I have found a very reasonable priced asp.net host. The reason they are low priced I think is they are using SQLEXPRESS.

Everything works fine -- my question is are there any particular risks because of the fact that they are hosting using SQLEXPRESS?

In all honesty, I've not really noticed an issue running sql express. If it works for you, great! I'd just make sure they're running regular database backups and you should be a-ok.

I have found a very reasonable priced asp.net host. The reason they are low priced I think is they are using SQLEXPRESS.

Everything works fine -- my question is are there any particular risks because of the fact that they are hosting using SQLEXPRESS?

According to Microsoft, SQL Express edition is NOT permitted to be used in a shared hosting environment under Microsoft licensing terms. With that said, there are legal issues with your host offering SQL Express. You can view this on page 14 of the following document: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/E/5/1E57389D-3623-4AEE-A109-374F5D41B9D3/SQL Server 2008 For Hosters Whitepaper.docx

Also, if you go here, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2008/02/22/sql-server-express-and-hosting.aspx, you will see that it specifically states "Shared hosting: SQL Server Express Edition is NOT RECOMMENDED for shared (multi-tenant) hosting as the scale limits and memory handling do not allow it to meet the requirements of such an environment." Please note, this blog post was written by a member of the Microsoft SQL Express team.

According to Microsoft, SQL Express edition is NOT permitted to be used in a shared hosting environment under Microsoft licensing terms. With that said, there are legal issues with your host offering SQL Express. You can view this on page 14 of the following document:

I would like to read about that but the link you provided does not work ---

I would like to read about that but the link you provided does not work ---

Sorry about that. Here is the correct link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/E/5/1E57389D-3623-4AEE-A109-374F5D41B9D3/SQL Server 2008 For Hosters Whitepaper.docx

Thanks for sharing this link.

Aside from the obvious feature differences there can be some serious performance limitations. SQL Express only supports 1 CPU and a max of 1GB of RAM. 1GB can be fine for a single small to medium database with low use, but using Express in any sort of shared environment and you'll quickly hit memory issues.

Wayne

I agree. 1GB memory limit is not suitable for shared hosting environment.

Medium usage will need at least 4GB RAM.

SQL Express runs rock stable - so if the documented restrictions are ok for you, it is a good choice.

as far as I am concerned, SQL Express should not be used on production environment. Therefore, SQL Express should not be used in a shared server. I may be wrong and please correct me if I am wrong :-)

We used SQL Express in the past in production enviroments, and there was not a single issue that we could trace back to SQL Express.

Well, the one issue we had was to reach the 4GB size limit :)

Guess all depends on the company itself.

Aren't hosts that offer SQL Express in a shared hosting environment concerned that they are in violation of Microsoft licensing terms? As mentioned, according to Microsoft, the Express edition of SQL Server is not permitted under Microsoft licensing terms in a shared hosting environment.