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I'm doing research on the best suitable database for an in-house web application for our (non-IT) company. It's a web information system with few database-heavy tasks. Users can add new customer information, create new job proposals, hour registration, etc.

Current situation:

  • PHP webapplication
  • 30 unique daily users
  • Almost no concurrent transactions
  • 500 MB database size (over ~3 years)
  • MySQL

New Situation

  • ASP.NET webapplication
  • 50 unique daily users, will grow with about 10 a year
  • Maybe max. 10 concurrent transactions (in rare occasions), but mostly no concurrent transactions
  • With all the departments using the new information system, I predict about 150~200 transactions a day (hour registration, planning, etc.)

Because the new webapplication is ASP.NET, I am considering MS SQL Server Express. It's free, has a limit of 10 GB database size and can utilize max. 4 GB memory and 1 CPU (4 cores).

My question is: will SQL Server Express be enough for this new situation?

Note: there is a Windows Server.

Community
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  • Tiny, low load. I see absolutely nothing that matches your description ("database heavy tasks"). My phone is enough for soemthing that tiny. The phone I had in 2000. Get real. Seriously. 50 unique users daily means 2-3 parallel maximum. This is not "low" load, this is "no load at all." SQL Express can - when programmed by someone with a little more than no knowledge- handle 1000 times that load. – TomTom Dec 05 '14 at 08:40
  • Short and clear answer, thanks. This is the confirmation I needed. –  Dec 05 '14 at 08:57

1 Answers1

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Yes this should suffice for your new application, as you will not be needing more then Express edition limits in Storage/RAM/CPU, according to data you put in the question. Your application should not be doing to much load.

You haven't mentioned in your question, why are you worried about using SQL Express, are you deciding between different types of database servers (MS SQL, MySQL, Oracle,...) or you worried that your application will outgrow SQL Express, and that you will need to do a complete MS SQL reinstall to upgrade to Web/Standard edition?

If you are worried that down the road, you will need to move to payed edition of SQL Server, you can do a in place upgrade from Express to Web/Stanard Edition, this is possible, at least I remember it being possible in 2008R2 version, when I did it with and Edition Upgrade option in the setup menu.

Also you can upgrade any earlier Express edition (2005-2012SP1) to 2014 Web or Standard Edition, so it should not even be an issue to upgrade your Express Edition to any future versions of SQL Web/Standard down the road, as I doubt MS would remove that option in future versions.

Supported Version and Edition Upgrades to SQL 2014: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393.aspx

ralz
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  • Thanks for your answer. I'm 'worried' about the application outgrowing SQL Express and need to force my employee to buy an expensive database. But reading the comment on my question I see that I'm worried about nothing, and an upgrade to an expensive version will not happen soon, or not at all. –  Dec 05 '14 at 08:54