--- title: The problem with Postgres replicas | daily.dev description: Traditional Postgres read replicas in managed databases like RDS are inefficient for performance scaling because they duplicate full storage, take minutes to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The problem with Postgres replicas | daily.dev og:description: Traditional Postgres read replicas in managed databases like RDS are inefficient for performance scaling because they duplicate full storage, take minutes to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IosQpvm4I.png og:image:alt: The problem with Postgres replicas 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. # The problem with Postgres replicas **[Neon](https://daily.dev/sources/neontech)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Traditional Postgres read replicas in managed databases like RDS are inefficient for performance scaling because they duplicate full storage, take minutes to provision, and run 24/7 even when idle. Neon's architecture separates compute from storage, allowing read replicas to share existing storage without duplication. This means Neon replicas provision in milliseconds, scale to zero when idle, and autoscale with demand — eliminating redundant storage costs and reducing compute waste. A comparison table contrasts Neon vs RDS replicas across provisioning time, cost, redundancy, and management overhead. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Compute Autoscaling Report](https://daily.dev/posts/compute-autoscaling-report-vsfuupvnx) · Neon · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Neon's lakebase architecture stays resilient to cloud failures](https://daily.dev/posts/how-neon-s-lakebase-architecture-stays-resilient-to-cloud-failures-j7quhswdh) · Neon · 6 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Zite Provisions Isolated Postgres Databases for Every User](https://daily.dev/posts/how-zite-provisions-isolated-postgres-databases-for-every-user-9e07c6wst) · Neon · 46 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql), [#serverless](https://daily.dev/tags/serverless) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i) ```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":"The problem with Postgres replicas","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i"},"datePublished":"2026-07-09T06:57:55.069Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T07:01:18.254Z","description":"Traditional Postgres read replicas in managed databases like RDS are inefficient for performance scaling because they duplicate full storage, take minutes to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/871f067a8fdaaa7c93e27c3edca11fa2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/871f067a8fdaaa7c93e27c3edca11fa2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Neon","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":"Neon","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--65EDghou--/f_auto/v1724339118/logos/neontech","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/neontech"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-iosqpvm4i","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"postgresql,serverless","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Neon","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/neontech"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The problem with Postgres replicas"}]} ```