integresql VS spawn-demo

For the case of PostgreSQL I've found IntegreSQL and its Javascript client really helpful because it can create a copy of the database per test case, which it helps to write integration tests with real DB calls.

Mocking has some advantages, but so does using a real database, at work we use https://github.com/allaboutapps/integresql and I quite like the approach that integresql has, since it makes possible to have a fresh database with your dummy data for every test without impacting the execution speed (compared to dropping an re-creating the database).

Happy to hear that! When it comes to testing services that depend on PostgreSQL, this is still my preferred solution.

https://github.com/allaboutapps/integresql

disclaimer: author

I haven't had a change to try it yet, but IntegreSQL[0] looks like this on steroids. It allows you to create a template (runs migrations and seed dates), and then uses Postgres's built in cloning functionality to maintain a pool of fresh databases. They claim 500ms to clone a database without the pool, and that the pool pretty much hides the latency entirely.

[0]: https://github.com/allaboutapps/integresql

Full disclosure way up front: I'm one of the developers working on https://spawn.cc at Redgate and the two scenarios you describe are some examples of exactly what we've built Spawn for.

Not trying to sell you anything (since we are still in beta anyway!) but I'd encourage you to try it out and see if it does what you're looking for. We're in the early stages so any and all feedback is really helpful!

It's a hosted service where you can immediately spin up copies of "data images" (a snapshot of schema and data in a database instance) instantly regardless of the size. As an example, we created a copy of the 400GB public stack overflow DB for development in ~15s.

You can also snapshot the state of the DB at any time and move around those save points whenever you like. Creating a "data image" for later copies is also possible based off the current state of the database, so you can curate data through your web UI, save the state, and then make that dataset available for multiple copies across your dev team.

We've got a couple of repos to show it in action:

- https://github.com/red-gate/spawn-demo

- https://github.com/red-gate/flyway-spawn-demo/actions

As well as a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxHtca85CoE