Best web database solution?

What you use depends on what platform you are developing for (linux/MS).

As you mentioned "free" I'd advise MYSQL, communication would be PHP.

How "easy" to learn depends on your current skill and knowledge and ability to learn really.
There are plenty of beginner tutorials out there though.
w3schools.com and tizag.com are good for the basics.

You should consider reading about how to keep the DB (tables etc) as tight as possible, especially if the site's going to rely heavily on a database.
Generally speaking, a databases is the main cause for a site to be slow, especially if badly designed and accessed in a clumsy manner.

Small DBs generally don't cause much problem (unless really badly designed or used), but if the site is DB intensive and you have the time to learn then try to read about best practice and performance techniques for the particular scenario you will require.

PHP and MYSQL, although not perfect, are the most used combination, and certainly carry out task well enough for most website requirements, even large ones.

If you want it to be as you said “easy to learn, secure, free if possible and have decent performance” then it is surely MySQL. MySQL is free, easy to learn and implement, secure and mostly used because of its fast performance.

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I think BizDB is a flexible and affordable Web database software with the ability to store, search and report thousands of records and images. The software is also powered by numerous add ons which can help you setting up your e-commerce database within a short period of time. In my opinion you can try this one.

Hello wompier!

I understand your problem and for that use,

A LAMP environment is the best solution:
(L)inux (A)pache (M)ySQL (P)HP

Linux as the operating system, Apache as the web server, MySQL as the database and PHP as the language to create user interface with the db.Just go and do in this method.....

I think Microsoft SQL Server is one of the best web database solution. It provide extremely good service related to database. It also provide good security and feature. It can handle huge database. It is perfect for a web solution.

Today you are filled with ample of options that you can use, i will not like to drag the discussion as lots things have been made clear by my other counter parts but just want to say that Open Source is best Solution too all problems (SQL/My SQL/SQL Lite/ and enterprise solution Postger SQL)

I think everybody have given a lot of suggestions, but if you need a database specially for web so use open source Mysql, its the best one, easy to install, easy to maintain, easy to develop and the special feature of Mysql is that it is lite and also currently using by almost database developers.

For large database driven website development, first you need to learn T-SQL Queries and later on you can go for MySQL or MS SQL or Oracle database selection according to your database requirements.

MySql for web solutions, SQL lite it's also very simple but better for mobile app solutions.