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Comment:Updates to the "most deployed SQL database" page.
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SHA1: 4f5e61a9331fa6cfabe9c99b2a64911394fbddf2
User & Date: drh 2008-02-21 19:49:53.000
Context
2008-02-21
20:01
More fixes to the "most widely deployed SQL database" page. (check-in: 6934667274 user: drh tags: trunk)
19:49
Updates to the "most deployed SQL database" page. (check-in: 4f5e61a933 user: drh tags: trunk)
2008-02-19
16:16
Fix a typo in the whentouse.html page. Fix formatting problems in quickstart. (check-in: 491dfd2cee user: drh tags: trunk)
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<title>SQLite: Most Widely Deployed SQL Database</title>

<h2>Most Widely Deployed Database</h2>

<p>We <em>believe</em> that there are more copies of SQLite
in use around the world than any other SQL database engine,
and possibly all other database engines combined.  We cannot
be certain of this since we have no way of measuring either
the number of SQLite deployments nor the number of deployments
of other databases.  But we beleave the claim is defensible.</p>

<p>The belief that SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL
database engine stems from its use as an embedded database.
Other database engines, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle,
are typically found one to a server.  And usually a single
server can serve multiple users.  With SQLite, on the other
hand, a single user will typically have exclusive use of
multiple copies of SQLite.  SQLite is used on servers, but
it is also used on desktop PC, and in cellphones, and PDAs,
and MP3-players, and set-top boxes.</p>

<h3>Estimates</h3>

<p>At the end of 2006, there were 100 million websites on the internet.
<a href="http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/11/01/november_2006_web_server_survey.html">&#91;1]</a>
Let us use that number as a proxy for the number of deployed
SQL database engines other than SQLite.  Not every website

runs an SQL database engine.  Larger websites run multiple
database engines.  But the vast majority of smaller websites
(the long tail) share
a database engine with several other websites,
if they use database engine at all
Hopefully these two factors cancel
each other out and give 100 million as a reasonable estimate
for the number of non-SQLite SQL database engines currently

deployed.</p>

<p>Now let's consider where SQLite is used:</p>

<ul>
<li>125 million copies of Mozilla Firefox 
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071202-mozilla-coo-over-125-million-people-use-firefox.html">&#91;2]</a></li>
<li>20 million Mac computers, each of which contains multiple
copies of SQLite</li>
<li>20 million websites run PHP which has SQLite built in.  
<a href="http://www.php.net/usage.php">&#91;3]</a>  We have no
way of estimating what fraction of those sites actively use
SQLite, but we think it is a significant fraction.<li>
<li>300 million downloads of the <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a>
client software and 100 million registered users
<a href="http://skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/04/how_many_users_does_skype_have_today.php">&#91;4]</a>.  All recent versions of the Skype
client use SQLite internally.</li>
<li>20 million Symbian smartphones shipped in Q3 2007
<a href="http://www.symbian.com/news/pr/2007/pr20079552.html">&#91;5]</a>
Newer versions of the SymbianOS have SQLite built in.  It is unclear



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<title>SQLite: Most Widely Deployed SQL Database</title>

<h2>Most Widely Deployed SQL Database</h2>

<p>We <em>believe</em> that there are more copies of SQLite
in use around the world than any other SQL database engine,
and possibly all other SQL database engines combined.  We cannot
be certain of this since we have no way of measuring either
the number of SQLite deployments nor the number of deployments
of other databases.  But we beleave the claim is defensible.</p>

<p>The belief that SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL
database engine stems from its use as an embedded database.
Other database engines, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle,
are typically found one to a server.  And usually a single
server can serve multiple users.  With SQLite, on the other
hand, a single user will typically have exclusive use of
multiple copies of SQLite.  SQLite is used on servers, but
it is also used on desktop PC, and in cellphones, and PDAs,
and MP3-players, and set-top boxes.</p>

<h3>Estimates</h3>

<p>At the end of 2006, there were 100 million websites on the internet.
<a href="http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/11/01/november_2006_web_server_survey.html">&#91;1]</a>
Let us use that number as a proxy for the number of deployed
SQL database engines other than SQLite.  Not every website
runs an SQL database engine, and not ever SQL database engine
runs a website.  Larger websites run multiple
database engines.  But the vast majority of smaller websites
(the long tail) share
a database engine with several other websites,
if they use database engine at all.
So using the number of websites as a surrogate for the number of operational

SQL database engines is a crude approximation, but it is the best
we have so we will go with it.  (Readers are encouraged to submit
better estimates.)</p>

<p>Now let's consider where SQLite is used:</p>

<ul>
<li>125 million copies of Mozilla Firefox 
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071202-mozilla-coo-over-125-million-people-use-firefox.html">&#91;2]</a></li>
<li>20 million Mac computers, each of which contains multiple
copies of SQLite</li>
<li>20 million websites run PHP which has SQLite built in.  
<a href="http://www.php.net/usage.php">&#91;3]</a>  We have no
way of estimating what fraction of those sites actively use
SQLite, but we think it is a significant fraction.</li>
<li>300 million downloads of the <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a>
client software and 100 million registered users
<a href="http://skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/04/how_many_users_does_skype_have_today.php">&#91;4]</a>.  All recent versions of the Skype
client use SQLite internally.</li>
<li>20 million Symbian smartphones shipped in Q3 2007
<a href="http://www.symbian.com/news/pr/2007/pr20079552.html">&#91;5]</a>
Newer versions of the SymbianOS have SQLite built in.  It is unclear
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