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Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server

Overview

What is Microsoft SQL Server?

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.

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Learn from top reviewers

Microsoft SQL Server: Perfect Data Manager for an Organization

Rating: 9 out of 10
March 7, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Microsoft SQL Server is used in our organization by IT personnel to Store data, fetch data specific to requirements. For instance, in Sales Module SQL server is used to fetch ...
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varun kohli
Professional - Information Technology
Senior Executive
Vardhman textiles ltd.
Microsoft SQL Server19 years of experience
Verified on LinkedIn

Microsoft SQL Server inspiration

Rating: 8 out of 10
November 22, 2024
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Microsoft SQL Server supports the databases for our primary accounting system (MS Dynamics GP). This avoids us using much less efficient flat files or less compliant software ...
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Verified user
Manager
Microsoft SQL Server15 years of experience

Microsoft SQL is a valuable tool to manage and present information across platforms.

Rating: 7 out of 10
October 10, 2024
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I work for a company that creates a software suite that allows our customers to manage and track their work, their companies and contacts, user logins, etc. We use an extensiv...
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Verified user
Technician
Microsoft SQL Server18 years of experience

Microsoft SQL Server review

Rating: 10 out of 10
June 28, 2024
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
I primarily use Microsoft SQL Server 2019 and 2022 data engine to run commercial workloads of various customers. A frequent configuration use case is the usage of Microsoft SQ...
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Verified user
Professional
Microsoft SQL Server10 years of experience

Solid and Reliable.

Rating: 10 out of 10
August 28, 2023
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use MSSQL Server along with SSIS and SSRS as it's a very competent software suite and very stable. It integrates well with other software that we use, namely JAMS Scheduler...
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Verified user
Consultant
Microsoft SQL Server11 years of experience
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Subscription

$1,418.00

Cloud
Per License

Enterprise

$13,748.00

Cloud
Per License

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

An Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server's Statistics

YouTube

Introduction to Transact SQL (T-SQL) using Microsoft SQL Server

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Microsoft SQL Server?

Microsoft SQL Server Video

Microsoft SQL Server Integrations

Microsoft SQL Server Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.

Reviewers rate Implementation Rating highest, with a score of 9.

The most common users of Microsoft SQL Server are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

View all reviews
(1-5 of 40)

Great Enterprise Database Platform

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
June 26, 2021
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 201-500 employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft SQL Server
20 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Microsoft SQL Server is used by our organization to store data for internal line of business and management systems. It meets these need well, is fairly easy to backup and manage.
Pros
  • Relational Database Server
  • Easy to stand up DB to support OEM Applications
  • Backend for Custom Written Application
  • COTS DB
Cons
  • Cost for Enterprise Edition
  • Heavy Mgmt Tools
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft SQL Server is a great RDBMS and meets all of our requirements. If you need a stable DB platform to support your line of a business application you'll be well served. Licensing costs are far cheaper, more portable and a lot more user friendly than Oracle. Product support and security patches from Microsoft are strong.

Microsoft SQL Server Review

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
May 01, 2021
AA
Akhilesh Arya
Assistant Professor
Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies, Udaipur (Higher Education, 51-200 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft SQL Server
4 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We are using Microsoft SQL Server Express edition for teaching RDBMS to the students its really a nice tool to use. In personal I have also used the developer edition for application development. The best part of this software is it is robust. You can use it for both [...] website application[s] or [...] web application development. This database tool support[s] Microsoft visual studio so if you are using that IDE for development this is one of the most compatible and reliable [databases] software. Very efficiently handle the CRUD operations.
Pros
  • Easy to use is of course the foremost reason [for] its extensive use in almost every industry
  • Less expensive than Oracle tools
  • Multiple user support in [a] single set up
  • Excellent user support and documentation
Cons
  • Visualization is not available for that you have to use [the] different tool this is one of the feature[s] I think they should include
  • In MS Access you can design the query but here you have to write it in SQL
  • Enterprises edition is really expensive
Likelihood to Recommend
For almost all [development-related] jobs this is the [well-suited] database server. You should convert your excel sheets into the SQL database so that with the exponential growth of your data, [the] system will not go slow. The only thing you need to convert all your data into a systematic [database] is SQL expert who can right queries for your application.

