One of my clients is developing an ASP.NET application that will be dealing with large amounts of data. The initial size of their SQL Server database will be at least 5GB and could grow to 10GB within a year or so.
Most web hosting companies we've looked at charge $5/month for every extra 50MB of database, after the first 1GB or 2GB.
If you have a large SQL Server database, is your only hosting option paying for a dedicated server?
No, it's not your only option, you could always pay the extra for more diskspace or find someone who provides virtual servers (which is a step between a dedicated box and rented hosting).
Additionally, purchasing a dedicated server (or the virtual one), may be a more expensive option than paying the extra charges for the hosting (at least in the short term).
My question would be, why is the database 5GB? That seems like a lot of text. If it's binary data (files, images,etc), you may want to consider storing those on the FileSystem (most plans come with huge amounts of HDD space, just not DB space)
That's a sizable database for the typical shared hosting account and would tie up a lot of space on a server that hosts dozens or hundreds of sites. On this type of account the hosting companies make additional space very expensive so that you'll trade up to a more appropriate level of service.
I'd suggest looking at virtual private servers (VPS), as they as positioned between the low cost shared solution and a full blown dedicated server. Most plans will come with enough (or nearly enough) space to cover what you need.
From your example above let's assume that you get 2 GB included and need an additional 3 to get started. You're looking at $100 per GB or $300 a month, correct?
I use ServInt's basic VPS solution and get 15 GB of space for $50 per month, which would accommodate your DB even with the planned growth. It's Linux box with a MySQL DB, but comparable Windows/SQLServer solutions can probably be found for similar rates.