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Postgres.app – the easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac

02 Apr 20254 min read

Postgres.app – the easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL on the Mac

Excerpt

Postgres.app is a full featured PostgreSQL installation packaged as a standard Mac app.

Postgres.app is a full-featured PostgreSQL installation packaged as a standard Mac app. It includes everything you need to get started, and we’ve even included the popular extension PostGIS for geo data.

Postgres.app has a beautiful user interface and a convenient menu bar item. You never need to touch the command line to use it – but of course we do include all the necessary command line tools and header files for advanced users.

Postgres.app can install minor updates automatically, so you get bugfixes as soon as possible.

Installing Postgres.app

  • Download   ➜   Move to Applications folder   ➜   Double Click

    If you don’t move Postgres.app to the Applications folder, some features may not work (more info)

  • Click “Initialize” to create a new server

  • Configure your $PATH to use the included command line tools (optional):

    sudo mkdir -p /etc/paths.d &amp;&amp;<br>echo /Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin | sudo tee /etc/paths.d/postgresapp

Done! You now have a PostgreSQL server running on your Mac with these default settings:

Hostlocalhost
Port5432
Useryour system user name
Databasesame as user
Passwordnone
Connection URLpostgresql://localhost

To connect with psql, double click a database. To connect directly from the command line, type psql. If you’d rather use a graphical client, see below.

NOTE: These instructions assume that you’ve never installed PostgreSQL on your Mac before. If you have previously installed PostgreSQL using homebrew, MacPorts, the EnterpriseDB installer, consider removing other PostgreSQL installations first. We also have instructions for upgrading from older versions of Postgres.app.

Graphical Clients

Postgres.app includes psql, a versatile command line client for PostgreSQL. But it’s not the only option; there are plenty of great graphical clients available for PostgreSQL. Two popular tools are:

pgAdmin 4 is a feature rich open source PostgreSQL client. It has support for almost every feature in PostgreSQL. The only downside is that the cross-plattform UI really doesn’t live up to the expectations of a native Mac app.

Postico on the other hand, is a very modern Mac app. It’s made by the same people that maintain Postgres.app, and we think you’ll like it! We put a lot of effort into making it a joy to use. However, it doesn’t have the extensive feature set of pgAdmin, and it’s a commercial app rather than open source.

Aside from those two options, there are a lot more to choose from! Check the documentation for a list of amazing Mac apps for PostgreSQL.

How to connect

After your PostgreSQL server is up and running, you’ll probably want to connect to it from your application. Here’s how to connect to PostgreSQL from popular programming languages and frameworks:

PHP

To connect from PHP, make sure that it supports PostgreSQL. The version included with macOS doesn’t support PostgreSQL. We recommend MAMP for an easy way to install a current version of PHP that works.

You can use PDO (object oriented):

&lt;?php
$db = new PDO('pgsql:host=localhost');
$statement = $db-&gt;prepare("SELECT datname FROM pg_database");
$statement-&gt;execute();
while ($row = $statement-&gt;fetch()) {
    echo "&lt;p&gt;" . htmlspecialchars($row["datname"]) . "&lt;/p&gt;\n";
}
?&gt;

Or the pg_connect() functions (procedural):

&lt;?php
$conn = pg_connect("host=localhost");
$result = pg_query($conn, "SELECT datname FROM pg_database");
while ($row = pg_fetch_row($result)) {
    echo "&lt;p&gt;" . htmlspecialchars($row[0]) . "&lt;/p&gt;\n";
}
?&gt;

Python

Ruby

Java

C

Swift

Support

We have a list of common problems in the troubleshooting section in the documentation.

For general questions concerning PostgreSQL, have a look at the official PostgreSQL documentation.

If you have a question concerning Postgres.app that is not answered by the Postgres.app documentation, please open an issue on GitHub.

When reporting bugs, let us know which version of Postgres.app & macOS you are using, and be sure to include detailed error messages, even if your issue seems similar to another one.

License

Postgres.app and PostgreSQL are released under the PostgreSQL License. The released binaries also include extensions and dependencies that are licensed under various open-source licences.

Postgres.app is maintained by Jakob Egger and Tobias Bussmann. It was originally created by Mattt Thompson.

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