Side by side
kingshard vs PgCat
Both stand on database proxy software. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.
Choose kingshard for a self-hosted MySQL cluster needing SQL routing, sharding, pooling, and backend controls without a license fee. Look elsewhere if your transactions or updates routinely span multiple databases or you want a managed deployment.
Visit kingshardChoose PgCat if you need a free, MIT-licensed PostgreSQL pooler for self-hosted Linux, with pooling, read balancing, and failover. Look elsewhere if your transaction-mode workload depends on prepared statements, SET, or advisory locks, or if you need sharding or mirroring as stable features.
Visit PgCatThe facts
| kingshard | PgCat | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Not published | Not published |
| Runs on | Linux, Self-hosted | Linux, Self-hosted |
| Lowest paid plan | Not published | Free or on request |
| Plans published | None | 1 |
| Maker | Not published | Not published |
| Website | github.com | github.com |
| On database proxy software | #21 of 31 | #17 of 31 |
kingshard: what it does well
- Free and open source under Apache 2.0
- Routes reads and writes separately
- Balances reads across slave databases
- Supports hash, range, and date sharding
- Includes connection pooling and automatic failover
What to know first
- Sharded subtables require manual creation
- Transactions work only within one database
- Cross-database updates return errors
- Deployment requires Go, Git, make, and configuration
PgCat: what it does well
- Stable transaction and session pooling
- Balances read queries across replicas and the primary
- Health checks reroute queries away from broken replicas
- Statistics are available through admin databases and Prometheus
- Supports SSL/TLS, MD5, and SCRAM-SHA-256
What to know first
- Sharding and mirroring capabilities are experimental
- Transaction mode does not support prepared statements, SET, or advisory locks
Alternatives to kingshard Alternatives to PgCat The whole list