Get Your Workgroup into Gear: Four Free Database Apps

Workgroups of all sizes can often benefit from a shared, centralized database that everyone can keep up to date. In fact, for some workgroups, a tiny amount of time invested in building a shared database can have huge payoffs in terms of viewing sophisticated reports, planning, completing projects, and more. The good news is that you can build your own custom database for free with numerous applications. However, there are lots of catches involved with many of the free database offerings, and limits on the size of your databases are among the most common. In this post, I’ll round up four very robust, free database offerings, one of which imposes no size limit at all.

IBM’s DB2 Express-C is an excellent free database choice for many web workers. There is no size limit on your databases, and if you eventually decide your workgroup needs support, you can pay a very low annual cost for it. DB2 Express-C is a fully relational and XML data server, for Windows or Linux users. You’re not restricted by any type of universal template; instead, it’s very easy to create your own database applications, customized for your group.

Another popular free database choice to look into is Oracle Database XE. Unlike IBM’s offering Oracle’s does impose a limit of 4GB of user data, but that’s enough for many small workgroups and Database XE is one of the nicest environments to build a database in. Also, although the database is downloadable, there is a nice browser-based interface for managing your databases. There is also a free version for Mac OS X.

Microsoft’s SQL Server Express Edition is a free offering and is freely distributable. I would recommend this choice for a workgroup that wants a robust database application quickly, because Microsoft goes above and beyond at supplying training and tutorial materials as well as starter database schemas. For example, you watch over nine hours of video instruction on starting a database aimed at absolute beginners. You can also read case studies on useful databases built with the product. Like Oracle’s database, though, Microsoft’s only lets you build 4GB databases for free.

Finally, Zoho DB & Reports is an excellent way to get a workgroup going with a database, and since it’s an an online database, Mac and Linux users are invited to the party along with Windows users. You can view a number of sample databases built with it. Note that you can’t currently import a file larger than 1MB with it, so if you already have a lot of data you may want to look into something else.

Do you have any good tips on free databases?

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post