What do you like best about the product?

I've always loved Microsoft SQL Server, and for .NET developers it is an excellent choice of database engine. The Express version is the lightest form but can still be managed through SSMS, however is more license-friendly and this combination - SQL Server 2016 Express on Windows Server 2016 - makes a lot of sense for a data-driven website platform, for example. You can host it outside your organisation and know your .NET apps will run reliably and robustly, your developers and DBAs can work with the data easily, and your licensing costs are reduced. SQL Server 2016 is where Microsoft added a lot of great features like query store and in-memory facilities.

What do you dislike about the product?

On the downside, if you're hosting this product outside your environment and rely on a third-party provider there is, of course, a licensing fee for Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 Express, compared to open-source options like Linux and MySQL.

Additionally, the way SQL Server Express installs itself can lead to some developers or administrators inadvertently creating database servers like hostname\sqlexpress instead of simply hostname. It's important to be careful when setting it up to ensure you do so in the way you really want.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

We used it for our externally-hosted public-facing website. Our website was an in-house app with many facilities to capture customer requests, provide services, etc., with a lot of API-driven components, content management for our marketing team, and other dynamic features. Being a Microsoft / .NET environment this combination of server and DB was ideal for us and for the team who had a lot of SQL Server experience and affection.