SQLite vs MS SQL Server - Key Differences

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September 16, 2024

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30 Mins Read

When you want to choose a database management system (DBMS) for your project, SQLite and Microsoft SQL Server are the two excellent choices. Both relational database systems help you store, access, and manage large volumes of data using structured query language (SQL). However, their key differences make them suitable for different needs and environments.

Are you interested in learning more about how these database systems differ? This article will guide you through all the SQLite vs SQL Server key differences.

Let’s get started!

SQLite: A Brief Overview

SQLite is a C library that offers a lightweight and embedded SQL database engine. It is integrated into all mobile phones and most computers and is used in many applications, including Skype, Google Chrome, smart televisions, and more. The SQLite source code is open and free to use for commercial and personal projects.

SQLite is a disk-based database that allows you to read and write data directly to a file on your hard drive. The entire SQLite database state is stored in a single file known as the “main database file,” and the additional data is kept in the rollback journey file.

SQLite’s file format is cross-platform, helping you easily move database files between 32-bit and 64-bit systems or between big-endian and little-endian architectures. This flexibility makes SQLite a better choice for application file formats. In fact, the US Library of Congress recommends SQLite as the preferred storage format to preserve its datasets for long-term access.

SQLite Architecture and How Does It Work?

SQLite architecture involves several key components that work together to manage database operations:

Core

Core is an important component within SQLite architecture that manages how SQL commands are processed and executed. It includes the following sub-components:

Interface: This component provides an interface for applications to communicate with SQLite.
SQL Command Processor: The processor interprets and executes the SQL commands sent through the interface.
Virtual Machine: SQLite architecture has a virtual machine (VM) to execute the bytecode, which is a set of low-level SQL instructions. The VM uses this bytecode to retrieve, insert, update, and delete data.

SQL Compiler

A SQL compiler is essential for translating high-level SQL commands into a form that the database engine can execute. To perform compilation, it involves three components:

Tokenizer: The tokenizer partitions SQL statements into tokens such as keywords, identifiers, operators, and literals.
Parser: The parser builds a parse tree based on the tokens, which represents the syntactic structure of the SQL statement. The tree helps in understanding the relationships between different parts of the SQL command.
Code Generator: This component converts the parse tree into bytecode that can be executed on a virtual machine.

Backend

The backend component allows you to read from and write to the database file. It consists of the following components:

B-Tree: A balanced tree data structure used to store tables and indexes in the database. It maintains the data in a sorted order and enables easy access to records.
Page Cache: This in-memory cache lets you record blocks of data from the database file as pages. When data is accessed, it checks the page cache before being read from the disk, reducing the number of disk I/O operations.
OS Interface: This component uses an abstract object known as a Virtual File System (VFS) to perform OS-related tasks such as reading, writing, and closing the files.

Accessories

It refers to the various tools and programs that support the SQLite database's management, maintenance, and testing. These components help ensure that SQLite operates properly and remains reliable over time. Here are the two SQLite accessories:

Utilities: SQLite utilities help you maintain SQLite databases. For example, sqlite3 is a command-line tool for interacting with SQLite, and sqlite3_analyzer provides insights into the database file’s structure and usage.
Test Code: This includes test cases to verify the correctness and stability of the SQLite engine.

Key Features of SQLite

Here are a few standout features of SQLite:

Full-Featured SQL: SQLite offers many SQL features, including window functions, advanced query planner, full-text search, and more for complex data management and querying.
Compact Size: SQLite is a small, efficient database library that can be under 750KiB when all features are enabled.
Serverless: Unlike most SQL databases, SQLite does not require a separate server process to interact with the database.
Self-contained: The complete SQLite library is encapsulated in a single source code file, which makes SQLite a stand-alone, cross-platform solution with minimal dependencies.
Zero-Configuration: SQLite does not need to be installed or configured on your system before you use it for your needs.
Transactional: SQLite supports serializable transactions that ensure ACID properties in the event of program crashes, operating system failures, or power outages.

Top Three Users of SQLite

Let’s look at the top three users of SQLite:

Microsoft

SQLite is integrated into various Microsoft products, including all supported Windows versions, Office 365, and SharePoint, for lightweight data storage and management purposes. Microsoft also supports Microsoft.Data.Sqlite library, an ADO.NET provider to interact with SQLite databases using .NET programming.

