I need a non-bias option! MYSQL OR SQL?

1

I am looking around at companies that make e-commerce solutions. The two types fo database that they use is ether MYSQL or SQL? With MYSQL of course they will use php etc, and SQL will use asp etc.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two types? I need the solution that will the most reliable. About cost i really don’t care since basically SQL only cost a little more for a SQL host.

See one company saying around 10,000AUSD to 20,000AUSD and 3 months for MYSQL.
While another is saying under 10,000AUSD taking 2 months for SQL.

Personally I like MYSQL since its a more fliexible and runs on linux (a more redunant OS for hosting). However, it will take too long, never mind the cost I really need it done in about 2 months. BTW if i said anything wrong about MYSQL PLEASE prove me wrong! i’m am leaning over to using SQL but IF its really not good for ecommerce then I’ll use MYSQL.

ALSO i heard that many of the Major ecommerce people use SQL (microsoft btw) such as Ebay etc.

BTW the ecommerce applicayion i’m trying to get done is like a shopping cart but different and needs to work with Commerce software eg MYOB. And no you can’t get a premade one it just wont work.

THANKS! and remember lets take “money” as a factor out. i’m mainly concern about time and reliablity.

p.s. i know most of you HATE microsoft but please NON BIAS opionion and only factual information that has been proven from a reliable source.

2

You must realise that SQL server was not a M$ product to begin with, it was a well built database server before M$ bought it.

A company as large as Ebay will most certainly not be using mySQL. They’d be using either SQL server or Oracle. Oracle being run on Unix type systems.

Because php and mysql are so well known to be a good pair, you might get the idea that php works only with mysql. Not true. php works with SQL server, Oracle, PostGre, etc…

If you are going into ASP, don’t go asp3. go .NET. ASP3 is not under development and hasn’t been for several years. They make a few changes to VBScript every once and a while, but that is about it. M$ is all .NET now. If you do go .NET I would probably choose SQL server over any of them.

But of all the databases out there, Oracle is probably the best. But it’s licensing is not cheap. SQL Server will be a lot cheaper and SQL server is really quite mature. It has way more features than mySQL.

Read the mySQL licensing. It’s not cheap and under certain circumstances the licensing requires you to pay, mostly I think when it’s wrapped up with commercial applications, but I don’t know all the details.

It really depends on how heavy a load your db will have to handle. There are a lot of e-commerce sites running mySQL and are running fine. It is hard to say because I don’t know anything about your company, what you sell, what your projected audience will be, in numbers… etc…

Personally I like MYSQL since its a more fliexible and runs on linux (a more redunant OS for hosting).

Redundancy has nothing to do with OS and although Apache - Linux / Unix is a good portion of the hosting market, with a good admin a M$ server running iis and SQL can be rock solid and there are a lot of M$ servers out there serving you web pages. I personally prefer Linux / Unix servers, but it’s really a matter of taste.

3

As marmble already stated, it all depends on howmany information you are going to moved around, however if you would ask me i would still go with the mysql. Runs way faster than SQL. i did a huge project running on a SQL with load of storeprocedures running on a 2k3 server. while de php was running on a nix system. This was more becuase they wanted to run the SQL, however it is slow.!

4

ahh ok i get it now.

i also heard that .net is better for e-commerce since its in modules where when you want update your coding its more easy.

I’m planning right now to use MQL on .net hosting. yeah and like you said its not really about the OS but of will its maintanced. A hosting company just told me that they have liike lots of windows machinces where if yours goes down it switches to another to bascailly its 100% uptime.

So SQL isn’t MS. So i guess since i’m going to most likely use MS .net i would go for SQL server from MS.

thanks!

5

with trafiic, i guess looking really at about taking care of 200 products per day. and i really want it to work in the future to deal with thousands. And of course you go all your other processes like inventory etc. so how much traffic in the database, i guess thousands.

I also heard that SQL is better than MYSQL since it has ACID and can deal with more complex databases eg. realational etc.

6

i believe that mysql has ACID aswell. And if money is not the problem why not buy the mysql pro ?

7

well i’ve been looking around at companies and MYSQL systems will take longer to build. Also its really so that there is room for growth, I know that mysql is great for small stuff, but when it comes to more complex and damanding stuff its starts to get… yeah. Well there is no point in getting MYSQL PRO, since i’m not buying any software at all. I am getting a application developed and hosting it on a “.net” server, it of course works out to be cheaper and more reliable. You don’t need to buy any SQL server software unless your planning to set up a server yourself.

BTW if i have my SQL Databases off a host, when I need to download the databases and intergrate into accounting software such as Quicken or MYBO will i need to have SQL server running on my computers?

OR i think it works to just have the database on my host and just connect to it using like simego or something. Ether way i’ll need to transfer database information from the host to my computers. So that instead of hosting the database off our own server which is expensive and unreliable, that instead i have the database on a host then my computers just “synchronise” to the host database?

ALSO is this safe?

I really now have choosen to use SQL and ASP since its more a e-commerce kinda thing. WOuld you say SQL and ASP is as (or even more) safer than MYSQL and PHP. OR it really doesn’t matter and it’s just how the company scripts it?

