For years, the reflex in the .NET world was simple: new project, reach for SQL Server. It was the safe, default, nobody-gets-fired choice. But that default has quietly shifted. PostgreSQL has become the database most new .NET apps actually start on, and in this video I walk through why that happened and what it means for you.
The key takeaways
- Cost. PostgreSQL is free and open source. There are no per-core licenses to budget for, which matters the moment you scale beyond a single small instance.
- First-class EF Core support. The Npgsql provider is mature, actively maintained, and supports the features you actually use day to day, from JSON columns to migrations.
- It runs everywhere. Every major cloud offers a managed PostgreSQL service, and it runs cleanly in Docker for local development without a heavy footprint.
- The feature set is deep. Native JSONB, full-text search, array types, and a huge extension ecosystem cover use cases that used to push teams toward extra services.
- Switching is low-friction. If you build against EF Core, moving from SQL Server to PostgreSQL is mostly a provider swap plus some attention to data types and migrations.
SQL Server is still a great database, and there are plenty of valid reasons to keep using it, especially if you are already invested in it. But for a brand new .NET project in 2026, PostgreSQL is no longer the alternative. It is the default.
Watch the full video above for the complete breakdown, and if you want the hands-on version, I have a dedicated walkthrough on wiring up EF Core with PostgreSQL from scratch.