Goose vs pgroll

Goose is a free, open-source database migration tool for managing schema changes through incremental SQL files and Go functions. It is available as both a command-line utility and a library. The CLI can apply, roll back, redo, reset, inspect, and version migrations, with documented drivers for ClickHouse, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Turso, Vertica, and YDB. SQL migration files use an up annotation and may include a down annotation; filenames can use timestamps or sequential numbers. Statements in a migration file run in one transaction by default, with an annotation for running them outside one. Go migration functions can use a transaction when given a transaction argument. Other listed capabilities include embedded and out-of-order migrations, data seeding, and environment variable substitution in SQL migrations. For library use, a provider accepts a database dialect, connection, migration filesystem, and optional configuration. The provider does not lock the database by default, so callers must arrange safe concurrent migrations or configure a session locker.

pgroll is an open-source command-line tool for PostgreSQL schema migrations that keeps old and new schema versions available while applications move between them. Its expand/contract workflow lets clients choose a version through PostgreSQL's search_path. The project describes migrations as zero-downtime and says it applies changes without locking the database; it can also backfill columns automatically when needed. For breaking changes, pgroll builds virtual schemas from views over physical tables and uses triggers to carry writes between old and new columns. Active migrations can be rolled back to the previous schema version. It supports PostgreSQL 14 and later, including RDS and Aurora, and is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows or self-hosting. It can convert SQL generated by ORMs, with examples for Alembic, Django, and Drizzle, though manual data migrations and SQL consolidation may be needed. On PostgreSQL 14, its versioned views do not respect row-level security policies, which can make it a poor choice for RLS users on that version. The project is licensed under Apache License 2.0.