--- title: 30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers | daily.dev description: An analysis of 30 years of PostgreSQL git and mailing-list history shows commit rates roughly doubled from about 25 to 50 per week between 2010 and now,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: 30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers | daily.dev og:description: An analysis of 30 years of PostgreSQL git and mailing-list history shows commit rates roughly doubled from about 25 to 50 per week between 2010 and now,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/wHOipqqHy.png og:image:alt: 30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # 30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers **[Trends](https://daily.dev/sources/trends)** · 2 min read · 9 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary An analysis of 30 years of PostgreSQL git and mailing-list history shows commit rates roughly doubled from about 25 to 50 per week between 2010 and now, tracking closely with a 2x increase in active committers rather than any productivity boost. Mailing list traffic on pgsql-hackers grew from ~25 to ~100 messages per day, with patch attachments rising from 5% to 25% of messages after the commitfest process was introduced around 2009 and matured around 2016. The codebase now totals about 4.4 million lines of code (9 million including docs and tests), reflecting steady, incremental growth rather than explosive change. ## Content Tomas Vondra, a long-time Postgres contributor, just published a detailed look at how PostgreSQL development has actually changed over three decades — and the numbers are more interesting than the usual "open source is thriving" hand-waving. The short version: the project has roughly doubled its pace. Git commits went from around 25 per week in 2010 to about 50 per week today, and that growth tracks almost exactly with a 2x increase in active committers. No mysterious productivity multiplier, no AI-assisted surge — just more people showing up. The mailing list tells a similar story, with more texture. Traffic on pgsql-hackers grew from roughly 25 messages per day in the early days to around 100 now, spiking near 200 in March before feature freeze. Two inflection points stand out: message sizes jumped around 2009 and again around 2016, both coinciding with the introduction and maturation of the commitfest process. Patch attachments went from about 5% of messages to 25%, which is a quiet signal that the project got more serious about structured review. The raw scale is worth sitting with: since 1996, Postgres has accumulated about 4.4 million lines of code — 9 million if you count docs, tests, and comments. That's a lot of careful, incremental work from a community that doesn't exactly move fast and break things. Craig Kerstiens flagged the post as worth reading, and it is — not because it reveals anything shocking, but because it puts numbers on something developers usually just feel. The commitfest didn't just add process overhead; it visibly changed how patches got submitted. The contributor count is the real growth engine, not individual velocity. For a project that's been around since 1996, the trajectory looks less like a hockey stick and more like a slow, deliberate climb. Which, for database infrastructure, is probably exactly what you want. ## Questions this post answers ### How has PostgreSQL's development pace changed since 2010? Weekly git commits roughly doubled, from about 25 per week in 2010 to about 50 per week now. This growth tracks almost exactly with a 2x increase in the number of active committers, rather than any single contributor becoming more productive or AI tooling accelerating output. Mailing list traffic on pgsql-hackers similarly grew from about 25 to 100 messages per day. _Track how major open-source databases like Postgres actually evolve by following ecosystem analysis on daily.dev._ ### What is the commitfest process in PostgreSQL development and why does it matter? Commitfest is PostgreSQL's structured patch review process, introduced around 2009 and matured around 2016. Its introduction coincided with jumps in mailing list message size, and patch attachments rose from about 5% to 25% of pgsql-hackers messages, indicating the project became more rigorous about structured code review rather than ad hoc contribution. _Developers evaluating contribution workflows for large open-source projects can dig into process changes like this on daily.dev._ ### How much code is in the PostgreSQL codebase today? PostgreSQL has accumulated about 4.4 million lines of code since 1996, or roughly 9 million lines when documentation, tests, and comments are included. This reflects three decades of incremental, careful development rather than rapid, disruptive rewrites, consistent with the project's reputation for stability in database infrastructure. _Anyone assessing the scale and maturity of long-running database projects can find this kind of context on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@pdfopsdev** · 0 upvotes > commitfest matching that 2x jump is the real story imo, patch review scaling with committer count is way harder to pull off than just raw commit throughput growing. anyone know if that 2x committer growth is mostly corporate sponsorship or still individual contributors? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [PostgreSQL Commitfest Metrics: PGConf.dev 2026 Part One](https://daily.dev/posts/postgresql-commitfest-metrics-pgconf-dev-2026-part-one-97et1rucx) · Planet PostgreSQL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [pgit: I Imported the Linux Kernel into PostgreSQL](https://daily.dev/posts/pgit-i-imported-the-linux-kernel-into-postgresql-m2y7idpub) · Hacker News · 23 upvotes · 0 comments - [What 986 million code pushes say about the developer workflow in 2025](https://daily.dev/posts/what-986-million-code-pushes-say-about-the-developer-workflow-in-2025-4bpyjwlpr) · GitHub Blog · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy"},"datePublished":"2026-09-15T13:21:53.514Z","dateModified":"2026-09-15T13:22:35.384Z","description":"An analysis of 30 years of PostgreSQL git and mailing-list history shows commit rates roughly doubled from about 25 to 50 per week between 2010 and now,...","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Trends","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trends","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZfSp3asX--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996004/logos/trends?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"open-source,postgresql","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trends","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/trends"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"30 years of Postgres commits, by the numbers"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"commitfest matching that 2x jump is the real story imo, patch review scaling with committer count is way harder to pull off than just raw commit throughput growing. anyone know if that 2x committer growth is mostly corporate sponsorship or still individual contributors?","datePublished":"2026-09-16T18:09:47.462Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wHOipqqHy#c-Hufs3mEPr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"PDFops","url":"https://daily.dev/pdfopsdev","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---8isRBKc--/f_auto/v1782922291/avatars/avatar_orjMeK8QKaaVZwGq7ScPz?_a=BAMAMicg0"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/30-years-of-postgres-commits-by-the-numbers-whoipqqhy#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How has PostgreSQL's development pace changed since 2010?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Weekly git commits roughly doubled, from about 25 per week in 2010 to about 50 per week now. 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