Managed Performance Engineering · AWS RDS PostgreSQL 16.9+ · Limited Availability

Your AWS RDS PostgreSQL is costing you. We fix that.

Expert AWS RDS PostgreSQL performance engineering — slow query analysis, autovacuum tuning, index optimisation, and emergency incident response for PostgreSQL 16.9+. Your senior engineers cost £150–£250/hour. Every hour spent debugging slow queries or firefighting database incidents is an hour not spent shipping product. PGFlare is the managed PostgreSQL performance consulting layer for AWS RDS — so your team stays focused on what matters.

✓ Enquiry sent — our team will be in touch within 24 hours.

⚠ Only 3 consultation spots left this month

Trusted by engineering teams in

Built for the teams with the most to lose from database performance problems

Whether you own the P&L, the compliance stack, or the query plan — PGFlare has your back.

CTO / VP Engineering

Your database is threatening your SLAs

  • RDS costs spiralling as instance sizes scale to mask query problems
  • P1 incidents traced to lock contention and connection exhaustion
  • Engineering sprints lost to database firefighting instead of feature delivery
  • No visibility into which queries are degrading before users feel it
  • RDS 16.9 upgrade silently changed query paths with no tooling to explain why
Governance & Compliance

Database performance gaps are a compliance liability

  • No audit trail of database configuration changes and who approved them
  • Autovacuum failures creating data integrity risks and transaction ID wraparound
  • UK GDPR requires data protection by design — RDS defaults don’t deliver it
  • Maintenance changes made ad-hoc under pressure with no governance process
  • Reporting on database SLA compliance is manual, lagging, and error-prone
Data & Platform Engineer

You know the fix — you need the authority and the time

  • pg_stat_statements showing hundreds of unoptimised queries with no remediation plan
  • Indexes built on intuition rather than real workload analysis
  • RDS 16.9 planner behaves differently to 15.x — no tooling to surface why
  • Connection pool exhaustion during peak traffic with no intelligent management
  • On-call for database incidents that should never have reached production

RDS 16.9 changed the game. Most teams didn't notice.

PostgreSQL 16.9 on RDS introduced new planner statistics, parallel query improvements, and logical replication changes that silently break existing performance assumptions.

Your queries that ran fine on 15.x are now hitting different code paths. Your indexes may be getting ignored. Your autovacuum settings are almost certainly wrong.

PGFlare was built specifically for this version.

pg_stat_activity — before PGFlare
-- WARNING: 18 slow queries detected
 
ERROR duration: 4821ms
  statement: SELECT o.*, u.email FROM
  orders o JOIN users u ON ...
 
LOCK waiting: 23 transactions
  relation: "public"."products"
 
BLOAT dead_tuples: 4.2M
  autovacuum: not triggered
 
-- connections: 498/500 used
 
pgflare$ analyzing... fixes applied ✓

PostgreSQL Performance Services for AWS RDS

Purpose-built intelligence for PostgreSQL 16.9 on AWS RDS. No generic advice — real fixes for your actual workload.

Query Intelligence

AI-powered EXPLAIN PLAN analysis identifies exactly why queries are slow on the 16.9 planner. Get actionable rewrites, not generic tips.

Powered by pg_stat_statements
🔍

Index Advisor

Detects missing, unused, and bloated indexes using real query patterns. Accounts for RDS 16.9's improved partial index support and new statistics columns.

Zero false positives
🔗

Connection Management

Intelligent PgBouncer configuration tuned for your workload. Prevents the connection exhaustion that kills RDS instances under peak traffic.

Pooling + monitoring
🧹

Autovacuum Tuning

RDS 16.9 changed autovacuum cost parameters. We automatically recalibrate your settings to prevent table bloat and transaction ID wraparound.

Table-level precision
🔒

Lock & Deadlock Analysis

Real-time lock graph visualization with AI-assisted remediation. Identify which transactions are causing cascading waits before they take down your app.