Facebook

Facebook developed Osquery, a tool for operating system instrumentation, monitoring, and querying. It uses SQLite to organize system data, such as running processes, network connections, installed apps, and hardware information, into relational database tables.

Airbus

Airbus uses SQLite in its A350 XWB aircraft family. SQLite is the only database with DO-178B certification, a software standard for developing safety-critical applications for airborne systems.

SQL Server: A Brief Overview

SQL Server is a proprietary relational database system introduced by Microsoft for data storage, processing, and management. You can interact with SQL Server through Transact-SQL, Microsoft’s extension to SQL.

SQL Server offers various technologies to meet your diverse business needs. One among them is SQL Server Machine Learning (ML) services, which allow you to create and execute R and Python scripts directly within the database. These scripts help you standardize data, perform feature engineering, and build ML models without having to export your SQL Server data to an advanced platform.

SQL Server replication services is another technology that enables you to copy data into different databases and keep them synchronized. Such technology allows you to seamlessly replicate data across various locations over local networks, the Internet, and other connections.

SQL Server Architecture and How Does It Work

The SQL Server architecture includes three core components as follows:

Protocol Layer

The protocol layer supports the client-server architecture with the help of a Tabular Data Stream (TDS). TDS is an application layer protocol that handles sending your query requests to the database server and receiving query results as responses.

Additionally, the protocol layer incorporates SNI (Server Name Indication), an extension of the TLS encryption. SNI allows you to specify the domain name you need to connect with. The protocol layer also utilizes other network protocols as follows:

Shared Memory: If the client and server applications are on the same machine, the Shared Memory protocol communicates between them using the same memory space.
TCP/IP: If the client application and SQL Server are on separate machines or remote locations, TCP/IP protocol allows you to achieve this communication.
Named Pipes: Named Pipes protocol helps you to interact with the SQL Server database over a Local Area Network (LAN).

Relational Engine

The relational engine processes SQL queries. It consists of the following sub-components that determine how a query must be executed.

CMD Parser: The parser helps you check the syntax of the SQL statements and create a parse tree.
Query Optimizer: The optimizer will allow you to create the most efficient execution plans.
Executor: Finally, the executor component enables you to run the SQL queries according to the execution plan.

Storage Engine

The storage engine enables you to manage how data files and transaction logs are stored, retrieved, and written to disk. This operates based on the following components:

Transaction Manager: The transaction manager is triggered when an insert, update, or deletion operation occurs. It uses a log manager to record every transaction step in the log, allowing recovery in case of failures or rollbacks. The transaction manager also utilizes a lock manager to prevent conflicting transactions from modifying the same data simultaneously.
Access method: This component helps you transfer transaction logs between the transaction manager and the buffer manager.
Buffer Manager: When the transaction manager modifies the data, these changes are temporarily stored in memory as dirty pages. The buffer manager handles these pages to ensure they are written to disk only after the transaction is committed. Additionally, the buffer manager’s data access module provides quick access to frequently used data by storing it in memory. It also includes a plan cache that stores execution plans for previously executed queries for reuse.

Key Features of SQL Server

Here are some of the key features of SQL Server:

PolyBase: PolyBase, a virtualization feature that allows SQL Server to query data using T-SQL directly from various sources like Oracle. You do not need to install the applications separately to use the source data.
Master Data Management: SQL Server offers Master Data Services (MDS) to manage your master set of organizational data. You can organize the master data into models, set rules for updates, and control who can make changes.
Data Integration: You can develop large-scale integration solutions using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS helps you extract and transform data from varied sources and load it into a destination of your choice.
Data Analysis: SQL Server supports Analysis Services, allowing you to build and maintain online analytical processing and data mining applications.
Reporting: You can create, deploy, and handle detailed reports from your own SQL Server instance using its Reporting Services.
Monitoring Database Instance: SQL Server Profiler offers an intuitive interface for monitoring and analyzing the traces of SQL Server database instances.
OS Compatibility: SQL Server is available on both Windows and Linux platforms. You can deploy it within a Linux container for easier management. Another option is to use an Azure virtual machine to execute SQL Server in a virtualized environment.

