Question

I need to develop a mid-sized Inernet facing web site (e.g. less than 1000 users) for information sharing and simple workflow. Since limitation of budget, I am choosing free database. And since the developers are familiar with .Net, C#/ASP.Net is the choosen programming language. I am using Windows Server 2008 x64 edition as OS.

I want to know in my situation, pros and cons about using MySQL or SQL Server Express (free)? I think conclusion may be different to different people/perspective, but learning the facts (pros and cons) will be benefit for me to make decision.

thanks in advance,
George

Answer 1

If SQL Server Express will meet your needs without running into its limitations, and your developers/admins are most familiar with MS SQL, then use it.

Otherwise, use MySQL.

In these situations, the overarching strategy is usually to use what you know, as long as it will meet your technical needs.

The limitations of SQL Server Express are:

• Limited to one processor at a time (although it can use all cores of a multicore processor)
• Can use a max of 1GB of RAM for buffering data
• Max database data size of 4GB (10GB in 2012)
• SQL Profiler not included (but can be used with inexpensive developer edition tools)
• Job scheduling not provided (IIRC)
• Import/Export not provided (IIRC)

SQL Server Express still uses the same database engine as every other version, and it’s not performance-limited beyond the above restrictions.