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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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Recent Reviews

Solid and Reliable.

10 out of 10
August 28, 2023
Incentivized
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 …
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Microsoft SQL Server Review

9 out of 10
October 28, 2022
I am a computer engineer. I have been working as a software developer for about 7 years. I've been using Microsoft SQL Server since I was …
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SQL Server Review

8 out of 10
June 19, 2021
Incentivized
We use MS SQL Server as our main database to store customer data. We have a monolith web application that is using a single MS SQL Server …
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MS SQL Server

8 out of 10
May 25, 2021
Incentivized
For the uninitiated it is first important to point out that many programs use a Database at the back-end and the end-user will be totally …
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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

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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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 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 Usability highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of Microsoft SQL Server are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(1608)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 96)
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August 28, 2023

Solid and Reliable.

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
MSSQL Server is excellent for most organizations that have database needs. Typically businesses will be either a "Microsoft" or "Oracle" shop and it tends to boil down to the software used, as many require SQL Server to begin with. In my experience mostly small to medium sized business use MSSQL Server. For ETL, I find SQL Server the way to go as SSIS is better than Informatica, but that's my opinion.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I'm making bank software and I can use Microsoft SQL Server for all scenarios. Customer data, account data, card data, credit data all information is kept in the Microsoft SQL Server database. It provides convenience while keeping related data. While reporting, slowness may occur because there is too much data. We use Oracle as an equivalent.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is well suited for large-scale projects. It definitely requires a learning curve for the developers to work on. A plethora of support and self-help documents/articles are available on the internet to get familiar with the micro functionalities.
Gordon Lo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If your organization builds a lot of Microsoft based applications using .net or .net core, then the use of SQL is a no-brainer. The integration with .net is second to none as a backend for web apps and APIs.

In general, SQL performs well for a multitude of tasks beyond web app backends. We use SQL for high volume transactions for our core ESB which has very high data volume and data churn.
Pritesh Patel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft SQL Server is best for enterprise-level databases for data management. If you need to scale easily there are other options like Azure SQL, etc, but this also works best on bare metals servers. The licensing can get a bit complicated so it is not good for small companies/applications. I also don't think it is the best for mobile applications, etc.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Well suited scenarios include:
1. Microsoft SQL Server is well suited when company needs to have high control over their data from creating, managing to maintaining.
2. Data needs to be highly structed and related to each other.
3. It can be integrated with a lot of frameworks.

Less appropriate scenarios include:
1. Pricing is very high and becomes difficult for smaller or mid-tier companies.
2. We are moving towards big data which is mostly unrelated and is very difficult for SQL to handle it.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is very well suited if you need to store data in the relational model. It is a very powerful tool and can be used from small companies to huge companies. As it is the most used database in the market you can find all the necessary information and how to make it works in a better way.
Blake Baron | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As long as my colleague that I'm recommending Microsoft SQL Server to has an unlimited budget, it's great. Truly best-in-class enterprise-wide data warehousing and reporting functionality; Microsoft SQL Server is the real deal for robust reporting. It's best suited for a Fortune 500 company that definitely has the budget for IT sophistication.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
June 19, 2021

SQL Server Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you need RDBMS for an enterprise that needs to be fast and reliable without looking at the pricing or if you or your company are willing to pay a premium price for the best quality, MS SQL Server is your best choice. However, if you are a small startup that doesn't have a lot of data and not so complex application to use the database, PostgreSQL or MySQL might be better for you.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
My ability to support the recommendation with skills I have gained using Microsoft SQL Server. My ability to provide Microsoft SQL Server queries and stored procedures to others when supporting Microsoft SQL Server in an environment. Ease of moving data into Microsoft SQL Server. It does present problems when importing data from older versions or other sources and takes advanced skills in many cases. Installer is a bit baffling at times and you have to just know from experience what to check or uncheck in the process. Needs a better way to determine what version to use, where and with which licensing mode. Express version often fails for unexplained reasons even though the environment, data size, number of connections.... all are within spec.
May 25, 2021

