# The problem with Postgres replicas

DevFeed: [The problem with Postgres replicas](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas-5823.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://neon.com/blog/the-problem-with-postgres-replicas>)

Author: Bryan Clark

Published: 2024-06-27T19:41:24Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Blog -- Neon Docs](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-neon-docs.md>)

Topics: [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [Availability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/availability.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>)

Tags: [availability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/availability.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [company](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/company.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [failover](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/failover.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [postgres](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgres.md>), [scale](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scale.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how Neon's lightweight, affordable, fast-to-provision read replicas differ from replicas in traditional managed Postgres databases. It distinguishes high-availability replicas, which support failover, from read replicas, which scale performance by handling read-intensive queries. It argues that, despite their theoretical cloud-native benefits, read replicas are often inefficient for performance scaling because of architectural issues and data redundancy in managed Postgres systems.

## Source excerpt

Read replicas in Neon are different from what you're used to - they're lightweight, affordable, and fast to provision. You can rely on them to scale your performance horizontally when you need a boost. We've been working hard on our read replicas lately, improving their stability...