8

btw, i checked and i’m pretty sure MYSQL doesn’t have ACID. I think MYSQL backsup every so minutes. But SQL i’ve heard is so good that it even backsup while a process is still happening, so it can finish off that process once its back online.

9

SQLserver is owned and developed by M$, but M$ bought it from another company, that is what I was trying to clarify. But SQLserver is more advanced than mySQL.

BTW if i have my SQL Databases off a host, when I need to download the databases and intergrate into accounting software such as Quicken or MYBO will i need to have SQL server running on my computers?

I am not sure what you are saying here. Do you mean you are running SQL from a remote host and connecting from a completely different location? Bad, don’t do it. Not secure at all.

Software will have some method to connect to the database, like ODBC. I have never used Quicken, so I don’t know the logistics of it.

I wouldn’t necessarily say ASP is better than PHP for eCommerce. PHP5 just came out of beta and the new Zend engine, so it’s progressing very fast.

10

MySQL’s licensing is free - if you redistribute it, then you must distribute the source code as well, but for web apps, commercial or not, then it’s free.

Oracle rocks, but is very expensive. There are other relational database systems like PostgreSQL as well - Postgres is very feature-rich, but quite slow. There’s also SQLite - which is very fast and light.

MySQL is a good balance between speed and features.

11

SQL is in no way safer than MYSQL infact there are many security issues with SQL. the same for ASP, infact all ms products have serious security issues.

12

mySQL is free in some circumstances, but read the licensing because in some cases it isn’t and it isn’t cheap. You are basing off the GPL, but mySQL doesn’t use the GPL anymore, they call it the LGPL or something like that.

ASP is as secure as the programmer writing the code. M$ does have lots of exploits, but *nix systems have lots of vulnerabilities as well. Your network is pretty much as secure as your admins are able to take care of it.

13

Yeah, I mean MYSQL has problems too i mean if its not programmed right it could be vunvarible to SQL injection etc.

With ether SQL or MYSQL most people if not all have it on a remote computer (host). Isn’t this really the most relistic way to do it? If it is on a remote computer ho would you connect to the data? If its not safe then how do people usually do it?

MYSQL and SQL are basically the same in cost, since you only need to purchase web hosting with the supporting platform. Of course SQL cost a bit more but thats ok. My programmer said that i don’t need to go out and buy sql server software or anything. And that i can just download the databae over onto my computers then use a free SQL editing / viewing / creating software such as simego.

14

sql is simply a language that many servers use, asking this question is like asking “should I write my site in a language or php.” If you are comparing mysql to other products such as postgresql, then I’d suggest mysql simply because of it’s compliance with php and because there is so much more support for it. It also is a very simple solution to setup.

15

I’m getting a bit confused on what you need. Are you looking at renting web hosting from a company not related to yours? I was under the impression you were setting up your own servers and all that. But maybe that was not your intention.

No you really never connect to a database externally. It’s frowned upon and most hosting companies would not appreaciate it. What you do is connect to it internally from the server via loopback address or in some cases on another server from within the network.

So if you have an application built from php / mysql. You connect to the webserver, which parses the php pages, the php engine makes calls to the database and returns html output to you. That happens on the server level. You never actually connect to the database from your computer. The server handles it. What it sounded like is you wanted to actually connect directly to the database from your desktop via the web. That is not something you want to start doing.

16

Ahh ok.

my fault i didn’t make it clear from the beginning. What i am trying to get done is a software which will take care of payments, inventory, shipping, checkouts etc. Basically a shopping cart however, i need to get it customised since the shopping cart i need it very different to existing ones.

And this shopping cart will be hosted on a external computer (web host). I’m not setting up a server, this is too expensive.

What i am really asking is what database type should this shopping cart run on, MYSQL or MS SQL? RIght now i want it to be built on MS SQL because its faster and cheaper to get built.

Another question was when using MS SQL what language used be used? eg. asp etc.

So i hope that makes it clearer.

ALSO when using MS SQL i will need to use a .net server, this is where you got confused. I was just saying that i will be getting a host with .net, i’m not setting up a server.

In short, getting software compeleted (I will likely go with MS SQL), which lanuage used be used (I heard MSDN is good but i can also use asp), when going with MS SQL databases will use .net hosting.

17

Ah, ok, that clarifies it…

What I would probably do is:

mySQL <-> PHP
M$SQL <-> .NET

You will save money going with php / mySQL … hosting will be a lot cheaper and so will a dedicated server if need be.

18

If money isn’t an option, use MS SQL.

It’s faster, it’s more robust, and it’s got things built-in that make money-related issues ‘better’ on MS SQL - specifically, foreign key constraints, transactions, etc.

It takes a while to fully explain the concepts, but essentially, MS SQL will allow you to guarantee that if the database died in the middle of an order, it will always be in a consistent state - either the order got processed, or it didn’t. You won’t have to worry about the person being billed, but the order not appearing in their records, or the order getting processed, but quantity/inventory tables not getting updated - you can force all actions be complete, else they all get rolled back. This is VERY important in money-related database applications.

19

if money ain’t an option and you need the best, get oracle :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Oracle is more difficult to manage, and though money may not be an option, finding a competant Oracle admin can be very difficult.

Great database, though.