Explains when and why teams pick Microsoft SQL Server instead of Oracle for transactional workloads, licensing, tooling, and developer productivity.
Licensing costs are lower, editions scale from free Express to Enterprise, and Windows-native integration simplifies ops for small DevOps teams. Built-in tooling like SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio integration cut ramp-up time for .NET shops.
Key keywords differ—TOP instead of ROWNUM, IDENTITY instead of SEQUENCE, and GETDATE() instead of SYSDATE.Understanding these lets engineers port code quickly.
Readable T-SQL, table-valued parameters, and native JSON support reduce boilerplate. Always Encrypted and Row-Level Security require fewer add-ons than Oracle.
sqlcmd -S server -d Database -U user -P password.Windows Authentication removes password management overhead when Active Directory is in place.
Use TOP WITH TIES to keep ties without subqueries, a feature Oracle lacks.
SELECT TOP 5 WITH TIES o.*
FROM Orders o
ORDER BY o.order_date DESC;
Massive multi-tenant OLTP, advanced RAC clustering, and long-standing PL/SQL ecosystems remain Oracle strengths.Evaluate if you need those before switching.
1) Map data types (NUMBER → DECIMAL). 2) Replace SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL with IDENTITY or SEQUENCE + DEFAULT. 3) Convert CONNECT BY to CTEs. 4) Re-index with included columns.
Implicit transactions default off in SQL Server—wrap batches in BEGIN TRAN for parity. Case sensitivity depends on collation—pick Latin1_General_CS_AS if you relied on Oracle’s sensitivity.
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Yes. SQL Server offers core-based licensing that often costs 30–50% less, plus a free Express edition for small apps.
Since 2017, SQL Server supports most production workloads on modern Linux distros, easing migration from Oracle on Unix.
Absolutely. SQL Server guarantees full ACID compliance with snapshot isolation options resembling Oracle’s read consistency.