Alternatives to SQL Server (cost focused)
PostgreSQL or MySQL can cut monthly costs by 60 to 80 percent. The tradeoff is migration effort, especially for stored procedures and T-SQL logic.
Top alternatives at a glance
Best overall
PostgreSQL (managed)
- Lowest long term cost.
- Strong feature set and community.
- Managed on Azure, AWS, GCP, Sevalla.
Simple apps
MySQL (managed)
- Very cost effective.
- Good for basic CRUD workloads.
Burst friendly
Aurora Serverless v2
- Pay for usage spikes only.
- Good for spiky workloads.
Estimated monthly and yearly cost ranges
| Option | Monthly / yearly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Azure PostgreSQL Flexible | $25 to $62 / $300 to $744 | Cheapest with 3 year reservation |
| AWS RDS PostgreSQL | $22 to $50 / $264 to $600 | Graviton instances, low cost |
| GCP Cloud SQL PostgreSQL | $53 to $105 / $636 to $1,260 | Shared core even cheaper |
| Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless v2 | $45 to $47 / $540 to $564 | No commitment, auto scales |
| Sevalla managed PostgreSQL | $65 to $145 / $780 to $1,740 | Low latency for Sevalla apps |
Accuracy note: These are estimates from the provided reports. Validate with current
cloud calculators before final decisions.
Migration effort (summary)
Schema and data
- 90 to 95 percent automated.
- Tools: AWS SCT, pgloader.
Stored procedures
- Manual rewrite likely.
- Expect 70 to 80 percent automated.
App changes
- Driver and connection updates.
- Case sensitivity testing.
When open source is the right call
- Monthly cost reduction is required.
- Stored procedures are minimal or can be refactored.
- Teams can tolerate a 6 to 12 week migration window.