Embedded database for .NET application

I need to choose a database as a backend for a VB.NET application.

It must:

• support XCOPY deployment
• be accessible by a service and a desktop application at the same time
• support SQL syntax and datatypes
• be suitable for a web application (ASP.NET开发者_JAVA百科)

I was looking into Firebird (web application discouraged for embedded version?) and SQL CE 4

Any suggestions?

SQL CE 4 is probably a more natural fit for a .NET application and will have the greatest support in tooling such as EF4.

Orcs Web (a well respected hoster) seem to think it's pretty good:

4 Reasons Microsoft SQL Server CE is a Great Hosted Database Option

One argument for going down the SQL CE 4 road is that if you need to upsize to full blown SQL Server then it's a bit of a no-brainer excercise.

Another alternative is to use a plain old Access database the benefit of which is that you can load it into Access or pass the file around to others who have Access.

Yet another alternative lightweight and portable database is SQLite. There's a driver for .NET which you can download from:

System.Data.SQLite - An open source ADO.NET provider for the SQLite database engine

There's always SQLite, which has been around for a while:

http://www.sqlite.org/

I actually like SQL CE 4 because it can be integrated in Visual Studio 2010 for RAD, and the feature set looks promising.

If SQLite is your cup of tea you might want to also look into the ADO.NET provider available for it.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlite-dotnet2/files/