3 Easy Ways to Convert SQL Server to MySQL (Step-by-Step)

Deciding to switch from MS SQL Server to MySQL is a strategic move since it balances high-tier performance with cost efficiency. MySQL has evolved into a cloud-native leader, now commanding a 39.47% market share in the relational database space as of 2026.

Source

The reason for its popularity? It offers an enterprise-grade experience without the restrictive licensing fees associated with proprietary vendors. Two quick reasons why MySQL surpasses its competitors are: 

• A pluggable storage engine architecture, which allows developers to swap engines like InnoDB or MyISAM based on specific workload needs, and 
• Native support for a vast range of operating systems, including diverse Linux distributions, Solaris, and macOS, so that your infrastructure remains platform-agnostic. 

In this guide, we break down three methods in which you can migrate from MS SQL Server to MySQL: using the MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard for manual control, using Hevo Data for smooth automation, and using third-party converters for complex schema transformations.

How to Convert SQL Server to MySQL?

Below is an overview of the three most common methods for converting your database. The right approach depends on your database size, technical expertise, and whether you require zero downtime.

Feature	Method 1: Workbench Wizard	Method 2: Hevo Data	Method 3: Third-Party Tools
Complexity	Moderate (manual configuration)	Low (fully automated)	Low to moderate
Best For	Small-scale, one-time migrations	Large, live production systems	Complex schemas & procedures
Real-time Sync	No (static snapshot only)	Yes (Change Data Capture)	Varies (usually snapshot)
Data Integrity	Manual verification required	Automated validation	High translation accuracy
Cost	Free (Open-source)	Subscription-based	One-time license fee
Key Advantage	No additional software costs	Zero downtime & no-code setup	Handles complex T-SQL logic

Method 1: Using MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard

Overview

The MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard is one of the most widely used manual methods for migrating from MS SQL Server to MySQL. Built directly into the MySQL Workbench GUI, this tool provides a visual, step-by-step workflow that automates the most tedious parts of the process, such as mapping data types and regenerating table schemas.

This method is ideal for small to medium-sized databases where the migration is a one-time event. Since it allows for granular control, letting you review and edit SQL scripts before they are executed on the target server, it is the preferred choice for developers and DBAs who need to ensure high precision without investing in premium third-party software.

Step-by-step process

Pre-migration considerations

• Driver compatibility: Before proceeding, ensure the following – 

• You have installed an ODBC driver for SQL Server.
• For Windows, check for installed drivers via ODBC Data Source Administrator.
• Open MySQL Workbench and navigate to Plugins -> Start ODBC Administrator.
• Alternatively, open a command prompt and type odbcad32.exe.
• If missing, install the SQL Server Native Client for compatibility.

• User permissions: Verify the source user has read access (SELECT) and the target user has full write access (CREATE, ALTER, INSERT).
• Data type audit: Identify incompatible data types early (like GEOGRAPHY or NVARCHAR(MAX)) to plan for manual mapping to MySQL types.
• Network & timeouts: Increase MySQL’s max_allowed_packet and wait_timeout limits to prevent connection drops during large data transfers.
• Character set alignment: Map your source SQL Server collations to MySQL’s utf8mb4 ahead of time to ensure flawless text encoding.

Step 1: Launch MySQL Workbench Migration Wizard

• Open MySQL Workbench
• Navigate to Database > Migrate in the main menu. 
• A new tab will appear, displaying the Migration Wizard Overview page. 

Step 2:  Configure Source Database Connection

• Read the overview and click Start Migration. 
• In the Source Selection page:

• Choose Microsoft SQL Server as the database system.
• Select ODBC (native) as the connection method.
• Enter the SQL Server instance name (e.g., localhost\SQLEXPRESS) or IP address.
• Provide authentication credentials.
• Specify the database name (optional).
• Click Test Connection to ensure connectivity.

Step 3: Configure Target Database Connection

• Click Next to proceed to the Target Selection page.
• Provide details for your MySQL Server instance:

• Choose MySQL as the target database system.
• Enter MySQL Server hostname, port, username, and password.
• Click “Test Connection” to verify access.

Step 4: Select Schemas for Migration

• Click “Next” to retrieve available schemas from Microsoft SQL (MSSQL).
• If no database was specified earlier, select the desired schema(s) from the list.
• Choose how to handle schema names:

• Merge schemas into a single MySQL database.
• Retain individual schemas as separate MySQL databases.
• Click “Next” to continue.

