PgDog

Free#8 of 31 in Database Proxy SoftwareDatabase Connection Pooling Software

PgDog: A free PostgreSQL proxy with pooling, routing, replica balancing, and sharding. Ranked #8 of 31 in Database Proxy Software by our editors (8.4/10); pricing: Free plan; best for free PostgreSQL pooling and sharding.

8.4/10★★★★☆Editor score

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At a glance

• Editor score
  8.4 / 10
• Pricing
  Free plan
• Best for
  Free PostgreSQL pooling and sharding
• Free plan
  Yes
• Paid from
  Free
• Deployment model
  Both
• Facts checked
  20 Sep 2026

• Where it wins

  • Free, open-source PostgreSQL connection pooling and multiplexing
  • Combines routing, read/write splitting, lag monitoring, and sharding
  • Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, on-premises, or customer cloud accounts

• Where it doesn't

  • Supports PostgreSQL rather than multiple database engines
  • Failover detection is disabled by default
  • AGPLv3 licensing may not suit every deployment or distribution model

Our verdict on PgDog

PgDog is an open-source PostgreSQL proxy for teams that need to manage connection capacity, distribute reads across replicas, or route traffic across sharded databases. Its scope covers transaction-mode connection pooling, connection multiplexing, read/write query splitting, replica load balancing, query and shard routing, replication monitoring, and horizontal PostgreSQL sharding. It can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with deployment options spanning on-premises environments, a customer cloud account, and a managed Enterprise arrangement.

The free open-source edition provides a substantial set of database proxy capabilities without a separate software charge and is licensed under AGPLv3. The published product details also describe an Enterprise edition that requires a purchased license. PgDog is therefore a practical fit for teams that want to operate PostgreSQL infrastructure directly and need pooling, routing, health checks, hot configuration reloads, and TLS for client and server connections in one proxy. Its platform coverage is wider than many infrastructure tools, while its database support remains focused on PostgreSQL.

PgDog’s deeper operational features include configurable replica load-balancing strategies, replication lag monitoring with replica banning, automatic traffic switching after replica promotion, backend health checks, and horizontal sharding. These capabilities address deployments where connection management and traffic placement are closely related. There is an important operational condition: failover detection is disabled by default, and primary failure handling relies on external promotion tooling. Teams that need a PostgreSQL-focused proxy with free pooling and sharding should consider PgDog; organizations seeking multi-database support or failover behavior without external promotion tooling should look elsewhere.

Your product? Our editors can test PgDog in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →

PgDog pricing

PgDog fact sheet

Alternatives to PgDog

• Heimdall Database ProxyA broad database proxy with pooling, routing, analytics, security, and failover.9.4
• ProxySQLA free, open-source proxy for routing, pooling, balancing, and managing database traffic.9.2
• ShardingSphere-ProxyA self-hosted proxy for routing, scaling, and high availability across four database protocols.9.0

See all PgDog alternatives →

PgDog vs the competition

• PgDog vs Heimdall Database Proxy
• PgDog vs ProxySQL
• PgDog vs ShardingSphere-Proxy
• TPgDog vs TurbineProxy
• PgDog vs HeliosProxy
• MMPgDog vs MariaDB MaxScale

Compare PgDog with any tool side by side →

Also Ranked In

PgDog is ranked in 2 of our directories.

• #14Database Connection Pooling Software29 tools ranked→

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Featured on iTechGuides

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

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Last updated 7 Oct 2026 · How we research and update