What is user and login in SQL Server?

Question

A Login is an identity used to connect to a SQL Server instance. A User allows you to log into a SQL Server database and is mapped to a Login. So you will need to first create a Login, before you can create a User in SQL Server.

A Login is used for authentication into a SQL Instance while a User is used for authorization into a SQL Database. Note that Logins are used at the Instance level and Users are used at the Database level. Here is how to create a new Login and User in SQL Server.

What are users in SQL Server?

A user is a database level security principal. Logins must be mapped to a database user to connect to a database. A login can be mapped to different databases as different users but can only be mapped as one user in each database. In a partially contained database, a user can be created that does not have a login.

A database user is not the same as a login. A login provides to a user or application the ability to connect to a SQL Server instance, whereas a database user provides the login rights to access a database.

What is user account in SQL?

User refers to an account in MS SQL Server database which is used to access database.

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