How do SQL Server 2005 Express and Oracle Express compare?

3/3/2006

This is a question that is being asked more and more from users. Both SQL Express and Oracle Express are free. So what else is different? What factors might be useful in making a choice between which one to use?

Since Microsoft announced that SQL Server 2005 Express would be free Oracle and IBM (DB2) have followed with free express editions of their own. I have not had time to investigate the DB2 Express offering but I have had a chance to investigate Oracle Express (Oracle XE). The limitations are very similar, but there are some important differences as well.

	SQL Express	Oracle XE
Max RAM usage	1 GB	1 GB
Max # of CPU's to use	1	1
Max database size	4 GB	4 GB
SQLCLR	Yes	No
Encryption Support	Yes	?
XML Datatype	Yes	?
Setup kit size	50 MB	216 MB
Operating Systems	Windows	Multiple

Everyone knows SQL Server only runs on Windows, so that is not worth highlighting but I have listed it to be fair. However there are two differences about Oracle XE that would make me as a developer a bit nervous.

Installation Size

The first is installation kit size. To be honest I thought 50 MB was a bit big for SQL Express, but not outrageous. But Oracle XE is a whopping 216 MB! Some readers may see a figure of 150 MB for Oracle XE, but that was an older beta. The current beta on the Oracle site is 216 MB.

SQLCLR

SQLCLR is a new feature of SQL Server 2005 which allows stored procedures, triggers, new data types, and other database functions to be written using .NET instead of T-SQL. This is an extremely powerful and valuable feature. This alone for a .NET programmer is often the deciding factor in choosing an express database.

Encryption and XML Data Type

These features are standard in SQL Server. The XML data type is more than just storing XML data, but allows for developers to submit XQueries in SQL, index XML attributes, create new data types based on XTD's and more. This is a very powerful feature. From what I have been able to determine, Oracle XE does not support either of these features. Clarifications and or corrections on these points are welcome.

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Comments:

p4w3l on 6/11/2009 wrote:

1. I hate programs locked to a product. 2. Evaluate IBM DB2 Express-C - 2GB RAM and unlimited data! taanks for your site. I just evaluating above 3 products. P4W3L

Andrew Oliver on 6/11/2009 wrote:

This is not very well researched, why publish before you have the answers? Oracle XE does support XML queries, it also allows stored procedures to be written in PL/SQL, Java or any .NET language. I hardly think a 200MB footprint is an issue if you intend to store 4GB of data... XE also comes with a really rapid application development tool, Application Express and a nice reporting tool, BI publisher.

Andrew Oliver on 6/11/2009 wrote:

This is not very well researched, why publish before you have the answers? Oracle XE does support XML queries, it also allows stored procedures to be written in PL/SQL, Java or any .NET language. I hardly think a 200MB footprint is an issue if you intend to store 4GB of data... XE also comes with a really rapid application development tool, Application Express and a nice reporting tool, BI publisher.

Chad Hower on 6/11/2009 wrote:

Look at the date on the article. At that time it was correct and in fact I didnt even mention that the install footprint of Oracle XE is well over 1 GB because by default it installs huge demo dbs.

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