Real-time alerts
📊

Parallel Query Optimization

PostgreSQL 16.9 parallelism settings in RDS are misconfigured by default. We set max_parallel_workers per your instance size and query patterns.

Instance-aware config
11×
Average query speedup
73%
Reduction in RDS costs
<5m
Time to first insight
0
Schema changes required

Read-only access. Your data never leaves AWS.

PGFlare connects via a read-only IAM role scoped exclusively to performance statistics. No write permissions. No data extraction. No agent installation required.

We act as a GDPR-compliant data processor under UK GDPR and EU GDPR. A signed Data Processing Agreement is available to all customers within 24 hours of request.

READ-ONLY IAM TLS 1.2+ ENFORCED GDPR COMPLIANT DPA AVAILABLE NO DATA EGRESS UK DATA RESIDENCY
🔒 Zero write access to your database

Our IAM role is scoped exclusively to pg_stat_statements, pg_stat_bgwriter, pg_locks, and pg_stat_user_tables. We cannot write, modify, or access application data under any circumstances.

🌎 Your data stays in your AWS region

Performance metadata is processed within your chosen AWS geography. UK customers operate within eu-west-2 (London) by default. Data never crosses regional boundaries.

📋 Full audit log of every recommendation

Every advisory report, applied fix, and configuration change is logged with timestamp, engineer identity, and justification — a complete audit trail for governance and compliance review.

🛡 GDPR data processor compliance

PGFlare operates as your data processor under UK GDPR and EU GDPR. We maintain records of processing activities and provide a signed DPA within 24 hours on request.

No agent, no schema changes, no downtime

Setup requires one IAM role creation only. No software installation, no schema modifications, no maintenance window. Your database workload is unaffected during onboarding.

View the IAM setup guide (Windows, Bash & macOS) →
How It Works

Connected in minutes. Results in hours.

We read your RDS performance data via read-only IAM. We never touch your data.

01

Connect your RDS instance

Grant PGFlare read-only access via an IAM role. We support IAM authentication natively with RDS 16.9. No VPN, no agent install, no schema changes. Takes under 3 minutes.

View the IAM setup guide →
02

We analyse your workload baseline

PGFlare ingests your pg_stat_statements, pg_stat_bgwriter, and pg_locks data and establishes a 7-day performance baseline. Our 16.9-specific models flag anomalies immediately.

03

Receive a prioritised fix plan

You get a ranked list of performance issues with estimated impact, SQL-level detail, and one-click fixes where applicable. No noise — only changes that will move the needle.

04

Continuous monitoring and alerting

PGFlare watches your instance 24/7. When a new slow query pattern emerges or a lock contention event spikes, you're alerted with context before users feel it.

We had a query taking 8 seconds in production that the team had been aware of for months but couldn’t prioritise. PGFlare identified it within the first hour, explained exactly why the RDS 16.9 planner was ignoring the index, and gave us a targeted fix. Query time dropped to 40ms. That was week one.

MW
M. Watson
Head of Platform Engineering · Series B FinTech

Autovacuum was quietly killing our performance for months. PGFlare caught dead-tuple bloat on three tables within 24 hours and recalibrated the settings. RDS CPU dropped by 40% the next day.

SR
S. Rahman
Principal Engineer · E-commerce Scale-up

The compliance audit trail alone is worth it. Every change logged with context and engineer sign-off. Our CISO stopped asking questions about the database — that’s a first in five years.

KP
K. Patel
Head of Compliance Engineering · HealthTech

Why Teams Choose PGFlare for PostgreSQL Performance Consulting

Other options leave you with slow queries, hefty invoices, and zero accountability. PGFlare makes the right choice obvious.

