The Best Postgres-as-a-Data Warehouse Alternative
Postgres shines as an application database, yet using it as a warehouse forces you to piece together ingestion, modeling, and BI before leaders see a single metric. Definite gives startups the same open foundations inside a managed analytics stack so warehouse-grade insights ship in hours, not quarters.
And you won’t need to hire or distract a data engineer to run it.
How Postgres and Definite Stack Up
Postgres (DIY Warehouse)
Open-source relational database that only doubles as a warehouse when you manage ingestion, tuning, and analytics tooling yourself.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Run Postgres yourself with community support.
Download the OSS build, provision servers, and handle backups, scaling, and extensions on your own. Total cost depends on hardware, ops time, and optional support contracts.
Entry managed instance for light workloads.
Pay hourly for the instance plus storage and I/O. You still manage schema design, query tuning, and external ELT/BI tooling as usage grows.
Not Included:
Automated SaaS ingestion, governed metrics, BI dashboards, AI analyst, or proactive analytics support.
Definite
All-in-one analytics platform built for fast-growing startups that need governed, AI-assisted insights without engineering overhead.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Access to Growth features for qualifying startups.
Comprehensive tools to enable your business to make data driven decisions.
See What’s Included:
The Full Comparison
Definite gives startups a turnkey analytics stack, while Postgres-as-warehouse remains a configurable database that relies on your team to supply the rest.
Setup & Time-to-Value
Onboard in under 30 minutes with connectors, models, and dashboards ready for stakeholders.
Provision, secure, and tune the database before you start building pipelines or reports for warehouse analytics.
Stack Coverage
Replaces ingestion, warehouse, semantic layer, BI, and AI insights in a single managed platform.
Covers storage and SQL only; you assemble ELT, modeling, and visualization to make it warehouse-ready.
Data Ingestion
Managed syncs pull from 500+ SaaS, product, and ops sources automatically.
Requires custom scripts or third-party ELT to move data into tables for warehouse workloads.
Storage & Query Engine
Columnar engine with Iceberg/Parquet under the hood ensures sub-second analytics at scale.
Row-based engine excels at OLTP; analytical performance hinges on manual partitioning and indexing to imitate a columnar warehouse.
Modeling & Metrics
Governed metrics and Cube.dev semantics keep KPI definitions aligned across teams.
Business logic lives in ad-hoc SQL or external tools, prone to drift and duplication across warehouse queries.
AI & Insights
Fi, your AI analyst, answers questions in natural language and builds analyses instantly.
No native AI analytics—requires separate tooling or custom development for warehouse insights.
Automation & Alerts
Schedule reports, push Slack alerts, and trigger reverse ETL without code.
Must script jobs or bolt on additional services for warehouse alerting and automation.
Governance & Access
Role-based workspace controls, audit trails, and SOC 2 compliance are built in.
RBAC is database-level; compliance and auditing demand heavy manual setup for warehouse use.
APIs & Extensibility
Open APIs, embeds, and SDKs let you operationalize insights anywhere.
Extensible via SQL and extensions, but application embedding requires custom engineering around your warehouse.
Ideal For
Startups that want enterprise-grade analytics without hiring a data team.
Teams with DBA capacity who prefer to assemble and maintain their own warehouse stack.
| Category | Definite | Postgres |
|---|---|---|
| Setup & Time-to-Value | Onboard in under 30 minutes with connectors, models, and dashboards ready for stakeholders. | Provision, secure, and tune the database before you start building pipelines or reports for warehouse analytics. |
| Stack Coverage | Replaces ingestion, warehouse, semantic layer, BI, and AI insights in a single managed platform. | Covers storage and SQL only; you assemble ELT, modeling, and visualization to make it warehouse-ready. |
| Data Ingestion | Managed syncs pull from 500+ SaaS, product, and ops sources automatically. | Requires custom scripts or third-party ELT to move data into tables for warehouse workloads. |
| Storage & Query Engine | Columnar engine with Iceberg/Parquet under the hood ensures sub-second analytics at scale. | Row-based engine excels at OLTP; analytical performance hinges on manual partitioning and indexing to imitate a columnar warehouse. |
| Modeling & Metrics | Governed metrics and Cube.dev semantics keep KPI definitions aligned across teams. | Business logic lives in ad-hoc SQL or external tools, prone to drift and duplication across warehouse queries. |
| AI & Insights | Fi, your AI analyst, answers questions in natural language and builds analyses instantly. | No native AI analytics—requires separate tooling or custom development for warehouse insights. |
| Automation & Alerts | Schedule reports, push Slack alerts, and trigger reverse ETL without code. | Must script jobs or bolt on additional services for warehouse alerting and automation. |
| Governance & Access | Role-based workspace controls, audit trails, and SOC 2 compliance are built in. | RBAC is database-level; compliance and auditing demand heavy manual setup for warehouse use. |
| APIs & Extensibility | Open APIs, embeds, and SDKs let you operationalize insights anywhere. | Extensible via SQL and extensions, but application embedding requires custom engineering around your warehouse. |
| Ideal For | Startups that want enterprise-grade analytics without hiring a data team. | Teams with DBA capacity who prefer to assemble and maintain their own warehouse stack. |
One Choice: One Platform
Definite pulls in all your data, stores it in a fast, reliable data warehouse, applies consistent models, turns it into interactive dashboards, and lets you query it with AI — all in one managed platform. (Skip the three-month build, five different vendors, and full-time data engineer.)
Fi can work with any part of Definite’s Ecosystem to get you results faster.
Sync data in near‑realtime latency from over 500 sources. Need a custom connection? We’ll build it for you.
Send scheduled or triggered alerts, sync data to Google Sheets or your CRM, or export it as downloads or from the API.
Make Every Decision Definite
If you’re spending more time plumbing Postgres into a warehouse than acting on insights, it’s time for a data-stack-in-a-box. Definite unifies ingestion, storage, metrics, AI, and dashboards so every metric is trustworthy and instantly available. Keep your engineers focused on product while your operators and execs self-serve the answers they need.
Postgres as a warehouse gives you a DIY database project. Definite gives you a turnkey analytics platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Common questions about Definite vs Postgres