Estimate your monthly database hosting and licensing costs across SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB - covering compute, storage, backups, and support.
| Database / Tier | AWS RDS | Azure SQL | GCP Cloud SQL | On-Premise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server – Small | £120–250/mo | £100–230/mo | £110–240/mo | £200–400/mo* |
| SQL Server – Medium | £350–700/mo | £300–650/mo | £320–680/mo | £500–900/mo* |
| SQL Server – Large | £800–2,000/mo | £750–1,800/mo | £770–1,900/mo | £1,200–2,500/mo* |
| PostgreSQL – Small | £50–120/mo | £55–130/mo | £45–110/mo | £80–200/mo* |
| PostgreSQL – Medium | £200–450/mo | £220–480/mo | £190–430/mo | £300–600/mo* |
| MySQL – Small | £40–100/mo | £45–110/mo | £38–95/mo | £70–180/mo* |
| MySQL – Medium | £180–400/mo | £200–430/mo | £170–390/mo | £280–550/mo* |
| MongoDB – Small | £60–140/mo | £65–150/mo | £55–130/mo | £90–220/mo* |
| MongoDB – Medium | £250–500/mo | £270–530/mo | £240–480/mo | £350–650/mo* |
*On-premise costs include amortised hardware, power, and basic administration. Prices are monthly estimates (excl. VAT) for typical UK deployments as of 2025. Actual pricing depends on instance size, reserved pricing, and contract terms. Talk to our database team
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Costs depend heavily on provider and scale, but most UK SMEs pay £50-£500/month for a managed cloud database covering compute, storage, and backups, rising significantly for high-availability or large-scale deployments. On-premise database servers typically cost more upfront but can be cheaper long-term for stable, predictable workloads.
Cloud databases typically have lower upfront costs and scale flexibly with a monthly subscription, while on-premise requires significant capital spend on server hardware and licensing but can be cheaper over 3-5 years for steady, predictable workloads. This calculator compares both models across the major providers so you can see the crossover point.
Pricing varies by workload, but for typical SME data volumes, managed cloud database services often undercut traditional licensed database software once you factor in reduced admin overhead and included backup and support. This calculator compares major providers side by side across storage, compute, backup, and support tiers.
Managed database hosting typically includes automated backups, patching, and monitoring in the price, whereas self-managed databases need dedicated IT time for maintenance, which most UK SMEs undervalue when comparing costs. Factoring in this staff time often makes managed hosting more cost-effective than it first appears.
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