ParadeDB Closes the Gap with PlanetScale's TIN, Then Pulls Ahead
ParadeDB Search Performance Improvements
After PlanetScale launched TIN, a fast full-text search extension for Postgres, ParadeDB responded with two key optimizations: storing fieldnorms alongside postings to eliminate random access, and implementing a MAXSCORE pruning algorithm for multi-term disjunctions. On a 28.7M Hacker News dataset, ParadeDB now outperforms TIN by 2x on top-k BM25 queries. The post also examines benchmark configuration differences, including TIN's dense-term elision, which trades correctness for speed.
TIN is fast (at least 8x faster than ParadeDB 0.25 in every PlanetScale benchmark). So fast that the only response which made sense was to shut up and put on our performance optimization hats.