MS SQL Server

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Some programs just require Microsoft SQL Server as the back-end Database, but if you have the choice I would go for one of the open-source free alternatives.
If you have a big base of Data, for instance, your customers' contact information, each customer's own detailed contract and layout, their tickets and service hours. You want to store them all in a organized manner and be able to retrieve any information quickly. That's when you use a Database of any kind and Microsoft SQL Server is one such Database programs which does a good job.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft SQL Server has so many ways to integrate data from other platforms and sources, and available tools that it really is versatile enough to handle almost any need. There could be cheaper alternatives out there if you only have a minimal amount of data. At the same time, the cost can be high for smaller companies looking into big data capabilities.
Salvador Orochena | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Microsoft SQL Server is well suited] as a comprehensive solution as transactional database, data warehouse, analytics, reporting and ETL. Able to communicate with Azure database environment.

If you use other Microsoft applications, it integrates well such as Excel and Access.

If you have limited resources to support and maintain environment this may not be ideal compared to a managed service or SAAS solution such as Snowflake.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have used Microsoft SQL Server in one flavor or another for two decades. It has always been a reliable database management system for running anything from custom, in-house applications to business critical Enterprise Resource Planning systems. There is also a broad SQL Server ecosystem available on the internet, which is helpful for development tasks, training and troubleshooting.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft SQL Server is great, as long as the user is familiar enough with it. There are always free classes online that will assist with gaining knowledge. In my past life, I was support for users. Currently, I am the user. Anytime, I need to understand something that I am not familiar with, I simply google it and someone out there has an answer. There is never an issue with having too much data as it does hold a lot.
John Ramírez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our companny is a Service Desk, and IT Support supplier. We have different needs regarding information, ticketing systems, clients systems and also our company internal information such as HR related.
We are capable to keep the information always available around the globe, also this is kept in a safe way.
We have our systems working on several countries, and the response time, is always excelent.
Lisandro Fernigrini | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've found Microsoft SQL Server a robust and affordable solution for most OLTP scenarios, starting with department solutions up to enterprise-level systems. There are many advanced features (like compression and partitioning) that correctly implemented provide huge benefits on performance, reducing hardware requirements and costs. The default locking mechanism can be a problem for systems with high concurrency if the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT option is not selected.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have grown very fond of SQL Server, as I say I don't have a lot of experience with other relational databases, but I haven't hit upon a limitation within our use cases. Its TSQL is a pretty easy (scripting) language to pick up, stored procedures are very powerful and offer efficiency and security, not to mention allowing for quick changes to logic can be a real time-saver.

I will say I have had limited joy with text search (full-text indexing) to achieve better text searching results, but that's probably done to me. It's the one area I have never really managed to find a great guide on though.
Akhilesh Arya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Mike McFarland | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Where ever data is stored in large quantities and needs to be retrieved quickly by queries. Where data is small and easily manipulated by a spreadsheet, then SQL will be overly complicated as a solution.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[Microsoft SQL Server] is great for any Microsoft shop as it seamlessly integrates with most Windows based applications. It would not really make sense to run it outside of a Windows environment as there are better options for that. It is not the best database solution, but it has been around forever and is a very reputable brand with long history.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Since [Microsoft] SQL Server is a widely-accepted and popular database format, it is well-suited for smaller and larger environments, thanks to the different SQL Server versions available. SQL Server installation and configuration is fairly straightforward, and can be installed on different hardware, depending on needs. It may be less appropriate where simple database usage is required.
John P. Maher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Microsoft SQL Server is a good database and works well in all the situations in which I have used it. Although there are things that can be challenging or unintuitive but once they are learned you quickly forget how difficult or unclear they are. To be fair, other databases exhibit the same difficulties and overall, SQL Server provides great service in any situation where a multiuser environment is required.
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