By providing two distinct perspectives on the market, the annual SQL Server Magazine Editors' Best and Community Choice award
programs offer a unique way to recognize the hottest products among the past year's offerings. Our Editors' Best program highlights products that SQL Server Magazine editors and contributors believe are worthy of recognition, whereas our Community Choice program lets our readers decide
which products are the best.
For the Community Choice program, we didn't just present a predefined list of products and services that limited your selection. Instead, we let you
nominate your favorites, built the voting survey from there, and let everyone participate in the final voting phase. For our Editors' Best program, we
also reached out to readers to find out how the Gold winners help you do your jobs. We spoke to real users about real experiences, and we hope these
testimonials benefit you in your environment.
In these pages, you'll find our Gold, Silver, and Bronze Editors' Best winners directly adjacent to the Community Choice winners in each category.
Sometimes our editors and readers agreed on favorite products and services in a given category, but more often they didn't. Choosing favorites from
such a competitive field can be a challenge, but this year's winners show an uncommon breadth of functionality and originality.
Do you agree with our editors' choices? Or do our readers' picks carry more weight? Let us know! Regardless of whether the winners were chosen by
editors or readers, you can be sure that all these products are worth serious consideration if you're in the market for a new tool.
Best Backup and Recovery Software Product
Best Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool
Best Database Development Tool
Best Database Management Product
Best Database Monitoring and Performance Product
Best Security/Auditing/Compliance Tool
Best Storage Hardware Product
Best Free Tool
Best Vendor Tech Support