[John Rogers]

Using a database to keep the data that an application runs "on top" of has many choices. I had over 14 years of database administration before retiring for good several years ago and I'll list the products I have used and their plusses and minuses.

1. Oracle: Plus = best security, fastest queries, no limits on size and best help/forums/support/graphical explaining. Minus = complicated to learn well, expensive unless you use the free version which has some features deleted and takes a lot of power to run well.

2. Microsoft SQL Server: About all the same as Oracle except it is a target for hackers. It is the database Sony was using when their system was hacked years ago on the Black Friday weekend and lost user connectivity.

3. MySQL: Now owned by Oracle and the free version has many tutorials and is easier to learn. Their paid version has all the + and - that Oracle has.

4. PostgreSQL: Not as powerful as Oracle and has a decent free version. Is used in many Colleges and Universities. Has decent tutorials to help students get up to speed quickly.

5. Microsoft Access: Usually comes with a full Office sweet of software, has a ton of on line tutorials to help learn it. Negatives are poor security, not adapted well for multi user (poor web support), if used on a laptop the menu at the top of the screen is impossible to see easily. But it's free!

There are others but these are the ones I have worked with over the years and remember good security should be #1 priority as all these I mentioned have good tutorials and are about the same to learn. Any web based application should come with the underlying database all setup.
John