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Batching inserts, wrapping the batches in transactions, waiting til after to add indexes: best way to go.

Journaling mode and sync modes etc, also make a big difference: http://www.sami-lehtinen.net/blog/sqlite3-performance-testin...

Those optimizations also apply to PostgreSQL.

It would still allow you to use a simpler solution and not paint yourself in a corner if you optimized on sqlite; no preemptive optimization necessary wrt choice of dbms if you can perform the work on the simpler solution.

Optimizing in SQLite is just as much of a sunk cost as optimizing in PostgreSQL if you switch away to another database.