Step 5: Select Objects to Migrate

• The Migration Wizard will reverse-engineer the MSSQL schema.
• A list of objects (tables, views, stored procedures) will be displayed.
• By default, only tables are selected. You can manually add views, functions, or triggers if needed.
• Click Next.

Step 6: Review and Convert Schema

• The wizard will generate MySQL-compatible schema definitions.
• Review the Object Editing section:

• Modify database names if required.
• Adjust column mappings to align with MySQL data types.
• Click Next.

Step 7: Create Database Objects in MySQL

• In the “Target Creation” options page:

• Choose to run the generated MySQL script automatically.
• Optionally, save the script for manual execution.
• Click Next to create the database objects in MySQL.

Step 8: Data Migration

• MySQL Workbench will now transfer data from MSSQL to MySQL.
• Monitor progress in the “Data Transfer” page.
• Click “Next” once the process completes successfully.

Step 9: Verify Data Integrity

• Use MySQL Workbench or a MySQL client to inspect migrated tables.
• Validate row counts and data consistency between MSSQL and MySQL.
• Test application queries to ensure correct functionality.

Advantages

• Total control: Allows you to edit generated SQL scripts and column mappings manually before execution.
• Cost-effective: As an open-source tool, it provides a powerful enterprise-grade migration path for free.
• Visual workflow: The GUI simplifies complex tasks like schema conversion for those not comfortable with CLI.

Limitations

• No continuous sync: Only supports one-time migrations; it cannot keep databases in sync in real-time.
• Manual oversight: Requires constant monitoring and human intervention for every step of the process.
• Scale Issues: Performance can lag when migrating very large datasets or complex triggers.

Read more on how to migrate from SQLite to MySQL

Method 2: Using Hevo Data to Automate the Process

Overview

Hevo Data is a fully managed, no-code ELT platform that eases the migration from MS SQL Server to MySQL. With Hevo, you don’t need to write manual scripts or maintain infrastructures, making it highly accessible for both technical teams and non-technical users.

Hevo stands out as the best choice for production-grade migrations because it supports Change Data Capture (CDC). Instead of taking a static snapshot that forces database downtime, Hevo continuously tracks and streams source updates to your MySQL target in real time. The result is zero data loss, automated schema mapping on the fly, and the ability to switch your applications over to the new database with zero disruption to business operations.

Step-by-step process

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

Step 1: Configuring SQL Server as the Source

• Create New Pipeline: Click PIPELINES in the Navigation Bar, then click + CREATE PIPELINE and select SQL Server as your source type.
• Test and Continue: Click TEST CONNECTION to validate your settings, then click TEST & CONTINUE to proceed with destination setup once all mandatory fields are completed.
• Enter Connection Details: Provide your Pipeline Name, Database Host (IP address or DNS like ms-sql-server-1.xxxxx.rds.amazonaws.com), Database Port (default: 1433), Database User credentials, and Database Password for the read-only user.
• Configure Database Settings: Specify your Database Name, Schema Name (default: dbo), select your preferred Ingestion Mode (Change Tracking, Table, or Custom SQL), and enable SSH connection if additional security is required.

For more details on connecting MS SQL Server, refer to Hevo Docs.

Step 2: Configuring MySQL as the Destination

• Create New Destination: Click DESTINATIONS in the Navigation Bar, then click + CREATE DESTINATION and select MySQL from the destination options.
• Enter Connection Details: Provide your Destination Name, Database Host (IP address or DNS), Database Port (default: 3306), Database User credentials, Database Password, and target Database Name where data will be loaded.
• Configure Security Settings: Enable SSH connection for additional security if needed, set up SSL encryption with CA certificates and client keys if required, and enable table/column name sanitization to replace non-alphanumeric characters with underscores.
• Test and Save: Click TEST CONNECTION to validate your configuration settings, then click SAVE & CONTINUE to complete the MySQL destination setup once all mandatory fields are specified.

For more details on connecting MySQL Destination, refer Hevo Docs. 

Advantages

• Zero downtime-maintenance: Uses continuous Change Data Capture (CDC) to stream live modifications from SQL Server to MySQL, allowing your application to remain active during the entire transfer.
• Automated schema & type mapping: The platform intelligently handles data type differences on the fly and allows schema drift (automatically ensuring structure updates made to the source).
• No-code transformations: Enable non-technical users to clean, format, or restructure source data using a simple drag-and-drop UI or light Python scripts before it writes to MySQL.

