Migrate SQL Server to SQLite
Beta — live-tested pathMigrating from SQL Server (Microsoft's enterprise relational database) to SQLite (the embedded database that ships inside everything) means every table, column type, key, index and row has to survive two engines' different opinions about data. This is a cross-model migration — rows and relations are preserved as structured documents — and the conversion rules are explicit, not guessed. DBShifts converts the schema with deterministic rules, transfers data in parallel batches, and validates the result with per-table row counts and type-aware checksums.
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SQL Server vs SQLite
SQL Server
Microsoft's enterprise relational database.
SQLite
the embedded database that ships inside everything.
How the migration works
Connect
Point DBShifts at your source and target. Credentials stay encrypted; SSH tunnels supported for private databases.
Analyze
Automatic schema introspection produces a migration plan: what converts automatically, what migrates with warnings, what needs human review.
Migrate
Schema is created on the target, data transfers in parallel batches with constraints deferred, indexes rebuilt after load.
Validate
Per-table row counts, type-aware checksums on both sides, FK integrity — plus a fidelity report listing anything lossy.
SQL Server to SQLite data type mapping
Pulled directly from DBShifts's own conversion rules — not a general reference table, this is what actually runs.
| SQL Server | SQLite |
|---|---|
| INT / BIGINT | INTEGER |
| TINYINT | INTEGER |
| DECIMAL(p,s) / MONEY | NUMERIC |
| VARCHAR / NVARCHAR(n) | TEXT |
| NVARCHAR(MAX) | TEXT |
| DATETIME / DATETIME2 | TEXT |
| UNIQUEIDENTIFIER | TEXT |
| BIT | INTEGER |
| VARBINARY / IMAGE | BLOB |
| IDENTITY | INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT |
Example: SQL Server to SQLite schema conversion
SQL Server
CREATE TABLE users ( id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY, name NVARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, is_active BIT DEFAULT 1, created_at DATETIME2 DEFAULT SYSUTCDATETIME() );
SQLite
CREATE TABLE "users" ( "id" INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, "name" TEXT NOT NULL, "is_active" INTEGER DEFAULT 1, "created_at" TEXT DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP );
What SQL Server features have no SQLite equivalent
SQLite has no stored procedures, no functions, no triggers with procedural bodies, and no schemas. A SQL Server database that keeps business logic in T-SQL does not have a destination for that logic, and no converter can invent one. This is the single biggest decision on this route: the logic either moves into the application or the migration is only moving tables.
There are no separate schemas either. Everything in SQL Server under dbo, sales and staging lands in one flat namespace, so two tables that differ only by schema will collide. Names have to be flattened deliberately, usually by prefixing, before the conversion runs.
IDENTITY becomes INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, but only for a single-column integer key. A composite primary key that included an IDENTITY column cannot keep the auto-increment behaviour, because SQLite ties AUTOINCREMENT to the rowid.
Type affinity means SQLite will accept the wrong data quietly
SQLite does not enforce column types. A column declared INTEGER will store the string 'banana' without complaint, because the declared type is an affinity rather than a constraint. Every SQL Server type conversion on this page therefore describes intent, not enforcement.
In practice this matters most for DECIMAL. SQL Server DECIMAL(10,2) becomes NUMERIC, and SQLite stores it as an 8-byte float unless the value is an exact integer. Money that was exact in SQL Server can come back with a rounding tail. If financial values are involved, store them as integer minor units before the move and convert on read.
DATETIME2 becomes TEXT. That is the correct choice, because SQLite has no date type at all and ISO-8601 text sorts and compares correctly. Any application code doing date arithmetic in T-SQL needs rewriting against SQLite's date functions.
Why people move SQL Server to SQLite
The usual reason is not replacing the production database. It is producing something portable: an offline copy for a desktop or mobile client, a fixture for a test suite that must run without a server, or an analysis snapshot someone can open without credentials. SQLite is a single file, which is the whole appeal.
That shapes what correctness means here. A test fixture needs the schema and the relationships intact more than it needs every constraint enforced, and an offline copy usually wants a subset rather than the whole database. Both are better served by a filtered, masked extract than by a full copy of production.
SQL Server → SQLite conversion notes
Engine-specific rules baked into the conversion and transfer pipeline — verified by live certification of this exact pair.
- TINYINT is unsigned (0–255) in SQL Server — DBShifts widens it on signed targets so 128–255 don't clip.
- UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, DATETIMEOFFSET, MONEY and NVARCHAR(MAX) all have explicit conversion rules per target.
- Wrapped defaults like ((1)) and (N'foo') are unwrapped to portable literals.
- High-precision decimals land in TEXT columns on purpose — SQLite's NUMERIC affinity would silently convert them to lossy REAL.
- Unsigned BIGINT values beyond the signed 64-bit range are stored as exact text rather than corrupted floats.
- Dates and times are stored as ISO-8601 text, the SQLite convention.
Frequently asked questions
Is SQL Server to SQLite migration production-ready in DBShifts?
SQL Server to SQLite is a live-verified beta pair: it passed the same certification suite as every other pair — a real migration with edge-case data validated by row counts and checksums — and ships with a post-migration fidelity report you can audit before cutover.
How does DBShifts verify the SQL Server to SQLite migration was correct?
Three layers: per-table row counts on both sides, an order-independent type-aware checksum of row data (canonicalized so engine representation differences don't false-alarm), and FK integrity checks on the target. Rows that fail to insert are quarantined with the exact error — never silently dropped — and can be fixed and retried from the UI.
What happens to SQL Server types that SQLite doesn't have?
They convert by deterministic rules with a recorded decision: a native equivalent where one exists, a portable fallback (TEXT/JSON/DECIMAL) where one doesn't. Every lossy conversion appears in the migration plan before you run and in the fidelity report after. You can override any mapping per column.
Can I keep SQL Server and SQLite in sync after the initial migration?
Yes. DBShifts supports incremental sync (UPSERT-based delta transfers on a sync key) and, for supported sources, real-time change data capture so the target stays current until you cut over.
Do I need to write any SQL or scripts for SQL Server to SQLite?
No. Connect both databases, review the generated migration plan (what's automatic, what migrates with warnings, what needs manual review — typically triggers and stored procedures), and run. Procedural code is transpiled best-effort and queued for human review rather than auto-applied.
What's the hardest part of moving SQL Server to SQLite?
The data model itself differs (sql → embedded), so rows and relations are restructured into documents with explicit type rules. DBShifts surfaces every inference and lossy conversion in the migration plan before you run, so nothing is guessed silently.
Which SQL Server data types change when moving to SQLite?
5 of the mapped types convert to something that cannot represent exactly the same range or constraint. The clearest cases are MONEY to NUMERIC, FLOAT to REAL, DATETIMEOFFSET to TEXT. The full table above lists every mapping the converter performs, and analysis flags each one on your actual schema before any data moves.
Go deeper
Related migration paths
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