Buying snapshot
PostgreSQL is an open source object-relational database system with over 35 years of active development. For buyers, the cost questions are how you get it and how you keep it on a supported release.
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| Decision point | What the PostgreSQL project states |
|---|---|
License | Open source. Copyright and license information is in the COPYRIGHT file of the source distribution. |
How you get it | The latest version, and related software, can be obtained at postgresql.org/download. |
Building from source | The source code distribution is mirrored on GitHub; build instructions are in the installation chapter of the documentation. |
Help and learning | Official documentation on installing and using it, community mailing lists (managing a subscription needs a PostgreSQL community account), and events, local user groups and training sessions. |
What drives the cost
If you download PostgreSQL or build it from source and run it yourself, one cost to plan for is keeping your installation on a supported release. The project's release schedule sets when that upgrade work is due.
PostgreSQL 14 support ends. PostgreSQL 14 will stop receiving fixes on November 12, 2026. The project suggests that anyone running it in production plan an upgrade to a newer, supported version.
Minor releases. The project released 18.6, 17.11, 16.15, 15.19 and 14.24 on 2026-08-13, one update for each of those major versions.
Pre-release builds. PostgreSQL 19 RC 1 was released on 2026-10-15. The project does not advise running rc versions in production, but encourages testing typical application workloads against them.
Our take
If your team can install, patch and upgrade a database itself, PostgreSQL's open source model makes release support dates a key planning item: start on a supported version and schedule major upgrades before fixes stop.