Limitations

• Usage-based cost volatility: Pricing is scale-dependent, calculated per event (every row insert, update, or delete), meaning highly active databases can quickly raise monthly subscription costs.
• Internet and cloud dependency: Since Hevo is a fully managed cloud platform with no self-hosted option, the migration requires a constant, highly stable internet connection and external cloud exposure.
• Rigid pipeline customization: While ideal for standard transfers, it lacks the deep, granular flexibility required to rewrite complex database objects like proprietary MS SQL views, triggers, or stored procedures.

“The platform is straightforward to navigate, even for users who are new to data migration tools. Additionally, Hevo provides well-organized documentation that clearly explains different migration approaches, which makes the entire process smooth and efficient.”

G2 Review

Sign up to explore Hevo’s simple and reliable Data Pipeline platform.

Method 3: Third-Party Converters (Specialized tools like DBConvert or SQLines)

Overview

Specialized third-party desktop converters, such as DBConvert and SQLines, act as intermediaries between simple open-source wizards and complex enterprise cloud pipelines. These tools are dedicated software packages designed explicitly for cross-database translation.

Use this approach if you’re dealing with highly complex schemas, legacy systems, or environments containing large numbers of views, indexes, and custom data constraints. These specialized converters use advanced, built-in translation engines to intelligently parse Microsoft’s T-SQL dialect and transform it directly into MySQL-compliant DDL (Data Definition Language) and data structures, in comparison to generic tools that simply copy data. 

Step-by-step procedure

Step 1: Install the Converter Application

Download and install your chosen tool (e.g., DBConvert for MSSQL & MySQL or SQLines Data) on a local machine or a staging server that has network access to both environments.

Step 2: Establish the Source Connection

Define your connection to the source Microsoft SQL Server by inputting the Hostname, Port, Authentication type, and targeted database schema.

Step 3: Establish the Destination Connection

Configure your target parameters for the MySQL server (Hostname, Port, Username, and Password). If your target is highly secure, these tools allow you to configure SSH or SSL tunneling at this stage.

Step 4: Perform Intelligent Mapping and Issue Detection

Allow the tool to scan the source schema. The application’s error checker will flag potential data type integrity issues. You can then use Global Mapping to change data type conversions across the entire database or adjust columns individually.

Step 5: Select Objects to Translate

Check or uncheck boxes to select exactly which tables, fields, primary/foreign keys, indexes, or views you wish to transfer.

Step 6: Execute the Migration (Commit)

Click the run or Commit button to start the multi-threaded bulk data transfer. The tool will generate schema structures on the target database and simultaneously pump the raw data rows across.

Step 7: Verify with Detailed Reports

Once completed, review the generated conversion and validation logs to ensure that all objects migrated without truncation or data integrity faults.

Advantages

• High translation accuracy: Deep structural parsing handles tricky conversion nuances automatically, such as changing auto-increment identities (IDENTITY to AUTO_INCREMENT) and rewriting string concatenations.
• Command-line and automation: Most tools offer a strong Command Line Interface (CLI) that allows you to save your GUI configuration sessions and automate migrations via local cron jobs or task schedulers.
• Flexible workarounds (SQL Dumps): If strict firewalls block direct server-to-server connections, these tools can export your SQL Server database straight into a pre-formatted MySQL Dump file for local importing later.

Limitations

• Procedural limits: While excellent with structural schemas, complex standalone stored procedures, custom T-SQL functions, or triggers often require manual code adjustments after the transfer.
• Software licensing fees: Unlike open-source options, these are premium commercial tools requiring paid, perpetual individual or site licenses for full functionality.
• Resource-heavy: Because processing and data transformation occur locally on the machine running the application, large transfers require high CPU and RAM overhead on the host workstation.

Data Type Mapping Between SQL Server and MySQL

When migrating data from SQL Server to MySQL, one of the critical technical considerations for data engineers is the accurate mapping of data types. While MySQL supports most data types in MS SQL Server, direct one-to-one equivalents don’t always exist for every specialized type. Correct mapping is vital for maintaining data integrity and precision and preventing data loss or truncation during migration.

Below is a table highlighting some common SQL Server data types and their typical corresponding types or representations in MySQL.

SQL Server	MySQL
VARCHAR(max	LONGTEXT
SQL_VARIANT	BLOB
IDENTITY	AUTO_INCREMENT
NTEXT, NATIONAL TEXT	TEXT CHARACTER SET UTF8
SMALLDATETIME	DATETIME
DATETIMEOFFSET	TIMESTAMP
MONEY	DECIMAL(19,4)
UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	BINARY(16)
SYSNAME	CHAR(256)

Managing these conversions manually, especially across numerous tables and columns, can be tedious and error-prone, adding significant overhead to the migration project.

