[cmdrfred]

SQL server != Windows Server

That also appears to only cover web servers that do not have any login capability. Why on earth would you spend that kind of money to host a static site?

[UK-AL]

SQL sever doesn't have a "Data center" license.

You would license SQL sever on a core based licensing model, which doesn't use CAL's.

If anyone can purchase a login to your website, that's still classed as public. What its means is internal apps require licenses.

[cmdrfred]

My whole point has been that Microsoft solutions are expensive. Is 6.5K per core cheap to you?[0]

[0]https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/sql-server-pr...

[UK-AL]

Relative to salaries required to get similar features setup on open source databases with support, yes.

EnterpriseDB which is basically support for PostGres is almost as expensive.

[brazzledazzle]

It's for services available to the public. So if you wanted to build a site that required payment to sign up you could do so.