Expert AWS RDS PostgreSQL performance engineering — slow query analysis, autovacuum tuning, index optimisation, and emergency incident response for PostgreSQL 16, 17 and 18. 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.
Whether you own the P&L, the compliance stack, or the query plan — PGFlare has your back.
PostgreSQL 16 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 RDS PostgreSQL 16, 17, and 18.
Purpose-built intelligence for PostgreSQL 16, 17 and 18 on AWS RDS. No generic advice — real fixes for your actual workload.
AI-powered EXPLAIN PLAN analysis identifies exactly why queries are slow on the modern planner. Get actionable rewrites, not generic tips.
Detects missing, unused, and bloated indexes using real query patterns. Accounts for PostgreSQL 16, 17 and 18's improved partial index support and new statistics columns.
Intelligent PgBouncer configuration tuned for your workload. Prevents the connection exhaustion that kills RDS instances under peak traffic.
PostgreSQL 16, 17 and 18 revised autovacuum cost parameters. We automatically recalibrate your settings to prevent table bloat and transaction ID wraparound.
Real-time lock graph visualization with AI-assisted remediation. Identify which transactions are causing cascading waits before they take down your app.
PostgreSQL 16, 17 and 18 parallelism settings in RDS are misconfigured by default. We set max_parallel_workers per your instance size and query patterns.
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.
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.
Performance metadata is processed within your chosen AWS geography — us-east-1, us-west-2, eu-west-2, ap-southeast-1, or any other region you operate in. Data never crosses regional boundaries.
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.
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.
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) →We read your RDS performance data via read-only IAM. We never touch your data.
Grant PGFlare read-only access via an IAM role. We authenticate using AWS IAM, natively supported on RDS 16, 17 and 18. No VPN, no agent install, no schema changes. Takes under 3 minutes.
View the IAM setup guide →PGFlare reads your 7-day CloudWatch metrics and Performance Insights query data — no direct database connection required. Our analysis engine processes CPU, IOPS, read/write latency, storage trends, and top SQL patterns to establish a baseline and surface anomalies specific to your instance class and PostgreSQL version.
You receive a branded diagnostic report with a ranked findings list — CRITICAL, WARNING, and INFO — each with SQL-level context, estimated impact, and a specific remediation recommendation. Delivered to your inbox as a PDF within minutes of analysis completing.
See example report outputs →Every session includes a 30-day follow-up review. For teams that want continuous visibility, PGFlare offers monthly health snapshots that track whether remediated queries stay fast, flag new regressions, and monitor storage and vacuum health as your data grows.
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 16/17/18 planner was ignoring the index, and gave us a targeted fix. Query time dropped to 40ms. That was week one.
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.
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.
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 16/17/18 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 |
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.
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.