[web] ASP.net and SQL Server Pricing

ASP.NET doesn't cost anything. If you are running IIS, you just need to install the .NET framework (if you installed the .NET framework before IIS, you'll need to register the ASP.NET extensions, ask me how). If you are running Apache, you'll need to install Mono and a few other components, but it still costs nothing. The only cost associated with ASP.NET is if you want to use Visual Studio (you don't need Visual Studio though, I am perfectly capable of developing ASP.NET applications with nothing but a text editor and the command line compiler that is part of the .NET framework). You can always get the Web Express version of Visual Studio (either $50? or free if it's still in beta)

SQL Server is free or not free depending on your needs. If you are using less then 2GB databases (and since it sounds like you'll be paying for hosting, you likely won't have 2GB of space to begin with) you can use MSDN 2000 (SQL Server Desktop Edition). It doesn't come with any of the GUI tools and the installer must be configured from an ini file (it's designed to be packaged and distributed for free with database applications you make), though it is 100% compatible with other editions of SQL Server, including the tools - the licence FAQ explicitly states that you can use the SQL Server GUI tools from a legally licenced copy on MSDN, the cheapest is to buy SQL Server Developer Edition for about $50 (Developer is a full copy of SQL Server Enterprise, however the licence forbids you from using it in an open environment, you can only use it for internal testing/development).

The rest really depends on your hosting company. If you are hosting it yourself, it could be "free" as well (domain name registration not included, though you could use some free dynamic DNS domain thing like homeip.net)

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Original post by Michalson SQL Server is free or not free depending on your needs. If you are using less then 2GB databases (and since it sounds like you'll be paying for hosting, you likely won't have 2GB of space to begin with) you can use MSDN 2000 (SQL Server Desktop Edition). It doesn't come with any of the GUI tools and the installer must be configured from an ini file (it's designed to be packaged and distributed for free with database applications you make), though it is 100% compatible with other editions of SQL Server, including the tools - the licence FAQ explicitly states that you can use the SQL Server GUI tools from a legally licenced copy on MSDN, the cheapest is to buy SQL Server Developer Edition for about $50 (Developer is a full copy of SQL Server Enterprise, however the licence forbids you from using it in an open environment, you can only use it for internal testing/development).

There's also SQL Server Express. Does its license prohibit deploying for actual use?

nope MS developed express to compete with mySQL etc. its only limitation is you are only allowed to use it on 1 cpu.

Has SQL Server Express gone gold yet, or it still in beta?

Having just today specc'd this up, I can categorically say that it costs around

£450 per month

This includes a hosted, high-spec single CPU box with Windows Server 2003, SQL server 2000 with single processor unlimited users licence, "unmetered" bandwidth and a variety of other services including backups and monitoring.

The software component of this is about £85 per month.

This is from a reputable company and will be hosted in a datacentre in a major internet hub with a certain amount of SLA.

Mark

Technically it should be available commerically soon, since the final version just became avaiable on MSDN yesterday (10/27/2005) along with Visual Studio 2005.