Top Three Users of SQL Server

Let’s take a look at the three users of SQL Server:

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley, a global financial company, uses Microsoft SQL Server to store and analyze financial market trends and optimize asset management services. The company relies on SQL Server’s powerful data processing capabilities to make insightful investment decisions.

Agoda

Agoda is an online travel application that provides hotels, restaurants, flights, and other travel services. It leverages MS SQL Server to manage large volumes of bookings and offer personalized recommendations to improve the user experience.

Englewood Health

Englewood Health is a healthcare industry company based in several U.S. countries. To enhance patient care, all of its data is now stored securely in MS SQL Server, along with other storage options.

Similarities Between SQLite and SQL Server

The following section discusses the similarities between SQL Server and SQLite.

SQLite and SQL Server use a relational database model, allowing you to organize data into tables with rows and columns.
Both systems support Structured Query Language (SQL) commands for efficient querying and data manipulation.
SQL Server and SQLite follow ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties to ensure reliable transactions.
They commonly support some of the data types, such as numerical, strings, and JSON.
Both enforce data integrity in the database tables using primary keys and foreign key constraints.
SQLite and SQL Server support indexing to improve query performance.

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SQLite vs SQL Server: What Are the Key Differences?

The main difference between SQLite and SQL Server is that SQLite is a lightweight, embedded database ideal for small-scale applications and local storage, while SQL Server is a robust, enterprise-grade relational database designed for large-scale applications and transactional processing.

Here is a table that shows the key differences between SQLite and SQL Server:

Factors	SQLite	SQL Server
Origin	Introduced by D. Richard Hipp in 2000.	Developed by Microsoft in 1989.
Architecture	A serverless database system is written in C and can be embedded within applications for data storage and manipulation.	A client-server database system that allows you to connect your applications with a database server for storing, processing, and managing data
Purpose	Used for single-user, embedded applications where minimal configuration is required.	Used for multi-user, enterprise-level applications that require extensive server configuration.
Language for Implementation	Implemented in C language.	Implemented in C, C++, and C# languages.
Secondary Models	SQLite focuses only on a primary relational model and limits its use to simple applications.	SQL Server supports the Document Store, Graph, and Spatial database models. Each model helps you handle hierarchical documents, complex relationships, and geographic information.
Data Formats	SQLite supports basic data types such as integer, real, text, and blob but lacks native support for XML and Boolean types.	SQL Server offers more data types than SQLite, including full support for XML and Boolean.
Server Operating Systems	You can execute all database operations directly within the application that uses SQLite without an external server.	SQL Server requires server operating systems such as Linux and Windows to help configure, monitor, and maintain the database.
Database Replication	SQLite lacks built-in replication features, but you can copy the database. To avoid inconsistencies, ensure no changes occur during the replication.	SQL Server provides various replication methods for distributed systems, including transactional, merge, snapshot, peer-to-peer, and bidirectional replication.
Partitioning	SQLite does not have inbuilt partitioning methods. However, you can split query results into one or more partitions using the PARTITION BY clause to compute window functions.	SQL Server has table and index partitioning, which helps you divide large tables or indexes into multiple parts and share across different filegroups. This is beneficial for moving, retrieving, or maintaining data efficiently.
Licensing Type	An open-source relational database.	A commercial and non-commercial database.
Security Mechanisms	SQLite uses the SQLite Encryption Extension, which allows you to encrypt all database objects to protect data from unauthorized access.	Advanced security features, including Transparent Data Encryption, allow you to encrypt database contents, and Dynamic Data Masking enables you to mask sensitive data.
Market Share	According to 6sense, SQLite holds a 3.05% market share in the relational database market.	SQL Server has an estimated market share of 28.43%.

Factors to Consider When Choosing SQL Server vs SQLite

You must consider several factors when choosing SQLite vs Microsoft SQL Server. Let’s understand each of them in the following section.

Why Choose SQLite?

Here are the factors for selecting SQLite:

Simplicity

SQLite is an easy-to-use, file-based database system. Due to its low overhead, it is the best choice for small- to medium-scale applications or embedded systems.

Low Memory Requirements

SQLite has a memory allocation limit of around 2GB but only allocates about 8KB at a time for practical use. This limit ensures that there is enough space to handle memory needs without problems.

Local Data Storage

SQLite is the best option if you want to work with local device storage that has low concurrency requirements and less than a terabyte of data.

