In many organisations, SharePoint is an essential tool for managing lists, libraries and documents. Yet when it comes to reporting, analytics or integration with line-of-business systems, SharePoint’s native list storage often proves limiting — especially for large or complex datasets. Enter SQList from AxioWorks: a simple yet powerful server-side tool designed to export and synchronise SharePoint lists and libraries into SQL Server tables. With SQList, your SharePoint data becomes instantly accessible via standard SQL and business-intelligence tools, enabling real-time reporting, analysis, and integration.
Why Moving SharePoint Data to SQL Server Matters
SharePoint lists are great for data entry, collaboration, and document management within intranets or portals. However, when you need to derive business insights or build reports, SharePoint’s architecture can become a constraint. SharePoint stores data in a non-relational way, which makes complex queries — especially across multiple lists or sites — slow, cumbersome, or practically impossible.
Many organisations attempt workarounds, such as exporting lists to Excel and then importing into SQL Server, writing custom PowerShell or CSOM scripts, or using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). All of these methods are fraught with maintenance overhead, potential fragility, schema mapping issues, and risk of data becoming out of synchronisation.
What is needed is a reliable, automated way to mirror SharePoint data in a relational database — so that you can use all the power of SQL, reporting tools, BI platforms, and integration systems. That’s where SQList comes in.
What SQList Does: A Closer Look
SQList acts as a middleware service that seamlessly transforms SharePoint lists, libraries, metadata, attachments, and lookup relationships into normalised tables in SQL Server. Importantly, it does not require any change to your SharePoint farm or servers — it connects via standard HTTP(S), and to SQL Server via standard database connectivity.
Once configured, SQList continuously monitors the selected SharePoint sites and lists. It automatically creates or updates SQL table schemas to mirror any changes in SharePoint structure, then synchronises data so the SQL tables always reflect the current state of your SharePoint lists. This means you get near real-time access to live data — in a relational format you can query, join, aggregate and report on efficiently.
Key Features at a Glance
- Continuous export and synchronisation — SharePoint lists and libraries are kept in sync with SQL Server tables at all times.
- Automatic schema creation and maintenance — Normalised SQL tables are generated to match your SharePoint structure, including lookup relationships and metadata.
- Support for large lists, complex structures and sub-sites — SQList handles big data, multiple site collections, and deep SharePoint hierarchies.
- Compatibility with multiple environments — On-premises SharePoint, SharePoint Online, hybrid setups, and SQL Server (on-premises or cloud) are all supported.
- Allows powerful querying, reporting and integration — Use standard SQL, or BI tools such as Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Excel, or any other system that can connect to SQL Server.
- No performance penalties or list-view threshold issues — Because you are querying SQL Server, you avoid the common performance problems associated with large SharePoint lists or complex queries.
- Flexible deployment and licensing — SQList runs as a Windows service and is licensed per installation, with support for multiple replications under a single licence.
The SQList Workflow: Simple, Reliable, Efficient
Using SQList is remarkably straightforward:
- Install SQList on a Windows server or virtual machine with connectivity to your SharePoint environment and SQL Server.
- Use the SQList management application to configure you
