Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database engine was a favour of many web developers due to its ability in providing more secure, reliable storage for both relational and structured data. It enabling developers to build and manage highly available, performant data applications that developers can use to take their business to the next level. In fact, a lot of analysis also showed that MSSQL Server is better compared to other database system such as DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc. However, MSSQL Server is also been categorised by many developers as a very expensive database management system to use, even until now. Due to this, a lot of developers started to shift from MSSQL server to cheaper or free database system. When comparing linux server and windows server, people tend to relate linux server with mysql and windows server with mssql. Linux server become the preference of many developers because it is cheap, mysql is free. Windows servers with mssql is very expensive. Now, Microsoft has come out with a new product, MSSQL Express. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) is a powerful and reliable data management product that delivers rich features, data protection, and performance for embedded application clients, light Web applications, and local data stores. SQL Server Express is available at no cost, easy to use, redistributable version of SQL Server 2005 designed for building simple data-driven applications. Developers can design schemas, add data, and query local databases, all inside the Visual Studio 2005 environment. Furthermore, if developers need more advanced database features, then SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to more sophisticated versions of SQL Server. MSSQL Server 2005 Express Edition is been designed in such a way that it remains good features from MSSQL Server 2005 while in the same time benefited developers by giving it out for free. SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is easy to install; easy to use and manage; rich with database functionality; better security; simple pricing and licensing; with xml support; deep integration with Visual Studio 2005; better scalability and performance; etc. Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/features.mspx for more information. Database system is now considered as a critical factor in choosing a web hosting providers and MSSQL Express is simply the best choice, good yet cheap. *Tips: Type "Free MSSQL Express hosting" or "MSSQL Express windows hosting" in google search to search for web hosting company that have MSSQL express ready in their control panel. Source from webhostforasp.net
For mini website not lot for traffic and less database request I love MySQL. But when I want more reliabilty for finance application I select MSSQL for best choice.
that's definitely correct. mssql is definitely much more robust that mysql but db2 and oracle are a few steps ahead of mssql. expensive? for commercial use, mssql is the cheapest one around!
I usually just use MySQL for most e-commerce work. But I do have one client that swears by MSSQL despite the costs.
MSSQL can go head to head with Oracle and IBM these days with no problems. It's one of the fastest growing business units at Microsoft right now. Database selection is typically part of a larger discussion in my experience. Do you support .Net and the Windows platform or do you prefer LAMP? Both are solid platforms for web development in my opinion. MSSQL Express just rounds out Microsoft's db offering by providing low cost (free) alternative.
I agree with Howard that MSSQL can compete with Oracle and IBM. And frankly, from a developer's viewpoint there are many features of MSSQL that the other big dbs are just starting to integrate. (Must have something to do with that love of *nix command line....) It does have to do with what you're doing though. Prior to this, if you bought MSSQL to run a single blog, then you were crazy. Now if you hosted thousands of blogs, the story might change. The thing to remember is that from a coding standpoint, they are all virtually identical (hence Standard Query Language). From an implementation standpoint there is a world of difference. For low usage systems with only moderately complex queries, you probably wouldn't notice a difference in return time. Bump the number from tens of users to tens of thousands while doing queries involving computations on millions of records with several joins.... You get the idea. The question is how much of the engine is the same. Did they essentially package MSSQL 2005 with limiters on scalability or did they rewrite the whole thing? For your average Joe, MySQL is clearly sufficient, but this could be better (or worse if they did a rewrite). I think this will just further drive the wedge between platforms. And here I thought MS's .Net strategy was supposed to universalize everything. In any event, this is just a plot for MS to try and grab back some of the market it has lost to OpenSource projects. For the small applications that this would really mean anything for, I doubt there will be a significant difference in performance. Certainly not enough to go swapping all your MySQL servers with Express. On the other hand, if you are using IIS and .Net, I'm sure that some how it will integrate easier than other solutions (imagine that). And if you're not, then why bother?