Hi,

My DB knowledge is limited I must admit and was wondering, because I plan on having a billing system built for a hosting company that I consult for...

To my knowledge Postgres offers more scalabilty than MySQL, but is it necessary to try to build one using it OR should I just stay with MySQL. Maybe it is overkill or maybe I just have the wrong idea?

I think even Modernbill uses a MySQL backend, so really, what advantages would I have, IF ANY, should I use Postgres....? What reasons would I have to go with either other than it seems that MySQL has more popularity and many more people know it.

Sorry for the noob questions..I tried to google it, but I could not find any clear answers...or maybe I was just searching for the wrong search criteria..

If mysql mysql suffice you then use it. Postgres has a lot of feaches. Mainly it DB structure and interaction of tables. And postgres have complex query and transaction.

But I think what for billing need Mysql.

Postgres provides more standards compliant SQL than MySQL -- this may not mean much to you, but for me, it was a big shock as SQL that I was used to with years of MySQL work wouldn't give the same results in other DB systems. I essentially had to go back to the books to re-learn 'pure' SQL.

This is not a fault of MySQL, as each DB vendor seems to add their own extensions to SQL for their DB. Oracle has PL/SQL, Microsoft has MSSQL.

Postgres also provides support for sequences, stored procs (no longer an issue with MySQL 5) and views (available in MySQL 5). These where two things that attracted me to it.

Broadly speaking, Postgres has a lot of 'enterprise' type controls and features (like concurrency and locking mechanisms, rules, triggers, server-side functions, etc). If these do not apply to your application, then you don't need the overhead of Postgresql.