# pgbouncer/pgbouncer

lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL

Repository: https://github.com/pgbouncer/pgbouncer
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pgbouncer
Homepage: https://www.pgbouncer.org/
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: postgresql
Last push: 2026-08-19T22:55:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 85/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 59, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5965, "days_push": 14, "days_rel": 117, "gap_med": 125.5, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4339, forks 592 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:46.070695+00:00)

## What it is
PgBouncer is a lightweight connection pooler for PostgreSQL that acts as a proxy server, accepting client connections and reusing a smaller pool of backend database connections. It supports session, transaction, and statement pooling modes, TLS, and multiple authentication backends (SCRAM, LDAP, PAM), with low memory overhead and online reconfiguration.

## Use cases
- pool postgres connections for a high-traffic web app
- reduce postgres max_connections by fronting the database with a pooler
- pool database connections from many short-lived serverless functions
- deploy a lightweight pgbouncer sidecar next to my app
- reuse database connections across microservices
- upgrade postgres without dropping client connections
- load balance queries across several postgres servers via dns round-robin

## When to choose
- your application opens many connections and exhausts PostgreSQL's max_connections
- you need low-overhead, battle-tested connection pooling with minimal memory footprint
- you want session, transaction, or statement pooling modes with online restart and reconfiguration
- you need TLS, SCRAM, LDAP, or PAM authentication in front of PostgreSQL

## When to avoid
- you need built-in multi-host load balancing, failover detection, or query routing - PgBouncer relies on external tools like HAProxy or DNS
- your application depends on session-level PostgreSQL features (LISTEN/NOTIFY, SET, prepared statements) under transaction pooling
- you need a full database proxy with query analysis, sharding, or read/write splitting

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: database, caching, proxy, auth, security
- domain: databases, backend, self-hosted
- platform: windows, bsd, cross-platform, self-hosted
- tags: postgresql, connection-pooling, database-proxy, c, tls, scram-authentication, ldap, pam, devops, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- pgbouncer/pgbouncer (main) score 85

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.070695+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:21:37.804290+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/pgbouncer/pgbouncer (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.070695+00:00, sha e953f536cc8d)
  - homepage: https://www.pgbouncer.org/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:33.982330+00:00, sha 71fd134ded66)
  - site_page: https://www.pgbouncer.org/features.html (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:33.984905+00:00, sha a16c5cd0df9f)
  - site_page: https://www.pgbouncer.org/install.html (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:33.988680+00:00, sha f524b47d0ed1)
  - site_page: https://www.pgbouncer.org/faq.html (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:33.986774+00:00, sha 312808b2d876)
  - site_page: https://www.pgbouncer.org/changelog.html (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:33.990399+00:00, sha 8f7fca0b7164)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.