Question

I intend to start developing an ASP.NET application and I am wondering which database to use. Performance is very important and the database should be able to handle without issues a database of about 50GB. I am wondering however, if a SQL Server license is worth paying for. I have looked for performance and scalability comparisons between MSSQL Server (2005/2008) and MySQL but I can’t seem to find any good tests. Can you point me to some extensive benchmarks related to this subject?

Answer 1

As mentioned, MySQL can provide high read performance (assuming simple queries with few or no joins) as long as you use the default table type.

However you also stated the database is 50GB in size, which suggests you may be looking for a database that will reliably store the information. Using the default table type MySQL is not a reliable database by any stretch of the imagination.

If you want a fast, free alternative to MS SQL then PostgreSQL may be a good choice – it is fast reliable, and has a more open licence (if you use MySQL for a commercial project you’ll want to read its dual licence very carefully). The only downside to PostgreSQL is that it shares some of the same DBA guru requirements as Oracle, where as MS SQL can often be managed by a regular IT person, and MySQL doesn’t need much management besides restoring the old backups everytime it decides to become corrupted and lose your data.