Open PostgreSQL Monitoring vs PostgREST: What are the differences?

## Introduction

Key differences between Open PostgreSQL Monitoring and PostgREST are highlighted below:

1. **Architecture**: Open PostgreSQL Monitoring (OPM) is a monitoring toolkit for PostgreSQL databases that provides a robust architecture with multiple components like a database, collector daemon, and web UI. In contrast, PostgREST is a standalone REST API server that directly exposes PostgreSQL databases over HTTP based on declarative specifications.
2. **Functionality**: OPM focuses on monitoring and management tasks for PostgreSQL databases, offering features like real-time performance monitoring, query analysis, and alerting. On the other hand, PostgREST solely focuses on providing a RESTful API for database access, enabling developers to build scalable and efficient applications without writing custom API code.
3. **Usage**: OPM is primarily utilized by database administrators and operations teams to monitor and optimize PostgreSQL performance, while PostgREST is mainly used by developers to create data-rich APIs for their applications without the complexity of traditional API development.
4. **Community Support**: OPM is supported by a dedicated community of PostgreSQL experts who contribute to its development and enhancement, ensuring a reliable and feature-rich monitoring solution. PostgREST has a separate community of developers and users who contribute to the project's ecosystem, providing support and updates for the REST API server.
5. **Deployment**: OPM requires installation and configuration of its components on the server hosting the PostgreSQL database, necessitating a more involved setup process. PostgREST, however, can be easily deployed as a stand-alone server application, requiring minimal configuration to start exposing database resources over HTTP.
6. **Scalability**: OPM is designed to monitor single or multiple PostgreSQL instances, providing scalability options for larger database environments. Conversely, PostgREST's scalability is more focused on the ability to handle a high volume of API requests and efficiently interact with PostgreSQL databases to support various application requirements.

In Summary, the key differences between Open PostgreSQL Monitoring and PostgREST lie in their architecture, functionality, usage, community support, deployment process, and scalability options.