Today having the best database software is no more leisure but an essential tool required no matter whether you are a small business or a large business.
From marketing automation tools to customer data platforms, businesses need to store their data in an organized manner along with ensuring its security.
Nowadays, more than 90% of businesses having more than 10 employees use database software and CRM tools to streamline their data for useful purposes. But how to know which tool is a perfect fit for your business and will cover all the required concerns?
So to make your decision easier I have reviewed and ranked the database software based on features, pricing, ease of use, integrations, security, performance, and more.
So let’s get started.
What is the Best Database Software to use?
Here is my list of the best database software to use this year:
1. Knack
Knack is the easiest online database tool I have seen till now. Founded in 2010 the SaaS-based company allows its users to easily connect, structure, and extend data with no coding required.
Knack has an impressive customer base, including Harvard University, Honda, Zendesk, Panasonic, Spotify, HP, Capital One, Intel, and many others.
Key Features of Knack
- Secure Access – Grants secure access to users to access and manage their data.
- Workflow & Automation – Offers the right set of tools for the right users at the right time.
- Intuitive Dashboards & Reports – Provides real-time charts and formulas to report on your data.
- Data Management – Offers a single platform to audit, collect, and manage your data.
- Payments – This allows you to integrate payment options to your custom code and workflows
- Integration Portal – Provides a hub to connect all your services together.
Pros of Knack
- Powerful options for Images, files, Equations, and formulas.
- Allows you to publish different versions for web, tablets, and mobile of your app for different audiences.
- Provides data export option into JSON, TXT, or CSV Files
- Simple drag-and-drop elements like record details, lists, search, and tables.
- Unlimited filters and rules to find the data you need.
- Designers can control the look and feel of your app with custom CSS.
- Flexibility to create the structure and navigation you want.
- No Cookie-cutter software
Cons of Knack
- Can improve the user interface for the systems to give it a modern look.
Pricing Plans
Knack has three main pricing plans.
- Starter Plan – $39 per month
- Pro Plan – $79 per month
- Corporate Plan – $179 per month
They also offer custom enterprise plans called Plus 1, Plus 2, and Plus 3. For example, with the Plus 3 plan at $999/month, you get 1.5 million records.
2. Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is one of the most sought-after and effective database software. This relational DBMS server is perfect for retrieving and storing multiple requests at once.
Key Features of Microsoft SQL Server
- Free Trial – The express and developer version of the Microsoft SQL server is available free of cost.
- Excellent Performance – Turns raw data into actionable insights that can be delivered on any device or platform.
- Automatic Plan Correction – Identifies problematic query execution to fix SQL plan performance issues
- Improved Query Performance – Leverages adaptive query processing feature to enhance query performance in SQL Server and SQL database
Pros of Microsoft SQL Server
- More advanced software than Microsoft Access
- Template Explorer identifies numerous names in the database system
- Provides Integration with other programs and handles complex queries smoothly
- Combines views of linked objects or groups and scripts
- Utilizes Developer Network Feature to develop advanced queries
- Has the capacity to create several designs, tables, and view data without syntax
Cons of Microsoft SQL Server
- Data maintenance is cumbersome with a selective schema
- Sometimes Longer queries take a lot more time than the expected calculated time
Pricing Plans
The “Developer” and “Express” versions are available free of cost. The paid plans start at $931 and range up to $14,256 (one-time cost).
3. Improvado
Improvado is a popular database software tool that assists in aggregating all the marketing data for large or small enterprises in real-time. It is a scalable and flexible marketing middleware solution.
Key Features of Improvado
- Cost-Effective – You don’t need a SQL Expert to understand the Improvado functionalities. Hence saving you the cost of hiring a developer.
- Reporting – Its robust reporting mechanism reduces manual reporting by over 90 percent.
- Multiple Integrations – It offers integration with numerous third-party tools, including BigQuery, MailChimp, Salesforce, Twitter, Tableaus, Facebook, Excel, and Google Adwords among others.
