Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Microsoft Logo
3,981 views|3,415 comparisons
Microsoft Logo
33,485 views|25,100 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared SQL Server and LocalDB based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

In summary, SQL Server is praised for its robustness, support, pricing, ROI, and areas for improvement, while LocalDB is valued for its ease of installation, support, affordability, ROI, and enhancement opportunities. SQL Server excels in handling large datasets and security measures, while LocalDB is adept at managing small databases and integration with Visual Studio. Both products offer efficient performance and seamless integration with Microsoft tools, but SQL Server caters more towards businesses with complex data needs, while LocalDB is ideal for smaller-scale projects.

Features: SQL Server's most valuable features include robustness, efficient handling of large data, comprehensive security measures, seamless integration with Microsoft products, and excellent performance. In contrast, LocalDB excels in ease of installation, compatibility with Visual Studio, and efficient performance with small databases. Both products offer seamless integration with Microsoft tools.

Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for SQL Server is considered straightforward and efficient, with flexible licensing options to accommodate different business needs. On the other hand, LocalDB has no setup costs and offers a permissive license, allowing for easy integration into projects without any restrictions., The ROI from SQL Server is highly satisfactory, with significant improvements in efficiency, data management, and cost savings. On the other hand, LocalDB offers time-saving benefits, improved efficiency, and cost avoidance.

Room for Improvement: SQL Server users emphasize the need for improvements in usability, performance optimization, compatibility, query handling, security features, and efficient handling of large datasets. LocalDB users suggest enhancements in database performance, system stability, user-friendly features, and operating system compatibility.

Deployment and customer support: The feedback on SQL Server indicates that the time required for establishing the tech solution varies, with some users spending three months on deployment and an additional week on setup, while others mention a week for both. In contrast, the feedback on LocalDB emphasizes considering the context of each user's experience, taking into account the separate phases of deployment and setup., Customers have found the customer service for SQL Server commendable and reliable, while LocalDB offers highly satisfactory, efficient, and reliable support. Both have prompt assistance and issue resolution, but SQL Server is praised for its helpfulness and overall assistance, while LocalDB is commended for its friendly and knowledgeable staff.

The summary above is based on 38 interviews we conducted recently with SQL Server and LocalDB users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed LocalDB vs. SQL Server Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature of LocalDBis the connection between the application and DB.""The initial setup was simple.""The solution is fast.""The initial setup is very straightforward. The guidelines are very easy to follow. Maintenance is very easy and requires very little manpower."

More LocalDB Pros →

"The product’s most valuable features are flexibility and scalability.""The most valuable feature of the solution, compared to other RDBMS solutions, such as Oracle MySQL or IBM DB2, it is more user-friendly and has backward compatibility. For example, if you have an application that requires an old version of SQL Server and you have the latest version of the license, you are able to install and use it in backward compatibility mode. They keep supporting the existing legacy application.""SQL Server is quite stable. And now we are using the Lattice 2017 version.""SQL Server is easy to manage because all our DevOps team are familiar with it and simple to access because it is cloud-based.""SQL Server and their offers are very good. You can switch over, export, and do other things.""It is a typical database solution, and it is working well so far. It is easy to use, and it is also very common and popular, which makes it easy to find a support partner.""The product has very good online documentation that can be used for troubleshooting.""Similar to Microsoft SQL, it is easy to scale."

More SQL Server Pros →

Cons
"The solution needs to create a management tool. Right now, the solution has tools for creating a local installation, but it's too simplistic. We need something that's a bit more complex so that we can extend the tools with our scripts.""The internal connection features of LocalDB could improve.""The ALM features can be improved, but the database by itself is reliable.""The initial setup is complex and requires a skilled person."

More LocalDB Cons →

"Security is an issue.""Performance could be improved.""They could improve by adding the SQL format.""There are a few use cases where we do need the Active-Active options instead of Active-Passive, yet those kinds of options are not available for Microsoft.""There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to limited compatibility across the platform and restricted performance with massive data sets.""We have no vision. We don't know when or how we have been hacked.""We have had problems implementing a data warehouse using SQL Server.""It may be a licensing issue, but sometimes its operating speed becomes slow if we have multiple users. It's lacking some performance, but it's acceptable because we have a heavy load."

More SQL Server Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The licensing cost is too high for LocalDB."
  • "The fees are fair."
  • More LocalDB Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The free version is cumbersome to use and maintain. But $5000 for a licence is more expense than the benefit I would get from a licensed version. A licence might be worth the price to simplify management and speed up searches."
  • "​We are a Microsoft shop, so we use Active Directory. That integrates well with this product, but we did look at Oracle. We also looked at IBM. This was the best price point for us for what we were getting.​"
  • "​It has the easiest licensing."
  • "This is a downside of enterprise Microsoft products."
  • "Currently, almost all of my machines are in Azure and I think it is the best way of licensing now (VM+software)."
  • "The price has been going higher and higher. The market is quite price sensitive."
  • "My advice is quite straightforward. If you know the number of users who really and truly need access to the Server then it is a no-brainer. If you do not know, then get the basic package and minimum licenses and start from there. Needless to say, users can develop/use data structures outside and then deploy onto the Server."
  • "The setup cost is high, but it will return every penny."
  • More SQL Server Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Relational Databases Tools solutions are best for your needs.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We pay an annual fee for the license. The fees are fair.
    Top Answer:I would like to have more integration.
    Top Answer:SQL Server is fairly priced because it has various editions, depending on the number of users, servers, or core packs you are using. If you compare the product to others in this category, the prices… more »
    Top Answer:SQL Server has helped my organization through partitioning to distribute the workload, as it splits them up into smaller pieces so the machines can easily deal with it. However, this comes with a high… more »
    Top Answer:My company connects through SQL Server authentication. We have company Windows accounts, but we do not want to connect the two, out of security concerns and to keep things separated for our own… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    3,981
    Comparisons
    3,415
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    202
    Rating
    8.5
    Views
    33,485
    Comparisons
    25,100
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    361
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    MySQL logo
    Compared 7% of the time.
    Infobright DB logo
    Compared 1% of the time.
    Oracle Database logo
    Compared 1% of the time.
    Tibero logo
    Compared 1% of the time.
    MariaDB logo
    Compared 19% of the time.
    SAP HANA logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    Oracle Database logo
    Compared 13% of the time.
    IBM Db2 Database logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Teradata logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Microsoft SQL Server, MSSQL, MS SQL
    Learn More
    Overview
    LocalDB is a lightweight version of the SQL Server Express Database Engine that is targeted for program development. LocalDB starts on demand and runs in user mode, so there is no complex configuration.

    SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) by Microsoft. The product's main purposes are to store data and retrieve it as requested by other software applications - on the same computer or on another computer across a shared network. The solution is built on top of Structured Query Language (SQL), which is a standardized programming language used for relational database management.

    The product is tied to Transact-SQL (T-SQL), which is an implementation of SQL from Microsoft that adds several proprietary programming extensions to the standard language. SQL Server is built similarly to other RDBMS products, as its structure is a row-based table that connects related data elements in different tables to one another. One of its most important components is the SQL Server Database Engine, as it controls data processing, storage, and security. Beneath the Database Engine is the SQL Server Operating System, which is used for memory and I/O management, locking data to avoid unneeded upgrades, and job scheduling.

    The solution has four editions with different sets of services and tools. They include:

    • SQL Server Developer
    • SQL Server Expression
    • SQL Server Standard 
    • SQL Server Enterprise

    The first two are available for free and are typically utilized by smaller companies, as they work with fewer functions and storage. The second two editions are generally used by bigger organizations and enterprises and offer more features.

    The solution has several functions through which users can facilitate different data-related processes. These include:

    • Aggregate functions: These functions are used to calculate one or more values and return a single value.

    • Window functions: Window functions calculate an aggregate value based on a group of rows and return multiple rows for each involved group.

    • Date functions: These functions allow clients to handle data and time data efficiently.

    • String functions: Through the string functions, SQL Server processes an input string and returns a string or numeric value.

    • System functions: The system functions of the product return objects, values, and settings.

    SQL Server Services

    SQL Server has a wide range of add-on services that provide additional benefits beyond database management. These services include:

    • Machine learning: SQL Server machine learning services allow users to do machine learning and data analytics within the product.
       
    • Service broker: This feature is a part of the database engine and offers messaging and message queuing for applications on the platform.

    • Replication: This feature consists of transaction replication, merge replication, and snapshot replication. 

    • Analysis: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) adds online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining capabilities to SQL Server databases.

    • Reporting: This feature supports the development of custom reporting applications.

    • Notifications: This feature generates data-driven notifications which are sent to subscribers of Notification Services.

    • Integration: This SQL Server feature provides capabilities for data integration, data import, and data warehousing.

    • Full-text search: Through this feature, users can utilize specialized indexing and query for unstructured text stored in the solution.

    • Visual studio: This feature supports data programming with SQL Server.

    • Azure Data Studio: This is a cross-platform query editor that can be downloaded and used alongside SQL Server.

    SQL Server Benefits

    The solution has many benefits for users. These include the following:

    • The platform ensures a consistent experience across other platforms while being fast and agile.

    • Through the built-in intelligence features, users can understand their data better.

    • The solution has enterprise-level security, which ensures the smooth and safe performance of users' data.

    • SQL Server offers the ability to retrieve large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.

    • The product installation process is fairly easy, and it offers a user-friendly interface.

    • SQL Server offers improved data storage and retrieval functions through frequent upgrades.

    • The solution reduces the risk of database server attacks, since it is not an open-source database.

    Reviews from Real Users

    A president at a consultancy evaluates SQL Server as a veteran solution with critical log shipping feature

    Harkamal S., a user at a manufacturing company, rates SQL Server with a high mark because it is a stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything.

    Sample Customers
    AstraZeneca, Kienzle Automotive GmbH, Kodak Alaris, Unilever, Floatel International and Kongsberg Maritime, MyHero
    Microsoft SQL Server is used by businesses in every industry, including Great Western Bank, Aviva, the Volvo Car Corporation, BMW, Samsung, Principality Building Society, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government9%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization42%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise39%
    Buyer's Guide
    LocalDB vs. SQL Server
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about LocalDB vs. SQL Server and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    LocalDB is ranked 15th in Relational Databases Tools with 5 reviews while SQL Server is ranked 1st in Relational Databases Tools with 245 reviews. LocalDB is rated 9.0, while SQL Server is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of LocalDB writes "Good for the development process, generally stable, and easy to set up". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SQL Server writes "A stable, scalable, and easy-to-deploy solution that pretty much covers everything". LocalDB is most compared with MySQL, Oracle Database In-Memory, Infobright DB, Oracle Database and Tibero, whereas SQL Server is most compared with MariaDB, SAP HANA, Oracle Database, IBM Db2 Database and Teradata. See our LocalDB vs. SQL Server report.

    See our list of best Relational Databases Tools vendors.

    We monitor all Relational Databases Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.