Microsoft SQL Server
Proprietary relational database management system from Microsoft, with Express, Standard and Enterprise editions.
www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-serverdocs
Microsoft SQL Server is Microsoft’s database server, and applications connect to it with Transact-SQL. It installs on Windows or Linux, or runs in a Linux container. The Database Engine it contains is also used by Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance, as the overview lists them.
Express, Standard and Enterprise are among its editions, and Express is the free one. The editions page lists which features each edition includes.
Worth knowing
The software is licensed under Microsoft’s license terms rather than an open source license. On Linux the service is started by the operating system’s service manager, so it runs as an always-on process.
Identity
Rendering and deploy
Releases
Sources
- 2026-10-30: name, links, Categories, License, Install with
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/what-is-sql-server - 2026-10-30: links
www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server - 2026-10-30: Maintainer, Maintained by, Headquarters
www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/terms-of-use - 2026-10-30: Current major version
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2025 - 2026-10-30: Last release
support.microsoft.com/en-us/servicing/sql/sql-server-2025/kb5005684-build-versions - 2026-10-30: Install with, Runs as
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-setup