Can SharePoint Be Used as a Database? Pros, Limits & Best Practices

Short Answer

No. SharePoint should not be used as a database. It is a collaboration and document management platform — not a transactional or analytical data store.

You can store structured data in SharePoint Lists, but doing so at scale introduces performance, reliability, and architectural risks that grow over time.

Why This Question Comes Up

Many teams start using SharePoint Lists as a database because:

• It’s already licensed
• It’s easy to create lists quickly
• It supports columns, loose relationships, and attachments
• It works “well enough” at small scale

What works at 1,000 rows often collapses at 50,000+ rows.

What SharePoint Is Actually Designed For

The Recommended Architecture (Instead)

1. Keep files in SharePoint (private, permissioned assets)
2. Extract metadata and thumbnails into a real database
3. Query the database for UI, APIs, and reporting
4. Download files from SharePoint only when access-controlled
5. Use Blob Storage or on-prem storage for high-throughput or public assets

• Fast queries
• Scalable APIs
• Clean separation of concerns
• Lower long-term risk

SharePoint Lists vs SQL Databases

Key Technical Limits of SharePoint Lists

1. List View Threshold — 5,000 items per view is a hard boundary
2. API Throttling — background jobs fail unpredictably
3. No True Relationships — lookups are not joins
4. Poor Query Patterns — no grouping, windowing, or complex sorting

When SharePoint Lists Are Acceptable

• Fewer than ~2,000–5,000 items
• Simple filters only
• No joins or aggregations
• Human-driven usage
• No performance guarantees

When You Should Use SQL

• More than 10,000 records
• Public-facing applications
• APIs consumed by multiple systems
• Reporting or dashboards
• Business-critical performance

Performance Comparison: SharePoint vs SQL

Real-world, order-of-magnitude metrics for filtering, sorting, and searching multiple columns at scale. SharePoint Lists degrade quickly as row counts increase, while SQL databases remain predictable and indexed.

Final Answer

SharePoint is not a database. It should not be treated like one. The correct architecture is hybrid, not all-in-SharePoint.

“SharePoint stores files well. Databases store data well. Mixing the two creates long-term risk.”