PostgreSQL with pgvector vs Vector DBs: Why Almost Nobody Needs Pinecone

During the RAG gold rush, hundreds of engineering teams signed up for $300/month dedicated vector databases to index a few thousand documents. In real production, PostgreSQL with pgvector handles that exact search in 8 milliseconds, at zero additional cost, while preserving full ACID integrity. This is the definitive architecture and performance breakdown.

September 22, 2026 · Datalaria