Excellent tool for enterprise data management

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
September 17, 2020
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft SQL Server
8 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
My department uses SQL Server (and Azure Data Studio, increasingly, but still primarily SQL Server) for database management and analysis. Other departments use it as well, including our QA team, to verify the expected output of data manipulation or the functionality of changes to the code base. It's a pretty standard tool at this point.
Pros
  • Query analysis and execution plan details - You can see indexes you may be missing that would (if used) possibly improve performance of your stored procedures and queries.
  • Data storage - It's easy to restore and back up entire databases and to set up automatic jobs to do this.
  • Scheduled tasks - You can plan health checks or updates to data, or reports, from the Jobs tool.
Cons
  • Unlike Visual Studio, there isn't a built-in or out-of-the-box way to format your SQL scripts/queries. You can easily install plugins and extensions to do this (paid or free) but it would be a nice-to-have.
  • Occasionally it's not obvious from a query execution plan what piece is causing the most bottleneck, and even then, side-effects of implementing the suggested index(es) aren't always obvious.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you're a developer and you do any work with retrieving or updating data, Microsoft SQL Server is a great choice (assuming you're working on a Windows machine - although I think it's easier now than it used to be to connect to SQL Server from other operating systems). It's fairly straightforward and the learning curve isn't terribly steep, and if you put the time and effort in you can learn a lot about performance tuning and best practices.

Microsoft SQL Server is a Great Enterprise Database Option

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
September 10, 2019
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Microsoft SQL Server is our primary data storage for our in house software as well as 3rd party financial software and provides the data for all of our enterprise reporting. We also leverage the additional services that come with Microsoft SQL Server including SQL Server Reporting Services and SQL Server Integration Services.
Pros
  • Extremely Reliable - We have not had an instance of SQL Server itself having issues or causing downtime. We have had AWS hardware failures but not Microsoft SQL Server failures.
  • Total Cost of Ownership - Having Enterprise Edition provides us with the additional features of SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Integration Services, and if we would like, SQL Server Analytics Services.
  • Multiple disaster recovery options - You can use mirroring (replaced by Always On Availability Groups), replications and log shipping to name a few options.
  • Elastic Database options - You can have a mix of on-premises and Azure instances if your use case requires it.
  • Easy Manageability - Microsoft has done a great job of making the management of Microsoft SQL Server easier with every release.
  • In-Memory Database options - You can have in-memory tables for any business case needing that level of performance.
Cons
  • While I really like their disaster recovery options, they could make them more affordable and easier to implement. Always On-Availability Groups is improving with every edition but still can come with some gotcha's if you do not watch it. Including Security across instances, jobs across instances, etc.
  • In memory, at least in 2014, once you enable it that is it. You cannot go back. This makes it difficult to retire this feature.
  • Better native Enterprise management meaning, in a use case where you may have multiple servers or clusters with multiple instances the native tools are lacking and typically require purchasing 3rd party tools or building out tools for monitoring and managing the servers and databases.
Likelihood to Recommend
I love the fact that with the Enterprise version you also get a robust reporting platform, ETL tool, and data warehouse platform. While some use cases may favor other tools in this space, these tools are all mature, robust and feature-rich with 3rd party add-ons available. When compared with other options in the Enterprise space such as Oracle and DB2, I like what Microsoft SQL Server offers and now it can be installed and ran on Linux which is a huge plus.

SQL Server -- Enterprise Data and Analytics in a Box

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
February 22, 2020
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Architecture & Planning Company, 1001-5000 employees
Vetted Review
Verified User
Microsoft SQL Server
20 years of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
SQL Server is our go-to database for both on-prem and cloud database needs. We are running on-prem for 3rd party, custom applications, and the enterprise data warehouse. The Cloud is great for custom applications, as well as beginning to migrate to a data lake structure with Azure SQL DW. Other than embedded databases in a few apps, it is the only RDBMS technology we leverage, although we do run several different versions and editions (Azure SQL DB, Azure SQL DW, SQL Server 2016, 2017).
Pros
  • It's easier to manage than other RDBMS.
  • Good, mature, in-the-box interface for both development and administration.
Cons
  • It has a fully extending feature set for managing Azure SQL DB to SSMS and/or Azure Data Studio.
  • It's simplifying security/access setup for Azure SQL DB.
Likelihood to Recommend
I have been using MS SQL Server since version 7, and it has grown significantly in that time. While in the early days I would only grudgingly consider it for departmental level use, by 2005 it had reached enough of a level of stability and reliability that it was a good option for small to mid-size enterprise use. Today, I consider it the premiere RDBMS for virtually any scenario, particularly considering the number of options available. Microsoft's continuing pursuit of separating compute from storage also seems like the right direction, and allows for the compute engine to leverage big data scenarios as well, where the data is sufficiently structured to support utilizing external tables. This provides for use of familiar SQL tools against outsized data sets that do not fit easily in the RDBMS storage paradigm.
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