When comparing SQL Server Express vs MarkLogic, the Slant community recommends SQL Server Express for most people. In the question“What are the best ACID-compliant scalable databases?” SQL Server Express is ranked 7th while MarkLogic is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose SQL Server Express is:
SQL Server Express has deep integration with Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer and SQL Server Management allowing for ease-of-use and rich table and query designers. It may be the best choice for someone who develops in the Microsoft environment.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rich developer tools
SQL Server Express has deep integration with Visual Studio, Visual Web Developer and SQL Server Management allowing for ease-of-use and rich table and query designers. It may be the best choice for someone who develops in the Microsoft environment.
Pro Easily manage SQL Server instances
"Manage SQL Server Express databases with SQL Server Management Studio Express. Connect to local SQL Server Express databases and manage objects with full Object Explorer integration. Write, execute, and test queries by using visual query plans, and access management and maintenance options."
Pro Free
With a variety of versions to choose from the SQL Server Express version is free of charge. It is capable of upgrading to higher tiers, but that requires a fee.
Pro Easy backup and restore
Can be deployed to all editions of SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database
Pro Search engine native
No other ACID database has even close to the text handling capabilities that are built-in to MarkLogic. Many multi-model databases rely on Lucene to provide text indexing, which leads to unnecessary latency and complexity.
Pro Massively scalable
Configuring MarkLogic for scale out is simple with both APIs and UI based mechanisms to add and manage cluster nodes that auto-shard and redistribute themselves for maximum efficiency.
Pro XML powerhouse
MarkLogic supports XML natively and adheres to all W3C standards surrounding XML. It even uses XQuery as a powerful application engine. Recent editions are also JSON native, which makes it fit in with modern JavaScript and web-centric applications.
Pro Uniquely offers full ACID transactions in a multi-model database
MarkLogic is the only Multi-model database in the world that is fully ACID and treats unstructured content as a first class citizen.
Cons
Con Proprietary
Con Hardware limitations
Maximum number of cores: 4
Maximum memory utilized per instance: 1GB
Maximum size: 10GB
This hardware could be limiting with some high profile apps and sites.
Con Enterprise focused
MarkLogic is more focused on the specific needs of enterprise customers who need ACID rigor and element level security. There are less costly options if eventual consistency and application-level security are good enough for you.
Con Proprietary
License is $18k/year
Con Too good to be true
If you are skeptical about product claims, MarkLogic may seem a bit too good to be true. MANY applications could benefit from implementing MarkLogic instead of creaky old RDBMS or immature NoSQL databases or even search engines like Lucene/Solr/Elastic.