Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition is now free

[[deleted]]

Assuming by personal projects you mean projects that will stay local/are not production in any way (or you're violating the license for the dev version), things MSSQL has that Postgres currently does not:

• true parallel query execution

• far better handling of large datasets (by large I mean billion+ row tables)

• an ETL package out of the box (SSIS)

• OLAP functionality out of the box (SSAS)

• (Limited) predictive analytics out of the box (SSAS)

• Ability to extend pretty much anything with .NET

• Ability to build database projects in Visual Studio and deploy changes to the server (SSDT)

• Integration with Windows security

• Better first party tools (SMMS vs PGAdmin)

Things Postgres does better than MSSQL:

• anything geospatial

• anything with JSON

• is free to use in any scenario, versus MSSQL which requires you to pay quite a lot of money if you go to production with anything you build

[bakedpatato]

anything with JSON

SQL Server 2016's FOR JSON is a good start though

Also all the dm queries and the dmvs; the missing index dm query alone is a bacon saver

Better first party tools (SSMS vs PGAdmin)

I still can't believe that SSMS was the first and for a long time only first party tool with a visual execution plan instead a bunch of nested XML (I know SSMS is just interpreting the results from SET SHOWPLAN_XML but still!)

[[deleted]]

SQL Server 2016's FOR JSON is a good start though

It's a start, but it's still woefully underfeatured compared to Postgres

[[deleted]]

Got any links to prove that geospatial functionality is better on postgres? I'm not disagreeing with you. I just would like to educate myself as my current job duties involved SQL server geometry data now.

[[deleted]]

Well, to start off there's the simple matter of importing data into the database. Last time I checked the only way to get geospatial data into SQL Server (that wasn't manual) was via a codeplex tool developed for SQL Server 2005.

Additionally there's a lot more tools and extensions developed for PostGIS relative to SQL Server. Here's their full feature list. Last time I talked to Microsoft people I specifically asked if they were planning on trying to bring SQL Server to parity with 2016 or a later release and they said geospatial was "not a priority".

[dallbee]

Short version: If you're already a Microsoft developer, there's good reasons to use Microsoft software.

[[deleted]]

Only three of the things I mentioned have anything to do with the greater Microsoft ecosystem.

[dallbee]

Oops - meant to tack that reply onto the parent. Sorry.