Extensibility

SQLite library is easy to understand, and you can customize the source code design with different database concepts. This flexibility lets you prototype and refine your features efficiently before applying them to more complex systems.

No Administration

SQLite databases do not require administration support. As a result, they can be used for IoT devices like smartwatches, thermostats, and drones, which will run smoothly without expert help.

Platform-Independence

SQLite is versatile and works across different operating systems, so you can use it on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Cost

SQLite is available freely and does not require licensing fees after installation. This makes it a cost-effective option for both personal projects and commercial applications.

Why Choose SQL Server?

Here are the factors you need to consider for selecting SQL Server:

Big Data

Microsoft SQL Server is built to manage huge, complex databases for larger organizations. It provides robust features, including clustering to ensure high availability, replication to keep data synchronized across multiple locations, and partitioning to improve query performance.

High Concurrency

SQL Server offers locking mechanisms and multi-version concurrency control to handle simultaneous changes smoothly. This technique is useful for managing multiple users who are accessing and modifying data simultaneously.

Scalability

SQL Server helps you accommodate growing amounts of data. It supports both vertical scaling to increase computing and storage resources and horizontal scaling to add more servers to distribute the workloads.

Business Intelligence (BI)

SQL Server provides a BI platform with Azure Analysis Services, SSAS, and SSRS features. With this BI solution, you can transform complex datasets into meaningful data models and create interactive reports. SQL Server’s BI platform also enables you to extend your on-premises data to the cloud.

Backup and Recovery

SQL Server offers full, differential, log, or file backup options to check whether your data is protected and recoverable. You can efficiently perform any of these backup operations using its SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or T-SQL commands.

Highly Secure

SQL Server comes with an Always Encrypted feature that allows you to secure sensitive data in your database instance using encryption keys. Once the data is encrypted, SQL Server keeps those keys hidden from the Database Engine, creating a separation between owners and those who manage the data.

Application Development with Lower Costs

With Enterprise and Standard editions, SQL Server’s flexible pricing model helps you develop high-end applications according to your organization's needs. To further reduce upfront costs and align expenses with usage, you can utilize a pay-as-you-go model on cloud platforms like Azure.

Effortlessly Integrate Your Dispersed Data Into SQLite or SQL Server Using Airbyte

In the previous section, you explored the differences between SQLite and SQL Server in managing organizational data. To enhance your analytics and reporting tasks, you may need to integrate all datasets from different sources. Airbyte, a data movement and replication platform, can streamline this process by efficiently consolidating disparate data sources into SQLite or SQL Server in minutes.

To perform this data transfer, you must follow the below three simple steps:

Set Up and Configure Your Source Connector: You can do this by selecting one of the 400+ sources from which you want to import the data.
Set Up and Configure Your Destination Connector: Choose Local SQLite or SQL Server as your destination and authenticate it.
Configure Your Pipeline: You can start migrating data by choosing the data to transfer and setting the sync frequency.

To learn more about Airbyte, take a look at its key features:

Personalized Connectors: If the source you need isn’t in Airbyte’s existing catalog, you can use its No-code Connector Builder or Low-code CDK to develop custom connectors. This allows you to easily integrate data from your new source into SQLite or SQL Server.
Change Data Capture: When setting up an Airbyte connection, you can specify a sync frequency that fits your needs. After loading the initial data, Airbyte’s CDC helps you track the source data changes and copies them to your destination based on the schedule.
Custom Transformation: Airbyte and dbt integration allows you to clean and standardize the raw data into a highly usable format for analytics and reporting.
Data Security: During the integration process, Airbyte ensures safety through TLS, SSL, and HTTPS encryption, authentication, credential management, and access control mechanisms. It also adheres to industry-specific regulatory standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.

Final Thoughts

SQLite and SQL Server are the most popular and powerful database options for managing data, each with its strengths. With its open-source and free-to-use nature, SQLite is best for beginners and smaller projects. However, if you want to build enterprise applications with high performance, scalability, and security, SQL Server would be the superior choice. SQL Server can help in more use cases, such as data warehousing, BI, transaction processing, and data integration, even if it is a proprietary database. In the end, the choice of SQLite vs SQL Server will completely depend on your project requirements.

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