Database Comparison

Which brand of database should I be using?

We can always convert between databases if we do not mind running a conversion or import / export program of some type, thereby, giving us the ability to view our data in different brands of database packages.

Microsoft Access is both web and client server capable.

MySQL is the database that for example, Magento, WordPress, X-Cart and Zen Cart uses, and is usually run on Linux or Unix. While one could use MySQL Workbench to view the client-side database, most people usually connect their client server version of MySQL Workbench to MySQL on a web or database server.

MySQL is open source and this means that anyone can have the source code to MySQL, thereby, enabling them to actually programmatically change the way the MySQL works.

Access and SQL Server are by Microsoft and are correspondingly usually run Microsoft Windows, although web versions of these products can of course run on all operating systems.

Point being, pick a appropriate database for the task that you are trying to accomplish.

Selecting a database that is not supported by the operating system that you are trying to use can leave you with an extra conversion step in order to see the data in the database or format that you wish to see it in.

Which databases are the fastest?

Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle normally are thought to be the worlds fasted and most popular databases.

Coming in a little slower than SQL Server and Oracle are MySQL, IBM's DB2 and Access.

With small amounts of data Access and SQL Server benchmark out at approximately the same speed, but when large amounts of
data are added then SQL Server is noticeably faster than Access.

In 1 particular study, using 1,000,000 rows of data and a simplistic query, speed tests showed the following results:

	Execution Time	CPU Usage	Memory Usage	Threads Used
SQL Server	19 ms	3%	3 MB	2
Oracle	24 ms	4%	7 MB	6
IBM DB2	19 ms	3%	11 MB	2
MySQL	20 ms	3%	3 MB	2
Access	22 ms	2%	2 MB	1

Database usage can also determine database speed.
For example, with MySQL, some studies have shown that the InnoDB engine in MySQL is 37 times faster the then MyISAM engine in MySQL while other studies show that InnoDB is 6% to 9% faster than the MyISAM engine in MySQL.