What you need PGFlare Senior DBA Hire AWS Support APM Tool
Datadog / New Relic
Time to first actionable fix Same day Weeks to hire Tickets & delays ~ Alerts only
RDS 16.9 planner expertise Purpose-built ~ Varies by hire Generic advice Not in scope
Active remediation (fixes applied) Yes, with approval Yes Advisory only Never
No-data-access guarantee Read-only IAM ~ Trust-based Yes ~ Agent-based
Compliance audit trail Full log + sign-off ~ Manual Not provided ~ Partial
Typical investment to first result From £497 / session £70k–£120k / year £999 / mo + wait ~ £2k–£8k / mo
Commitment required None — pay per session Permanent headcount Annual contract Monthly subscription

Pay per session. Not per month.

One flat session fee covers everything. No retainer, no subscription. Book when you need us.

Diagnostic
£497/session
Fixed session fee · Report delivered same day
Read-only audit via pg_stat_* views. Top 5 issues ranked by impact, with a prioritised written report delivered the same day.
  • Read-only IAM access — no agents, no changes
  • pg_stat_statements analysis by total_exec_time
  • Index gap analysis & sequential scan detection
  • Autovacuum health & table bloat assessment
  • Written priority report — delivered same day
Enquire About Diagnostic →
Emergency
£350/hr
Same-day · 2-hour minimum (£700)
Incident response for live database events. Same-day availability when booked before 2pm BST. Billed per hour after the minimum.
  • Same-day response (booked before 2pm BST)
  • Live incident triage & root cause analysis
  • Lock contention & connection exhaustion fix
  • Written incident summary on completion
  • 2-hour billing minimum
Contact for Emergency →
Common Questions

PostgreSQL Performance Consulting — FAQ

What is AWS RDS PostgreSQL performance engineering? +
AWS RDS PostgreSQL performance engineering is the practice of diagnosing and resolving slow queries, index gaps, autovacuum misconfiguration, connection exhaustion, and lock contention on Amazon RDS PostgreSQL instances — without schema changes or downtime. PGFlare specialises in RDS PostgreSQL 16.9+ performance tuning for engineering teams and SREs.
Why is my AWS RDS PostgreSQL slow? +
The most common causes of slow AWS RDS PostgreSQL performance are: missing or bloated indexes, autovacuum falling behind (causing table bloat and transaction ID wraparound risk), connection pool exhaustion under peak load, lock contention from long-running transactions, and suboptimal query plans from PostgreSQL 16.x planner changes. PGFlare's Diagnostic session identifies your top issues by impact within a single working day.
How long does a PostgreSQL performance engagement take? +
Diagnostic and Remediation+ sessions are completed within a single working day. Your prioritised written report is delivered before end of session. Emergency sessions begin within 2 hours of booking confirmation when booked before 2pm BST — no matter how complex the incident.
Do you offer fixed-fee PostgreSQL performance audits? +
Yes. The PGFlare Diagnostic session is a fixed-fee PostgreSQL performance audit at £497. It covers slow query analysis via pg_stat_statements, index gap detection, autovacuum health assessment, and table bloat analysis — with a prioritised written remediation report delivered the same day. No time-overrun charges, no hidden fees. See full pricing →
What PostgreSQL versions do you support on AWS RDS? +
PGFlare is purpose-built for AWS RDS PostgreSQL 16.9 and above. Our analysis models are specifically tuned for the query planner improvements introduced in PostgreSQL 16.x. PostgreSQL 15.x is supported in maintenance mode — contact us to discuss your specific version.

One P1 incident costs more than a year of PGFlare.

A senior engineer firefighting a database incident for 8 hours costs £1,200–£2,000 in salary alone — before factoring in lost sprint velocity and customer churn. A PGFlare Diagnostic is £497 and prevents the next three. Your highest-paid engineers should be building, not babysitting pg_stat_statements.

Not sure which session fits? Book a free 30-minute technical review — real analysis of your actual query patterns and instance configuration, no sales pitch.

Enquire Today

Stop debugging.
Start shipping.

Limited consultation spots available. Send your enquiry now and our team will follow up within 24 hours — no commitments, real analysis of your actual workload.

✓ Enquiry sent — our team will be in touch within 24 hours.