I'm starting a new project and deciding whether to purchase Windows Server and SQL Server licenses, run them on my own hardware, or rent managed versions through a cloud provider. For a greenfield system, is the Microsoft stack still worth the licensing and infrastructure costs, or would PostgreSQL on Linux—or another open-source setup—usually be the better choice?
5 Answers
There are also legitimate reasons to stay with Windows and SQL Server: your team may already be productive with them, clients may expect vendor-backed support, and accountability can be easier when a major vendor stands behind the platform. If learning and operating a different stack would delay the project significantly, the license cost may be a reasonable tradeoff.
Cloud hosting doesn't automatically make Microsoft the better choice. Managed databases and servers save you from handling hardware, networking, backups, redundancy, patching, and cooling, but the licensing can be very expensive—especially for SQL Server and Oracle. Managed PostgreSQL or MySQL is often considerably cheaper, while still providing much of the operational convenience.
The main question is less about which technology is universally best and more about your existing constraints. If the business already relies on a Microsoft-heavy environment, has legacy .NET Framework applications, or needs tight interoperability with an existing ERP, switching can take a lot of time and introduce risk. In that situation, paying for Microsoft may be cheaper than rewriting everything.
The answer can also depend on scale and licensing details. A small SQL Server deployment may be affordable, while enterprise editions and large cloud instances become extremely expensive. Compare the full cost—including support, staff time, migration effort, backups, and operations—rather than looking only at the database license.
For a genuinely new project, PostgreSQL on Linux is usually the first option I'd evaluate. It avoids licensing costs, is mature and scalable, and is well supported by most cloud providers. SQL Server and Windows can still make sense when you already have Microsoft infrastructure, specialized staff, or applications that depend on them.
That matches my experience with older .NET Framework and WinForms systems. Moving them to web technologies and PostgreSQL is possible, but it is a lengthy migration rather than a simple database replacement.