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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Databases
  4. Databases
  5. Microsoft SQL Server vs MySQL

Microsoft SQL Server vs MySQL

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

MySQL
MySQL
Stacks129.6K
Followers108.6K
Votes3.8K
GitHub Stars11.8K
Forks4.1K
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Stacks21.3K
Followers15.5K
Votes540

Microsoft SQL Server vs MySQL: What are the differences?

Microsoft SQL Server, developed by Microsoft, offers a comprehensive feature set, strong integration with Microsoft technologies, and excellent scalability for enterprise applications. MySQL, an open-source database, is known for its simplicity, speed, and wide community support, making it a popular choice for web applications. Here are the key differences between Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL:

  1. Ownership and Licensing: Microsoft SQL Server is developed and owned by Microsoft Corporation, while MySQL is an open-source database system owned by Oracle Corporation. SQL Server is a commercial product, and different editions are available with varying features and licensing costs. MySQL, on the other hand, is open source and is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL), making it free to use and modify.

  2. Platforms and Operating System Support: Microsoft SQL Server primarily runs on Windows operating systems and is tightly integrated with other Microsoft products and technologies. It also offers limited support for Linux. In contrast, MySQL is cross-platform and supports various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and Unix-like systems. This flexibility allows MySQL to be deployed in a wide range of environments.

  3. Feature Set and Functionality: SQL Server offers a comprehensive suite of enterprise-level features, such as advanced analytics, business intelligence, data warehousing, and high availability options. It also provides integration with other Microsoft tools and technologies. MySQL, while not as feature-rich as SQL Server, provides a robust and scalable relational database management system (RDBMS) with support for standard SQL functionality, replication, and clustering.

  4. Performance and Scalability: SQL Server is known for its strong performance on Windows platforms, especially when optimized with Microsoft's proprietary technologies such as SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). MySQL, being an open-source database, offers excellent performance and scalability, particularly for web-based applications and high-traffic websites.

  5. Ecosystem and Support: SQL Server has a rich ecosystem and enjoys strong support from Microsoft, including regular updates, patches, and a wide range of documentation and resources. MySQL also has a large and active community of users and developers, with extensive documentation and resources available. It benefits from regular updates and contributions from the open-source community, with various support options including community-driven support and commercial support provided by Oracle.

In summary, SQL Server is often preferred for enterprise-level applications that require advanced features and tight integration with Microsoft technologies, while MySQL is popular for its open-source nature, cross-platform compatibility, and suitability for web applications and small to medium-sized projects.

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Advice on MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server

Kyle
Kyle

Web Application Developer at Redacted DevWorks

Dec 3, 2019

DecidedonPostGISPostGIS

While there's been some very clever techniques that has allowed non-natively supported geo querying to be performed, it is incredibly slow in the long game and error prone at best.

MySQL finally introduced it's own GEO functions and special indexing operations for GIS type data. I prototyped with this, as MySQL is the most familiar database to me. But no matter what I did with it, how much tuning i'd give it, how much I played with it, the results would come back inconsistent.

It was very disappointing.

I figured, at this point, that SQL Server, being an enterprise solution authored by one of the biggest worldwide software developers in the world, Microsoft, might contain some decent GIS in it.

I was very disappointed.

Postgres is a Database solution i'm still getting familiar with, but I noticed it had no built in support for GIS. So I hilariously didn't pay it too much attention. That was until I stumbled upon PostGIS and my world changed forever.

449k views449k
Comments
Ido
Ido

Mar 6, 2020

Decided

My data was inherently hierarchical, but there was not enough content in each level of the hierarchy to justify a relational DB (SQL) with a one-to-many approach. It was also far easier to share data between the frontend (Angular), backend (Node.js) and DB (MongoDB) as they all pass around JSON natively. This allowed me to skip the translation layer from relational to hierarchical. You do need to think about correct indexes in MongoDB, and make sure the objects have finite size. For instance, an object in your DB shouldn't have a property which is an array that grows over time, without limit. In addition, I did use MySQL for other types of data, such as a catalog of products which (a) has a lot of data, (b) flat and not hierarchical, (c) needed very fast queries.

575k views575k
Comments
Navraj
Navraj

CEO at SuPragma

Apr 16, 2020

Needs adviceonMySQLMySQLPostgreSQLPostgreSQL

I asked my last question incorrectly. Rephrasing it here.

I am looking for the most secure open source database for my project I'm starting: https://github.com/SuPragma/SuPragma/wiki

Which database is more secure? MySQL or PostgreSQL? Are there others I should be considering? Is it possible to change the encryption keys dynamically?

Thanks,

Raj

401k views401k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

MySQL
MySQL
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server

The MySQL software delivers a very fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL (Structured Query Language) database server. MySQL Server is intended for mission-critical, heavy-load production systems as well as for embedding into mass-deployed software.

Microsoft® SQL Server is a database management and analysis system for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
11.8K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
4.1K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
129.6K
Stacks
21.3K
Followers
108.6K
Followers
15.5K
Votes
3.8K
Votes
540
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 800
    Sql
  • 679
    Free
  • 562
    Easy
  • 528
    Widely used
  • 490
    Open source
Cons
  • 16
    Owned by a company with their own agenda
  • 3
    Can't roll back schema changes
Pros
  • 139
    Reliable and easy to use
  • 101
    High performance
  • 95
    Great with .net
  • 65
    Works well with .net
  • 56
    Easy to maintain
Cons
  • 4
    Expensive Licensing
  • 2
    Microsoft
  • 1
    Replication can loose the data
  • 1
    Allwayon can loose data in asycronious mode
  • 1
    Data pages is only 8k

What are some alternatives to MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server?

MongoDB

MongoDB

MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an advanced object-relational database management system that supports an extended subset of the SQL standard, including transactions, foreign keys, subqueries, triggers, user-defined types and functions.

SQLite

SQLite

SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file.

Cassandra

Cassandra

Partitioning means that Cassandra can distribute your data across multiple machines in an application-transparent matter. Cassandra will automatically repartition as machines are added and removed from the cluster. Row store means that like relational databases, Cassandra organizes data by rows and columns. The Cassandra Query Language (CQL) is a close relative of SQL.

Memcached

Memcached

Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.

MariaDB

MariaDB

Started by core members of the original MySQL team, MariaDB actively works with outside developers to deliver the most featureful, stable, and sanely licensed open SQL server in the industry. MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement of MySQL(R) with more features, new storage engines, fewer bugs, and better performance.

RethinkDB

RethinkDB

RethinkDB is built to store JSON documents, and scale to multiple machines with very little effort. It has a pleasant query language that supports really useful queries like table joins and group by, and is easy to setup and learn.

ArangoDB

ArangoDB

A distributed free and open-source database with a flexible data model for documents, graphs, and key-values. Build high performance applications using a convenient SQL-like query language or JavaScript extensions.

InfluxDB

InfluxDB

InfluxDB is a scalable datastore for metrics, events, and real-time analytics. It has a built-in HTTP API so you don't have to write any server side code to get up and running. InfluxDB is designed to be scalable, simple to install and manage, and fast to get data in and out.

CouchDB

CouchDB

Apache CouchDB is a database that uses JSON for documents, JavaScript for MapReduce indexes, and regular HTTP for its API. CouchDB is a database that completely embraces the web. Store your data with JSON documents. Access your documents and query your indexes with your web browser, via HTTP. Index, combine, and transform your documents with JavaScript.

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