---
title: Modern Postgres is shockingly capable
description: JSONB, horizontal scaling, and the rise and fall of MongoDB: why the argument for NoSQL got harder to make until people stopped making it.
url: https://www.sarth.net/transmissions/modern-postgres/
published: 2026-09-22
facet: message
author: Sarth Calhoun
---
Essay · Message

# Modern Postgres is shockingly capable

*Adapted from a piece I wrote in April 2024.*

Modern Postgres is almost shockingly capable. Someone should (or maybe did) write a book about this, and numerous talks are available on YouTube.

Just one example is the rise and fall of MongoDB. As Postgres added and expanded the support for arbitrary fields (JSON, JSONB, etc etc etc) and as they (mostly) solved the horizontal scaling issue, the argument in favor of NoSQL started to become harder and harder to make, until people just stopped making it.