cluster-in-a-Box
Summary
- A lightweight, turnkey appliance image (OVA/ISO) that deploys a production-ready, self-hosted PostgreSQL cluster to a single bare-metal server or VM.
- Solves the "expertise gap" for HA Postgres by bundling Patroni, PgBouncer, Barman, and monitoring (Grafana/Prometheus) into a pre-configured, web-managed system.
- Core value: provides the reliability and automation of cloud RDS on your own hardware at a fraction of the cost, without requiring Kubernetes or deep DevOps knowledge.
Details
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Target Audience | Small-to-midsize businesses, solo developers, and startups wanting production-grade Postgres without cloud lock-in or complex infrastructure. |
| Core Feature | Automated deployment and management of a high-availability Postgres cluster with point-in-time recovery, automated failover, and a unified web dashboard. |
| Tech Stack | Debian/Ubuntu base, Patroni, PgBouncer, Barman, Prometheus, Grafana, Nginx (for UI). Installer script (Ansible/Bash) + optional web UI. |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Monetization | Revenue-ready: Freemium core (open source), Paid enterprise support & SLA, Premium enterprise dashboard features. |
Notes
- HN commenters explicitly request "batteries-included" HA Postgres (like MongoDB) and mention projects like
vitabaks/autobasebut desire an even simpler, appliance-like solution. The sentiment is that setting up HA is a major pain point ("wildly underselling the amount of work"). - High utility: Reduces the operational barrier to self-hosting, directly addressing the "it's easy" vs "it's a full-time job" debate by abstracting the complexity into a managed appliance.
Zero-Downtime Postgres Upgrade Service
Summary
- A managed service (or self-hosted tool) that performs zero-downtime major version upgrades for self-hosted PostgreSQL using logical replication.
- Solves the painful and risky manual process of upgrading Postgres, which often requires application downtime and careful planning.
- Core value: Removes the fear of "breaking things at 3 AM" during maintenance windows, making self-hosting more sustainable for long-running applications.
Details
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Target Audience | Teams with self-hosted Postgres instances running older versions, fearing upgrade complexity and downtime. |
| Core Feature | Orchestrates the creation of a new cluster, establishes logical replication, syncs data, performs validation, and executes a seamless cutover with application DNS/connection handling. |
| Tech Stack | Docker/Podman containers for source/destination, logical replication tooling (pglogical/native), Python/Go orchestration script, web UI for monitoring. |
| Difficulty | High |
| Monetization | Revenue-ready: Per-upgrade fee or subscription for the orchestration platform. Alternatively, "Hobby" if packaged as a self-hosted CLI tool. |
Notes
- HN commenters frequently complain about Postgres upgrades being "not transparent" and a "1 or 2 hours task" requiring downtime.
- The "dblab" or similar tooling mentioned implies a desire for safer, interactive upgrade paths. This tool addresses the specific "fear" of upgrades mentioned in the discussion.
Bare-Metal Postgres Performance Tuner
Summary
- A CLI utility and audit tool specifically designed to analyze Postgres performance on NVMe/bare-metal hardware (vs. cloud RDS).
- Solves the problem of "leaving performance on the table" when self-hosting by comparing local config against cloud defaults and applying hardware-specific optimizations.
- Core value: Gives self-hosters confidence that they aren't missing out on the "orders of magnitude" performance gains available on local hardware compared to "abysmal" cloud performance.
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Target Audience | Self-hosters optimizing for performance/cost, engineers skeptical of cloud performance claims. |
| Core Feature | Analyzes postgresql.conf, filesystem type (ext4 vs. XFS vs. ZFS), disk I/O, and memory. Suggests specific tuning parameters (e.g., effective_io_concurrency, random_page_cost) for local NVMe setups. |
| Tech Stack | Go/Rust CLI, SQL queries against pg_settings and pg_stat_*, integration with fio for benchmarking. |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Monetization | Hobby (Open Source). Potential for "Revenue-ready: Premium audit reports + consulting." |
Notes
- HN users highlight "NVMe" and "direct-attached storage" as massive performance wins over cloud.
- Specific complaints about "cloud hosted DBs having abysmal performance" and the need to tune parameters for local hardware suggest a gap in tooling that isn't tuned for cloud defaults.
"CYA" Managed Postgres for Enterprise
Summary
- A managed hosting provider specifically targeting the "blameless outage" requirement for regulated industries (Banking, Healthcare).
- Solves the organizational fear of "getting fired for choosing the risky option" by offering a compliance-heavy, audit-friendly hosting wrapper around self-hosted Postgres (or a dedicated region model).
- Core value: Enterprise SLA, 24/7 on-call rotation (so employees don't get woken up), and regulatory compliance (HIPAA, SOC2) baked in, satisfying the "Nobody gets fired for choosing IBM" crowd.
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Target Audience | B2B SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech companies that require 24/7 uptime but are priced out of AWS RDS Enterprise. |
| Core Feature | Dedicated VPC/VLAN, automated compliance reporting, shared responsibility model where the provider handles the "3 AM" calls, but the customer retains full SQL access. |
| Tech Stack | Managed Kubernetes (EKS/GKE) or dedicated VMs, Patroni/CloudNativePG, Vault for secrets, SIEM integration. |
| Difficulty | High |
| Monetization | Revenue-ready: Monthly subscription based on instance size + compliance tier (e.g., $500/mo base + $100/core). |
Notes
- The discussion revolves heavily around the "who fixes it at 3 AM?" and "blame shifting" aspects of cloud vs. self-hosting.
- Users mention that for "non-tech SMBs," internal IT is often a fail, and the "fear" of self-hosting is about liability. This product bridges the gap by offering a "managed self-hosted" solution that satisfies the "CYA" (Cover Your Ass) requirement.
Postgres Simulator for Dev/Testing
Summary
- A lightweight, ephemeral Postgres environment that mirrors production configurations (specifically HA setups like Patroni/CloudNativePG) for local development.
- Solves the "it works on my machine" and "I don't want to spin up a complex Kubernetes cluster just to test a query" pain points.
- Core value: Allows developers to test complex HA scenarios, migrations, and failovers locally without the cost or complexity of cloud infrastructure.
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Target Audience | Backend developers, DevOps engineers, QA teams testing database migrations. |
| Core Feature | Docker-based "local cluster" simulator that spins up a primary, two replicas, and a witness node with automatic failover simulation. Integrates with ORMs (Prisma, SQLAlchemy). |
| Tech Stack | Docker Compose, Patroni, etcd (or Raft), volume snapshots. |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Monetization | Hobby (Open Source). |
Notes
- The discussion highlights that "dev environment should mirror prod," but setting up a full HA Postgres cluster locally is tedious.
- Users mention using
pglitefor prototyping but note limitations (single user). There is a gap for a tool that accurately simulates the complexity of a production Postgres setup without the operational overhead, specifically to debug issues that only appear in clustered environments (e.g., split-brain, replication lag).