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SQL Server - Too Expensive for Small Sites?

by brettb
8 replies
Hi all,

I'm building a membership site and I'm a little unsure about which database to use. I believe the site could be very popular. However, earnings per member will be low. For that reason I need an economical hosting solution, at least until I can calculate true income/expenditure and look into dedicated hosting.

I've started building the site using SQL Server. While I prefer to develop using this database, I've suddenly realised that SQL Server hosting is seriously expensive .

Example: Godaddy's shared hosting gives you 1Gb mySQL databases but only 200Mb SQL Server databases . 200Mb isn't a lot of space! I think my site will need around 750Mb in a year or two.

So, should I stick with SQL or cut my losses and switch to mySQL? :confused:

The frontend is ASP.NET/C# by the way.

P.S. I don't even want to get into talk about splitting my data between countless 200Mb SQL Server databases!
#– #expensive #server #sites #small #sql
  • Profile picture of the author msu
    I'm not exactly an expert on databases but I have developed a number sites using PHP and MySQL. I'd switch to MySQL. It should be able to handle everything you need it to, it's cheaper and you don't want the nightmare of having to redo everything two months in to the project.
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    • Profile picture of the author TG12
      Yeah SQL Server is way too expensive for small sites. It depends how you write your query's and what you store in your tables for 200MB but No its not a great deal.
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  • Profile picture of the author Earnie Boyd
    You should switch. MySQL and PostgresDB are both Open Source. Just dump the DB to a Sql script that can then be used by MySQL to import the data.
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    Earnie Boyd
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    • Profile picture of the author Darknite7
      Time to dispel some myths!

      * You can use SQL Express versions, they have some features removed that you simply will not need for small web sites.

      * Microsoft Bizspark (for start-ups) Lots of free licences:

      http (//) www (.) microsoft.com (/) bizspark

      * 750mb? in one year? how are designing your schema? not nvarchars I hope

      EDIT:

      If you are worried about space, just rent a VPS, even a lowly one usually will have 40GB hdd space, you can expand this on the fly as your traffic and site grows.

      Some have Install anything policies. I did this for a while, worked just fine.
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      • Profile picture of the author IMBotz
        Yep,

        Last time I checked SQL Express supported up to a 4GB database.

        Originally Posted by Darknite7 View Post

        Time to dispel some myths!

        * You can use SQL Express versions, they have some features removed that you simply will not need for small web sites.

        * Microsoft Bizspark (for start-ups) Lots of free licences:

        http (//) www (.) microsoft.com (/) bizspark

        * 750mb? in one year? how are designing your schema? not nvarchars I hope

        EDIT:

        If you are worried about space, just rent a VPS, even a lowly one usually will have 40GB hdd space, you can expand this on the fly as your traffic and site grows.

        Some have Install anything policies. I did this for a while, worked just fine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Earnie Boyd
    My host provides me 1.8 Tera Byte for "unlimited" disk space. Check the linked page in the signature for a link to the host I use.
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    Earnie Boyd
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  • Profile picture of the author webcosmo
    expense is a big issue with windows hosting no doubt.

    do the math for cost of conversion compared to extra cost for sql.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayWiz
    Your frontend is ASP.NET/C# then obviously it's best using SQL Server. There are few limitations when using mySQL or PostgreSQL compared when using Sql server. I think you will find many problems when you switch from sql server to mysql directly, you will need to modify your code and in the end takes more time. You better find other web hosting that supports sql server cheaply, you can compare and find this on web host forum such as Web Hosting Talk - The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet
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