Comparison: SQL Server vs SQLite

Modified date: Monday, June 30, 2025

Introduction
General
Data Types
SQL
Storage and System
Benchmarking
Tools
Export Regulations
Internal
Internal - Optimizer
Internal - Runtime
Internal - Storage Engine

General

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
intro	Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS).	SQLite is a C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine.	in their own words - but I reserved the rights to remove some bold claims like "the best", unless it is widely recognized.
vendor	Microsoft	SQLite Team
initial release	1989	2000
latested version	2022 (16.x)	3.5	We don't put a release date here as the software is patching frequently. So tracking it is not much useful.
supported platforms	Windows, Linux	Android, *BSD, iOS, Linux, Mac, Solaris, VxWorks, and Windows	supported OS/CPU platforms
db-engines ranking	3	10	ranks from https://db-engines.com/en/ranking (06/25)
relational?	yes	yes	Is it a relational database? (1) Most database are actually with some extensions, for example, nested data types, graph support, etc, which we usually called "multi-model". (2) Some of them are product family, meaning they have more than one database. Here we focus on the main one but explain others when needed.
open source?	no	yes	mainly the engine code
license	commercial	no license is needed The core SQLite database software is in the public domain. No license is necessary to use SQLite or to build SQLite into your products.
price: box software	$3,586 ~ $13,748 (2024) 2024: Licensing costs range from $3,586 for the Standard Edition to $13,748 for the Enterprise Edition (for two cores); the server and CAL model run $899 for the server plus $209 per user.	0 free download
on-premise offering	yes	yes	if no means you can't buy "box" software from them
cloud offering	SQL Azure and other cloud vendors	None It is mainly in embedded usage.
technical doc	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/	https://www.sqlite.org/docs.html

Data Types

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
int: 1-bytes int name	tinyint	int SQLite accepts names like TINYINT, SMALLINT, BIGINT, but only as type names. They’re purely aliases — they have no effect on storage size or strict typing, they will all converted to INTEGER type. Since the actual storage size is value-by-value basis, so the INT type you specified does not have any effect: it will pick up 0,1,2,3,4,6,8 bytes for your value.
int: 2-bytes int name	smallint	int
int: 4-bytes int name	int	int
int: 8-bytes int name	bigint	int
decimal: storage size	5 to 17
decimal: range	from -10^38 + 1 through 10^38 - 1		also called number, numeric in different systems
char(n): max bytes	8000

SQL

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
SQL: standard complaince	high	medium
max SQL length	64K		maximal SQL statement length
PL: main	T-SQL (procedure support included)		main programming lanage: most database suports SQL because SQL is a well established standard. However, each database would like to extend SQL more or less.
PL: other language support	yes		PL lanaguage other than PL/SQL, like PL/Java, PL/Rust etc
SP: max parameters	2100
UDF: max parameters	2100
SQL: max nested subqueries	32		Maximum levels of subqueries in a SQL statement
SQL: query hints	complete		if it allows use query hints to guide the optimizer
SQL: explicit locking	yes		Locking is usually an internal matter - so does it allow explicit locking? What levels do they support?
Triggers?	yes		If support triggers
Triggers: scope	tables, views		What objects can have triggers
Triggers: type	AFTER, INSTEAD OF		Types of triggers supported
Group By: max number of expressions	sum of all group by expressions bytes < 8060 Because SQL Server internally implements hash aggregation (or sometimes sort aggregation) using worktables or hash buckets stored in pages with 8KB size limit (8060 bytes of usable data per page). The combined size of the group key expressions must fit into one internal row structure, which is restricted by SQL Server’s page architecture.
Object-Relational?	some
Extension Mechanism	SQL level

Storage and System

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
arch: server	C/S	Embedded	Embedded or traditional C/S?
arch: run in browser?	no	yes	It also known as a client-side database, is a database that is stored and managed within a user's web browser, rather than on a remote server.
arch: clustering/HA	Always On Aaliablity Group， Failover clustering
arch: in-memory support	In-memory OLTP (Hekaton)
arch: Multi-master support?	no		if multi-master support?
arch: primary/read replica?	yes		if primary + mulitiple read replica supported
replication: sync/async	both		Can commits wait or w/o wait for replicas to acknowledge
replication: WAL shipping	yes		Uses write-ahead log (WAL) shipping for replication
replication: quorum-based commit	yes		Multiple synchronous replicas with quorum for commit
tables: max number per database	MAXINT Tables, views, triggers etc are objects in SQL Server. They the same an integer range as object ID, so maximal number of tables is at most MAXINT if there is no other objects.
partitions: methods	Range, List, Hash, Composite (nested partitioning supported since 2016).		Supported partitioning strategies (range, list, hash, etc.).
rows: max rows per table	undefined		The actual number depends on storage etc
index: max allowed index	999 v14-17 allows 999, and 8 is allowed before that		Max number of indices allowed per table
index: max allowable size	900 clustered index, 1700 non-clustered index		Max index record size (bytes). This constraint is mainly coming from the fact of the database page size: if we exclude blob data types, database engine usally do not allow a record expand more than one page.
index: max number of fields	v14-17 allows 32 and 16 is allowed before that		Max number of columns allowed in one index
partition: max allowed partitions	15000 In versions earlier than SQL Server 2012 (11.x), the number of partitions was limited to 1,000 by default. The reason it struggles to increase the limit is due to the challenges I listed.		Meta data challenge: 1M partitions just like 1M tables, system have to hold them in memory. Optimizer challenge: O(N) algorithm may lead to very long planning time if there are excessive partitions.
ACID	yes/yes		for DML and DDL
ACID: max isolation level	Serializable SQL Server implements traditional two phase locking (2PL) locking for serializability. It also supports SI, similar to Oracle, it is not serializable.
ACID: max ANSI isolation level	Serializable
ACID: durability	yes	yes
Materialized View: support?	yes	no

Benchmarking

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
any official TPC benchmarks?	yes	no	The TPC benchmark includes a set of tests simulating real-world scenarios to evaluate database performance.
TPCC: most recent tpmC	1,207,982 System cost: 1,046,759 USD
TPCC: most recent submit date	11/14/2011
TPCC: most recent per thread perf	37749
TPCC: best tpmC	1807347 System cost: 879,563 USD
TPCC: best perf submit date	8/27/2010
TPCC: best perf per thread perf	28240

Tools

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
command line client	sqlcmd	sqlite3	it means "sql client" for database supporting SQL. For embedded atabase, the client includes the server together.

