OK, we're now ready to install SQL Server on your Mac. I've written a tutorial with screenshots: Install Docker on a Mac and Configure for SQL Server.

Launch Docker, and go to Preferences > Advanced and increase its memory allocation to 4GB.

Download Docker from the download page, extract it, and drag it into your Application folder.

Once installed, we'll increase its memory allocation to a more suitable level for running SQL Server. Because the Mac runs SQL Server inside a Docker container, the first thing we need to do is download and install Docker (unless it's already installed). This is a prerequisite for installing SQL Server on your Mac. Therefore, there's no need to install a virtual machine with Windows (which was the only way to run SQL Server on a Mac prior to SQL Server 2017). This is made possible by running SQL Server from a Docker container.

Microsoft has made SQL Server available for macOS and Linux systems.

Install SQL Server directly to your Mac - no virtual machine required!

Easiest to use sql database for mac