ASP.NET with MySql or SqlExpress?

Question

I have already a website and moving that to the new VPS. I have option either to go with MySql database or Sql Server Express 2008 edition database (I do not want to pay for SQL Server as I can't afford as I have other expenses also). I have around 10K hits per day for my knowledge based website.

My questions are

1. If I go with ASP.NET with MySql, will this be able to handle current load as well as load in the future?

2. If I go with ASP.NET with Sql Server Express 2008, will the Sql Server express 2008 be able to handle this much of load as I see the sample application with Sql Express database is slower. I am aware that there is limitation in terms of CPU and Memory (1 GB RAM) in Sql Server express

3. My current server has Windows Server 2008 R2, 1GB RAM. Increasing RAM will help with Sql Server Express?

Any suggestions please

Answer 1

1. I don't know MySQL, but 10K hits/day is nothing (unless, of course, they all happen within 10 minutes and the rest of the day is without traffic).
2. Same as 1.
3. SQL server express will use 1GB, but RAM is also used for other things in the system. Upgrading to 2GB would certainly help, above that is uncertain, but RAM is cheap so buy 4GB to be safe.

Edit: 10K hits/day, evenly distributed, is 0.12 hits/second, or 1 hit every 8.5 seconds.

Answer 2

I would go for SQL Server Express so you can easily take advantage of the ASP.NET Membership elements. It will handle loads higher than you mention but like Erik says, give it some more RAM.

Kindness,

Dan