# The history of Postgres sharding

DevFeed: [The history of Postgres sharding](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-history-of-postgres-sharding-2337.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://planetscale.com/blog/the-history-of-postgres-sharding>)

Author: Josh Brown

Published: 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Blog -- PlanetScale](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-planetscale.md>)

Topics: [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>), [vitess](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/vitess.md>), [Tooling](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tooling.md>), [LAMP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/lamp.md>)

Tags: [complexity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/complexity.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [databases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/databases.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/history.md>), [mysql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mysql.md>), [neki](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/neki.md>), [postgres](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgres.md>), [scale](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scale.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/servers.md>), [vitess](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vitess.md>)

## AI overview

The article traces the history of database sharding, focusing on why Postgres took longer than MySQL to develop mature sharding solutions. It discusses the origins of the term "shard," the role of MySQL's ecosystem and tools such as Vitess, and how companies including Facebook and YouTube addressed growth and increasing database workloads.

## Source excerpt

Why has it taken so long to get good Postgres sharding? The last 20 years are the answer.