Why UUIDs Beat Integers as Primary Keys (And Why Performance Isn’t the Issue)

One of the first schema decisions you face when designing a database table is: Should I use an INT or a UUID as the primary key? Most developers default to an auto-incrementing integer. It’s simple, compact, and familiar. But UUIDs (a.k.a. GUIDs) are increasingly popular — and many of the old performance objections don’t hold up with modern hardware. Let’s break this down like developers, not DB…