Export Regulations

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
Jurisdiction	US	US	Which country controls export
ECCN	5D992.c	None or EAR99	An Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) is a five-character alphanumeric code used to categorize items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) for export control purposes. Most database may fall into 5D992.c category, "mass market encryption", which means it has some ordinary encryption related code, for example, the SSL connection code.
Eligible License Exception / CCATS	G065307 All big 3 (Oracle, DB2, SQL Server) shall be similar on this aspect.	Not required There is no ECCN for open source software	A License Exception is an authorization that allows you to export or reexport items subject to the EAR without needing to obtain a specific export license, provided certain conditions are met. CCATS stands for Commodity Classification Automated Tracking System. The BIS assigns a CCATS number to products that it has classified under the Commerce Control List (CCL).
Encryption Components	TDE, SSL	SQLite Encryption Extension (SEE), SSL	Crypto functionality that triggers control

Internal

Feature	SQL Server	Definition
concurrency control	Locking + MVCC
MVCC: implemented?	yes	if implement MVCC for concurrency control
MVCC: rollback segment	yes	if uses rollback segment (RS) to store old versions. Without RS, old versions and new versions are mixed stored, then the database engine has to find a way to efficiently drop the old versions at certain point.
Implementation language	C++	A DBMS may use mulitple programming languages, for example, supports its stored procedure. The major programming language used to implement the engine.

Internal - Optimizer

Feature	SQL Server	Definition
CBO?	yes	if it employees a cost based optimizer
framework	Cascades	System-R is more like a dynamic programming, bottom up optimizer, while Cascades/Volcano gebaseerd optimizer is more like top-down optimizer.
join order search	Memo storage with a bunch of transformation rules like associative rule, commutative rule ec	How join order permutations are explored during plan generation.
stats: multi column	yes	Multi-column stats may cause storage space bloat: for example, if one dimension has 100 buckets, then three dimensions will require 1M buckets - but reducing the total number of buckets will result in reduced accuracy.
query hints?	complete	if it allows use query hints to guide the optimizer
plan guide?	yes	Can we use plan guide to correct the plan? This is a more systematic and accurate way to repair the plan than plan hints. Especially during system upgrades, if the plan becomes worse, we can use plan guide to force a query to use a previous plan.

Internal - Runtime

Feature	SQL Server	Definition
resource management	complete: per query grant	How execution memory is allocated and limited.
spilling support	yes	"spilling" refers to the process of writing temporary data or intermediate results of a query to disk when the available memory is exhausted. This is crucial for handling large datasets or complex queries that require more memory than available.
model	Volcano + push for parallel run	The operator scheduling model: pull-gebaseerd (Volcano), push etc.
support intra-parallel query?	yes	meaning a single query can utilize multi hardware threads to run it
adaptive execution (AQP)?	Adaptive joins, adaptive memory grants, etc SQL Server has introduced these features since 2019, with name intelligent query processing (IQP).	Traditionally, after the optimizer determines the plan, the runtime must execute it completely without any room for adjustment, such as which of the two tables should be built. The adaptive method allows the runtime to make some adjustments based on the actual situation, and the optimizer must also prepare for this uncertainty, such as preparing an alternative plan.
vectorization	yes	Speed up OLAP queries using vectorized execution. A vectorized runtime exchange a bunch of rows between iterators, and these rows are physically sotre with column-oriented order.
iterator: join methods	all 3	Hash Join (HJ), Sort-Merge Join (MJ) and Nested loop Join (NLJ) are 3 major ones
Error: out-of-range and overflow	abort the transaction	To maintain atomic requirement of ACID, database engine usually fail the statement and abort the transaction.

Internal - Storage Engine

Feature	SQL Server	SQLite	Definition
Page Size	8K fixed		The physical disk block size for storage and I/O.
Storage Compression	Row, page, and columnstore compression supported.
Row Overflow / Large Row Handling	Row within a page and large columns pointing to LOB storage		How rows larger than page size are handled. Usually a row must be within one page, but big columns can only save a pointer with the row and pointing to the actual storage. This is also why there is a limit of maximal columns per table.
Index: primary cluster	Clustered index is default (one per table).		Whether physical rows are ordered by primary index.
Index: secondary	B+Tree, Bitmap, XML, Fulltext, Spatial, Columnstore.		Supported index types beyond the primary key.
index: column store as primary	yes		if column-store as primary storage supported
index: column store as secondary	yes		if column-store as secondary index supported
index: pause and resume	yes		Pause and resume index building. This gives DBA flexibility to schedule index rebuild without having to wait it done.
partition table	complete		Partitioning capabilities for large tables.
partition table: prunning	both		Ability to eliminate partitions at query compile time and runtime
ACID: durability mechanism	WAL	WAL	How is it implements durability. Database's classic way is write ahead logging (WAL).

Comparison: SQL Server vs SQLite

Table of Contents

General

Data Types

SQL

Storage and System

Benchmarking

Tools

Export Regulations

Internal

Internal - Optimizer

Internal - Runtime

Internal - Storage Engine