MySQL is popular because it&#x27;s easy to use (in the same sense as PHP), easy to setup, and has a lot of tutorials written for it. Also speed used to be a pretty big factor, but that was only because MyISAM took shortcuts with data consistency.<p>If you care about your data and would rather not deal with the many problems MySQL inevitably brings, then Postgres is the better option. I can&#x27;t say I&#x27;ve seen many compelling reasons to use MySQL over Postgres other than &quot;what if we need to replace you with a freelance PHP guy&quot;, &quot;I want to pay lower wages&quot;, and &quot;I want to use phpmyadmin&quot;. (Btw: check out Sequel Pro and Querious!)<p>Popularity isn&#x27;t a very good reason to choose something. Postgres will remain a juggernaut for a long time. Unless you really think there&#x27;s a good chance you&#x27;ll need to hire somebody that only knows MySQL, then I&#x27;d go with Postgres.