Free Microsoft SQL Server Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to Microsoft SQL Server for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best free Windows alternative is SQLite, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Microsoft SQL Server and many of them are free and available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free Windows alternatives to Microsoft SQL Server are PostgreSQL, MySQL Community Edition, MariaDB and MongoDB.

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Alternatives list

  1. SQLite icon
     357 likes

    SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database engine in the world. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain.

    72 SQLite alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • iPhone
    • Self-Hosted
     
  2. PostgreSQL icon
     329 likes

    PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system with over 35 years of active development that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, feature robustness, and performance.

    75 PostgreSQL alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Self-Hosted
     
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  3. MySQL Community Edition is a freely downloadable version of the world's most popular open source database that is supported by an active community of open source developers and enthusiasts.

    67 MySQL Community Edition alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  4. MariaDB icon
     143 likes

    MariaDB is a backward compatible, drop-in replacement of the MySQL® Database Server. It includes all major open source storage engines.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  5. MongoDB icon
     152 likes

    MongoDB is a document database with the scalability and flexibility that you want with the querying and indexing that you need

    101 MongoDB alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • BSD
     
  6. DbGate icon
     31 likes

    DbGate is cross-platform database manager. Simple and effective, allowing to work with many various databases simultaneously - SQL and NoSQL.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  7. CouchDB icon
     49 likes

    Apache CouchDB is a distributed, fault-tolerant and schema-free document-oriented database accessible via a RESTful HTTP / JSON API. It includes incremental map / reduce mechanics for queries and keeps data safe with an append-only datastore.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
     
  8. The Apache Cassandra database is the right choice when you need scalability and high availability without compromising performance.

    52 Apache Cassandra alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Amazon Web Services
    • Google Cloud Platform
    • Microsoft Azure
     
  9. IBM DB2 icon
     4 likes

    DB2 offers industry leading performance, scale, and reliability on your choice of platform from Linux to z/OS. DB2 supports storing XML and relational data and offers SQL PL and PL/SQL procedural languages.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. Firebird icon
     21 likes

    Firebird is a relational database offering many ANSI SQL-92 features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. Firebird offers excellent concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • Android Tablet
     
  11. Datomic icon
     3 likes

    Datomic is a database of flexible, time-based facts, supporting queries and joins, with elastic scalability, and ACID transactions.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  12. VoltDB icon
     2 likes

    VoltDB is a blazingly fast NewSQL database system. It is specifically designed to run on modern scale-out architectures - fast, inexpensive servers connected via high-speed data networks.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
12 of 32 Microsoft SQL Server alternatives