>>>Just one.. cost.
>>>The CAL's add up quickly and for small clients with several users the bite is deep.
>>>In all other respects, I love it.
>
>Don't think I had fully appreciated how it breaks down, 70% of our clients are small businesses with between 1 and 5 work stations.
>
>My understanding is that for single user Express is free and would do the job? after that it's Workgroup? Is that OK for up to 5 users?

Chipping in:

SQL Express is *not* single-user. Main differences (compared to Workgroup edition) are:
10Gb max Database size
Single processor only
1GB RAM.

The last two are the ones that will dictate how many users can be comfortably supported....

But the install for the Express edition is a non-trivial operation. Top of my head I think it uses ~250Mb
You *might* want to look at whether SQL CE would be adequate. There are more limitations (e.g. max db size 4gb, no SPs) but when using .NET the install is effectively non-existent - just a case of adding a couple of Dlls to the project.....

>Can you advise roughly want it is working out to for you?
>
>
>Gary.