Stage 1 · Lesson 4 of 8
Installing SQL Server locally
has two free editions for learning. has every feature, but its licence allows only development and testing. SQL Server 2025 splits it into Standard Developer and Enterprise Developer.
is free for real production use, but limited: in SQL Server 2025 each database is capped at 50 GB. You can install it on Windows, on Linux, or in a Docker container, which is also how you run it on a Mac. Choose if you want to log in with a SQL username and password rather than your Windows account. Note the port, which is 1433 by default, and create your own database.
Common trapinstalling only the server and wondering where to type queries: you also need a client, such as , the command-line client, or one of the graphical tools in the next topic.
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Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- CourseFreeCS50's Introduction to Databases with SQL
Harvard University · Beginner
Watch Lecture 0 (Querying) for the relational model; it uses SQLite, and the ideas carry straight across
- CourseFreeQuery and modify data with Transact-SQL
Microsoft · Beginner
Start with the Introduction to Transact-SQL module; it sets up a sample database in the browser or locally