- Flexible Data Visualization – Easily extract and send all data sets to visualization tools, including Google Sheets, Tableau, Looker, and Google Data Studio, among others.
Pros of Improvado
- Clean navigation control and user interface
- Provides insightful and error-free data analytics
- Offers to duplicate your online database and provides the ability to migrate your data instantly.
- Offers a highly trained and experienced engineering team for robust customer support.
- Provides real-time integration of data models on a live connected dedicated database server.
- Backup Software and Data Recovery option for users.
- Clean and well-planned database documentation
- Offers side-by-side comparison of metrics for quicker business decision making
- Provides constant access to regular updates and statuses on multiple projects.
Cons of Improvado
- The database often excludes the latest entries during the analytical comparison.
Pricing Plans
Improvado offers a Business package, that costs $100 per month that covers all the basic needs and perks for your business. They also offer an Enterprise edition with customized pricing for small businesses with a low budget. Moreover, you can also schedule a demo version of the software to experience its features.
So now let’s cover the basics.
What is Database Software?
Database software is a utility or software program developed to automate, extract, search, store, edit, create, and maintain database records and files.
A database software management system (DBMS) assists users to manage their data in the form of tables, columns, and structured fields. in other words, database software stores your web application data in an organized manner.
Additionally, there is another key term used which is relational database management systems (RDBMS). Basically, relational databases allow database administrators to access and identify data in relation to other data in the database.
Finally, so the database is a program that stores data in tables. RDBMSs use SQL to manage all complex data in a simpler way.
What are the Benefits of Using Database Software?
A capable database is equipped to enhance access to a large amount of data generated by enterprises. The efficient DBMS goal is to strive to ensure easy sharing and access of data among different stakeholders.
Here are a few important benefits of using database software in an organization:
1. Data Security
Thanks to major advancements in cloud computing technology vendors provide a robust and more secure database against cybersecurity threats. Not only it has reduced the cost incurred in securing the data but it also provides access to only authorized users to manage the huge amount of enterprise data using its robust and reliable system.
2. Recovery and Backup
Most of the DBMS systems today are equipped to take automatic backups of your data at regular intervals. Additionally, it automatically restores the database with the previously saved version of the backup incases of any system failure or crash.
3. Reduced Data Redundancy
Database software tools reduce data redundancy by avoiding multiple copies of the same data to be present at different locations. Moreover, Today’s DBMS software leverage a single database which eliminates the chance to retrieve any duplicate data.
4. Compliant and Consistent Data
To ensure and meet compliance and enforce accountability it’s crucial to maintain consistent data. So you need an efficient DBMS that ensures that no different version of the same data is created and users share the unique data at all points of contact.
5. Efficient Data Integration
Makes sure that there is organizational-wide data access available to different stakeholders to analyze how the data is affecting other operations and vice-versa.
6. Quicker Decision Making
New efficient DBMS ensures fast and easy access to a large volume of data. With technological advancement, DBMS provides a data management system that offers high-quality actionable insights to help you derive a decision faster. Plus, this in turn increases the productivity of the complete organization.
7. Privacy
Advanced Database software has evolved to keep the confidentiality of your data at any cost. It safeguards the data by preventing unauthorized access to the users trying to access data not meant to be for them. Additionally, it enforces different levels of access controls over the different levels of users to secure the privacy of your data.
Best Database Software – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best database software you can use for your business this year. I will keep updating the list with other good database software tools available in the market.
Today enterprises are leveraging big data analytics to achieve better outcomes in terms of productivity and profitability. Additionally, the market today focuses on personalized and highly customizable services for the customers. And all this is possible using a robust database management system (DBMS) that creates and manages a large volume of data consistently.
So your business needs to choose the DBMS that meets your specific requirements while staying cost-efficient and productive.
Which database software are you planning to use? Let me know in the comment section below.
More from Smashitbuck: To check out my other software reviews, read my post on the ERP software, anonymous Instagram stories, and Best CMMS Software to use this year.
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