Too many tables in Postgres is a real problem

The short version: a database with too many tables is a pain. Postgres handles it fine, but the more tables you have, the harder it gets to find what you're looking for.

TLDR Data walks through why this happens. Every table is a file on disk. Every table is a heap of rows, a btree index, a toast table, a statistics file, a catalog entry. The planner has to look at all of them when it figures out a query. And the autovacuum has to churn through each one.

A few dozen tables is nothing. A few hundred, you start feeling it. A thousand, things get slow. The planner gets confused. The bloat creeps in. The disk fills up faster.

This isn't a Postgres-only problem. It's a database problem. Every system has a cost per table. The trick is knowing when to stop adding them and start grouping them.

Why this matters for us: if you're running a side hustle on Postgres and your tables keep multiplying, your site slows down before you notice. Check your table count and your bloat. A clean schema is cheaper than a fast server.