Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system made by Microsoft that you install and run yourself, on Windows or Linux, on-premises, in a virtual machine or in a cloud. The current release is SQL Server 2025. It stores tables, runs T-SQL queries and also includes replication, full-text search, JSON and XML handling, in-database Python and R and, new in this release, native vector data types for AI workloads.

Microsoft sells it in Enterprise, Standard, Express and two free Developer editions, plus a 180-day Evaluation edition. The vendor describes the product as an enterprise database with security, performance and availability aimed at mission-critical workloads, and links it to Azure Arc for cloud management and pay-as-you-go billing.

• Editions with published limits. Standard uses at most the lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores and 256 GB of buffer pool memory. Express is limited to the lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores, 1,410 MB of buffer pool and 50 GB per database. Enterprise is capped only by the operating system.
• AI and vector features. SQL Server 2025 adds a native vector data type, DiskANN-based vector indexing, embedding generation, chunking and support for external and local ONNX models. Several of these need the PREVIEW_FEATURES database scoped configuration.
• High availability. Enterprise supports Always On availability groups with up to 8 secondary replicas, and failover cluster instances with up to 16 nodes. Standard offers basic availability groups with two replicas and one database, and two-node clusters.
• Security features. Always Encrypted, row-level security, dynamic data masking, ledger and auditing are in all three main editions. Transparent data encryption and backup encryption are in Enterprise and Standard but not Express.
• Fabric mirroring and Azure Arc. The vendor says database mirroring in Fabric replicates data to OneLake for near-real-time analytics, and Azure Arc adds central management, patching, monitoring and pay-as-you-go licensing.
• Programmability. Native JSON type and indexes, regular expressions, REST endpoint calls, change event streaming, graph and temporal tables, and Java, .NET and Python runtime integration are listed as available across editions.

• A software vendor shipping a small desktop app. Bundle Express, which is free and has a 50 GB database ceiling, and upgrade customers to Standard without code changes if they outgrow it.
• A 30-person firm running a line-of-business system. Run Standard on one server within the 4-socket or 32-core limit, using basic availability groups or a two-node cluster for failover, and Developer edition for test copies.
• A large enterprise with Tier 1 databases. Use Enterprise for online index rebuilds, up to 16-node clusters, distributed availability groups and no engine compute cap, with Software Assurance for unlimited virtualisation.

Microsoft offers a download from its Evaluation Center, which runs the full Enterprise feature set for 180 days. Developer editions are free for non-production use, and Express is free for production on small workloads. The installation wizard has a Feature Selection page where nothing is ticked by default, so you choose Database Engine, PolyBase, Analysis Services or Integration Services as needed.

SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio integrate with it. Moving between editions needs no application code changes, according to the vendor. Linux installs are supported, with PowerShell scripts run from Windows machines.

SQL Server 2025 comes as Enterprise, Standard, Express and two Developer editions. Standard is limited to the lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores and 256 GB of buffer pool, while Express stops at 50 GB per database.

Pricing is a core pack or a server plus client access licences. Linux is supported on Red Hat and Ubuntu as well as Windows, and the licence meter rewards careful sizing.

In our database management systems ranking Microsoft SQL Server stands at #10 of 22: the products next to it are MySQL above and Oracle Database below. No numeric score is attached; established products follow the challengers in their ranked order.

Microsoft SQL Server is based in the United States; 15 of the 22 products here share its region, North America.

Pricing as recorded: Per core or server plus client licences, list prices published; Express and Developer free.

The vendor's product page says pricing is simple across editions, with licensing either per core or as a server plus Client Access Licences, and an Azure Arc pay-as-you-go option. For Enterprise, the server plus CAL model is not available for new agreements and is limited to 20 cores per instance. Developer and Express editions are free. Software Assurance can only be added to perpetual licences at the time of purchase. Dollar or euro amounts per core pack are in a separate pricing datasheet that was not readable from the pages fetched for this review, so no figures are stated here.

Where this comes from: the vendor pages at microsoft.com/sql-server, checked for Best Database Management Systems in 2026 on 7 November 2026.

SQL Server 2025 is supported on Red Hat and Ubuntu as well as Windows.

Because you host it yourself, data location is whatever infrastructure you choose. The vendor's product page claims the most secure databases over the last decade, a marketing statement without a source on that page. Security features include Always Encrypted with secure enclaves, TDE in Enterprise and Standard, Entra authentication when enabled by Azure Arc, and Defender for Cloud integration. Formal certifications are not listed on the pages fetched.

Integrations the vendor names (12):

• Azure Arc
• Microsoft Fabric
• OneLake
• Microsoft Purview
• Defender for Cloud
• Microsoft Entra ID
• LangChain
• Semantic Kernel
• Entity Framework Core
• Power BI Report Server
• Visual Studio Code
• SQL Server Management Studio

Closest by traits, not by rank: 5 products from the same list that overlap most with Microsoft SQL Server.

• CockroachDB (#4 of 22): Distributed SQL database sold per vCPU-hour, with a revenue-capped free licence. Suits: Teams needing SQL that stays available across regions or clouds. (United States)
• MongoDB (#5 of 22): A good match for: Teams building around JSON documents who prefer a managed cloud service.
• Couchbase (#8 of 22): Aimed at: Teams wanting SQL++ over JSON documents plus mobile sync from one vendor. (United States)
• Oracle Database (#11 of 22): Commercial enterprise database, now branded Oracle AI Database, with capped free edition. Watch out: the free edition is capped at 2 CPU threads, 2 GB of RAM and 12 GB of user data. (United States)
• Amazon DynamoDB (#12 of 22): A good match for: AWS-based teams wanting a database with no servers to patch.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server: editions, Express 50 GB, Developer free, licensing summary, Arc, Fabric, AI claims
• learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2025: edition limits, feature tables, high availability, security, 180-day evaluation

We rank on what separates products after the demo: time to useful, the real price, the exit and who the product is for. Here that gives Microsoft SQL Server the #10 position in a list of 22. How vendor facts are sourced, and how money can and cannot influence a page, is in the editorial process.