Help! SQL Express, Standard or Enterprise? or Access?

I'm not a developer and would like your input to compare against what a sales rep is telling me.

I'm managing a small web project that will have a database with a max of 20,000 records with less than 50 field each. It will be hit by anything from 200 to 500 people in a day (max) via Internet connection from all over with all sorts of speed.

The users will select less than 50 filters to obtain the results of the info they are looking for among the 20000 records. Most users will only choose less than 10 filters per search.

That's all that the database will do...seems to me enterprise is way too much, but since I'm not expert, need one of you to help with your input.

Thanks very much!

Hi,

you already said, thats this is a quite small web project. I would sugest using the SQL Server Express edition, also for the reason that it can be used for free. If you are experiencing speed problems which are based on the restrictions of Express (limitation in CPU and RAM) you can later easily upgrade to Standard Edition with just a backup and restore. You will have to keep in mind that if you are using Standard or Enterprise edition you will need either user CALs for named users or named machines. So as the rules of thumbs you will have to get CALs for very user connecting to the SQL Server. (Which is quite expensive if the server is accessible through the internet). The other option would be to get a processor license. Based on the per unit prices you can calculate the breakeven for each of the models. Be also aware that although you are using a web frontend where theoretically on one users accesses the database (e.g. the service account for the webserver) the licensing from above applies (multiplexing)

HTH, Jens K. Suessmeyer.

http://www.sqlserver2005.de

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What about using a hosted solution? That would be cheapest and easiest way if it's available. You could get that for $5-10 a month.

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Thank you very much. We need user CALs for named machines, so I guess I need further research on cost for that.

I truly appreciate you the taking time to answer.

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Tricky part I found on that is that the services that seem to meet some of our need also limit what we can do. I'm still searching this possibility, but so far, we haven't found a packaged solution. We are in Denver and are scheduling to visit a couple of host sites in the next few weeks and see how well that fits us. Once all the phases of the deployment are completed, will have users throughout the state (potentially 15K-20K) so the host site can address our cpu demands...

Txs. for the response. I'll let you know if this route works...