pgroll vs Soda

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.

Soda is a data quality platform for monitoring production data, testing data through development and deployment, and investigating issues. Its machine-learning-powered observability looks for unexpected changes without requiring every rule to be set in advance. Teams can test data during development, deployment, transformation, and CI/CD workflows. Data contracts let producers and consumers specify expected schemas, data types, value ranges, and other constraints. Soda lists integrations including Databricks, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, Airflow, dbt, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, and PagerDuty, and offers three deployment models for different infrastructure and privacy needs. Its listed database support includes Athena, BigQuery, Databricks SQL, Dremio, DuckDB, Fabric, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Spark Dataframe, Snowflake, SQL Server, Synapse, and Trino. The Free plan is free and includes pipeline testing, metrics observability, and alerting and ticketing integrations. Team is $750 a month; Enterprise has no listed price. Soda lists SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3, DORA, and GDPR under compliance. It was founded in 2019 and lists locations in Chicago, Illinois, and Brussels, Belgium.