Databases and Web Hosting

Databases or RDBMS play very important role in almost any online activity today.
There is a database backend behind every major online business website.

Web hosting companies nowadays offer variety of database options along with their
web hosting packages. Tech-savvy web hosting consumers are looking for hosting companies offering at least one database solution from a major database vendor.
Sometimes the web hosting company charges additionally for using database(s), but usually this is included in the price of the web hosting package.

The most popular databases used in web hosting environment are MySQL, MS Access and MS SQL Server.

MySQL database server is the most heavily used database in the web hosting business, because MySQL runs on both Linux and Windows. MySQL is an open source database and this makes it appealing to web hosting providers. MySQL databases are suitable for small to medium (traffic wise) web sites.

MS Access is a very popular database solution used by web hosting consumers. MS Access is not meant to be used in a server environment, but it’s OK for small web sites with low number of visitors. MS Access database runs on Windows OS only.

MS SQL Server database is the best database solution for a web site backend as far as scalability and performance are concerned. MS SQL Server database runs on Windows OS only.
MS SQL Server is an enterprise-level database server, which can handle thousands of concurrent users and can serve even the biggest websites.


SQL Tutorial