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What are the main advantages of using Dataverse over SQL Server? Are they even comparable?

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Posted on by HamidBee

932 Super User 2024 Season 1

So I asked someone in my organisation if they could create a SQL db for our small team. I was encouraged to look into Dataverse as an alternative to having a SQL db. I was told it was easier to manage, works in a similar way in that one can obtain live data and it can hold huge amounts of data. The database administrator said he was pushing for more and more team members to use Power Apps essentially to store data etc. What are the main advantages of using Dataverse over SQL Server? Are they even comparable?

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timl 36,383 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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@HamidBee

Here is what I would say are the main advantages of Dataverse over SQL Server

It's the database of choice for the Power Platform. Dataverse is required for model driven apps and portal/power pages apps.

It has a good security model, including the ability to apply column/row level security.

Dynamics 365 uses Dataverse - it's a good database to use if you need to integrate with that platform

It's easier to use for users who don't have additional relational database skills. There is a common data model that includes common schemas.

SQL is great if you need to integrate with existing non Power Platform apps (or if you have legacy apps that use SQL), and it's much easier to extract data to overcome Power Apps delegation problems by creating views.

I have a post here that might be useful for you.

http://powerappsguide.com/blog/post/excel-vs-sharepoint-vs-dataverse-vs-sql-server

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HamidBee 932 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Thanks for the information and the link. At the moment we've been using SharePoint and Excel mainly at work. This was something I was worried about with Dataverse, it being very basic. I think I'll give it a go though and see what sort of issues do arise over time.

If you do get time I'd love to learn more about Dataverse:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/When-creating-tables-why-can-we-not-change-the-Data-type-of-a/m-p/1808570#M458359

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