Which is better SQL 2000 or Sybase?

[Myriad]

I need to know which database server to use to develop a client's website in.

[Chris Schreiber]

The answer to this depends on many other things: What OS are you using? What programming language are you planning on writing in (PHP)? What type of application is it and what are the performance and scalability requirements?

[Myriad]

PHP--restaurant-transaction-system intranet. Basically, its an internal website that spans across its various locations--and its designed to handle credit card transactions quickly, record reservations, and handle menu orders that will report to the kitchen. It will also help determine statistically which foods are more popular than others.

We're using a cluster of servers--Linux for web server, Windows for database.

I'm using the Verisign Payment Flow functions for php to handle the credit card numbers and transactions. It's for a rather popular (and one of my favorite) steakhouses in my state.

[Chris Schreiber]

Well since you're hosting the databases on Windows, you would probably want to consider using SQL Server 2000 first. You would be looking at $20k/processor for Enterprise or $5k/processor for Standard. For Sybase ASE you would be looking at about $4k.

So if you have 10-50 clients, and are more comforable with Windows, I would go with SQL Server. If you are looking for better performance and reliability, or are planning on having a higher number of users, I would consider using Sybase. Sybase also gives you the advantage of being able to run the database on Linux and NT, of course SQL Server only runs on NT.