Hevo Data intelligently and automatically handles the complexities of data type mapping between SQL Server and MySQL. During the pipeline setup, Hevo infers the source schema and maps the SQL Server data types to the most appropriate MySQL data types.

Limitations of Manual Method

Although there is more control when transferring data manually from SQL Server to MySQL, there are a few drawbacks:

• Lack of Automation: The manual migration process necessitates continuous supervision and user interaction, which reduces efficiency and adds to the effort. 
• Time-consuming and Error-Prone: Writing conversion scripts, handling data transfer, and manually analysing schemas may be time-consuming and error-prone, particularly when dealing with huge datasets or intricate architectures.
• Risk of Data Loss: The use of manual procedures raises the risk of data loss or inconsistent results from human mistake during import and transformation.
• Restricted Scalability: Large dataset migrations can be laborious and resource-intensive, resulting in prolonged downtime and possible performance problems.

These challenges reveal the inefficiencies and risks of manual SQL Server to MySQL migrations. An automated data pipeline solution like Hevo Data should be used to combat these challenges. 

Hevo Data can automate the data extraction, schema mapping, data type conversion, and loading process for better efficiency, reduced manual effort, reduced errors, and a successful and reliable process. 

This allows data engineering teams to get data transferred quickly and with more confidence while enabling them to spend time on more essential data objectives.

Understanding migration from MS SQL Server to MySQL

What is MS SQL Server?

Microsoft SQL Server is a widely used relational database management system (RDBMS) designed to provide users with data storage and retrieval facilities according to their requirements. Microsoft SQL Server facilitates many functionalities, of which transactional processing and data analytics are popular among businesses today. Moreover, Microsoft SQL Server is one of the top three leading database technologies, along with Oracle Database and IBM DB2.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is considered to be one of the most popular open-source relational database management systems (RDBMS). MySQL implements a simple client-server model that helps its users manage relational databases, i.e., data stored in the form of rows and columns across tables. It uses the well-known query language, structured query language (SQL), which allows users to perform all required CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.

3 Reasons to Move from MS SQL to MySQL

While there are many technical nuances to consider, the decision to migrate from MS SQL Server to MySQL usually boils down to three primary strategic drivers. 

1. Drastic cost reduction and licensing freedom

The most immediate benefit is that the heavy licensing fees are gone! MS SQL Server is a commercial product where production-grade features require expensive per-core licensing. Even the Free Express edition is limited, capping at 10GB of storage and 1GB of RAM.

In contrast, MySQL is open-source. Whether you use the Community edition or a cloud-managed version (like Amazon RDS or Google Cloud SQL), you bypass the restrictive vendor lock-in of Microsoft’s ecosystem. This allows you to reallocate your budget from software tax to infrastructure scaling or talent.

2. Platform agility and portability

MS SQL Server is historically and functionally tied to the Windows ecosystem. While SQL Server on Linux exists, it often feels like a secondary citizen compared to its Windows counterpart.

MySQL is truly platform-agnostic. It runs natively and with equal performance across Linux, macOS, and Windows. This portability is ideal for modern DevOps practices, as it allows your development team to work on Macs, your staging environment to run on lightweight Linux containers, and your production to scale on a variety of cloud architectures without compatibility headaches.

3. Superior flexibility with pluggable storage engines

One of MySQL’s unique technical advantages is its pluggable storage engine architecture. Unlike SQL Server, which uses a single standard storage engine, MySQL lets you choose the best engine for your specific data needs:

• InnoDB: The gold standard for ACID compliance and transactional integrity.
• MyISAM: Optimized for high-speed read environments.
• Memory: For ultra-fast temporary data storage in RAM.

This level of customization lets you optimize your database performance at the table level, ensuring that the most efficient engine for the job handles high-read blog data and high-write transaction logs.

Check out our blogs on some other migrations you may find handy:

• WooCommerce to MySQL
• Magento to MySQL
• Stripe to MySQL
• CleverTap to MySQL

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to effectively convert SQL Server to MySQL using 2 different methods. If it is one-time data migration or you rarely need to convert MSSQL to MySQL, you can configure your ODBC driver and use MySQL Workbench as shown in the second method.

However, if you need to frequently replicate data that require complex transformations, you can eliminate all this hassle and automate your process by opting for a No-Code Automated ETL Tool like Hevo Data! Hevo Data is a no-code data pipeline solution that can help you import data from a vast sea of sources like SQL Server to your desired destination such as MySQL, or Data Warehouses.

Want to take Hevo for a ride? Sign Up for a 14-day free trial and simplify your data integration process. Do check out the pricing details to understand which plan fulfills all your business needs.

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