SQL Server is available in various editions. This chapter lists the multiple editions with its features. Enterprise − This is the top-end edition with a full feature set. Standard − This has less features than Enterprise, when there is no requirement of advanced features. Workgroup − This is suitable for remote offices of a larger company. Web − This is designed for web applications. May 24, 2017 Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016.; 17 minutes to read +12; In this article. APPLIES TO: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Data Warehouse Parallel Data Warehouse This topic provides details of features supported by the SQL Server editions. Nov 11, 2017 Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2017.; 18 minutes to read +15; In this article. APPLIES TO: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Data Warehouse Parallel Data Warehouse This topic provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2017.
- Microsoft Sql Server 2008 Editions Comparison
- Ms Sql Server Editions Compare
- Ms Sql Edition Comparison
What are the differences among SQL Server editions? Search Knowledgebase. Microsoft offers various editions of SQL Server offering different functionalities to users based upon their needs. SQL Server 2008 Features Comparison; SQL Server 2008 R2 Features Comparison; For product compatibility. Mar 06, 2017 Microsoft SQL server is widely used for e-commerce, line-of-business, and data warehousing solutions. There are dozens of different editions or versions of Microsoft SQL server provided by Microsoft with different feature sets and pricing options. May 16, 2017 It seems as though the only difference between Enterprise and Standard pertains to the following: Performance Features, namely Standard having three of the eleven performance features. Security Features, namely transparent encryption and auditing. Replication, namely change tracking, merge. It is more than that - There is a breakdown here.
-->This topic provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2017.
For information about older versions, see:
- SQL Server 2016.
- SQL Server 2014.
Installation requirements vary based on your application needs. The different editions of SQL Server accommodate the unique performance, runtime, and price requirements of organizations and individuals. The SQL Server components that you install also depend on your specific requirements. The following sections help you understand how to make the best choice among the editions and components available in SQL Server.
The SQL Server Evaluation edition is available for a 180-day trial period.
For the latest release notes and what's new information, see the following:
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Download SQL Server 2017 from the Evaluation Center
SQL Server editions
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
| SQL Server edition | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enterprise | The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance, unlimited virtualization1 , and end-to-end business intelligence - enabling high service levels for mission-critical workloads and end user access to data insights. |
| Standard | SQL Server Standard edition delivers basic data management and business intelligence database for departments and small organizations to run their applications and supports common development tools for on-premises and cloud - enabling effective database management with minimal IT resources. |
| Web | SQL Server Web edition is a low total-cost-of-ownership option for Web hosters and Web VAPs to provide scalability, affordability, and manageability capabilities for small to large scale Web properties. |
| Developer | SQL Server Developer edition lets developers build any kind of application on top of SQL Server. It includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. SQL Server Developer is an ideal choice for people who build and test applications. |
| Express editions | Express edition is the entry-level, free database and is ideal for learning and building desktop and small server, which provides an integrated environment for database developers to carry out all their database design work for any SQL Server platform (both on and off premise) within Visual Studio. Database developers can use the enhanced Server Explorer in Visual Studio to easily create or edit database objects and data, or execute queries. |
| Connectivity Components | Installs components for communication between clients and servers, and network libraries for DB-Library, ODBC, and OLE DB. |
| Documentation | Description |
|---|---|
| SQL Server Books Online | Core documentation for SQL Server. |
Developer and Evaluation Editions
For features supported by Developer and Evaluation editions, see features listed for the SQL Server Enterprise Edition in the tables below.
The Developer edition continues to support only 1 client for SQL Server Distributed Replay.
Scale limits
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine1 | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - Analysis Services or Reporting Services | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
| Maximum memory for buffer pool per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Operating System Maximum | 128 GB | 64 GB | 1410 MB | 1410 MB |
| Maximum memory for Columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 16 GB | 352 MB | 352 MB |
| Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 16 GB | 352 MB | 352 MB |
| Maximum memory utilized per instance of Analysis Services | Operating System Maximum | Tabular: 16 GB MOLAP: 64 GB | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Maximum memory utilized per instance of Reporting Services | Operating System Maximum | 64 GB | 64 GB | 4 GB | N/A |
| Maximum relational database size | 524 PB | 524 PB | 524 PB | 10 GB | 10 GB |
1 Enterprise Edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing (not available for new agreements) is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. There are no limits under the Core-based Server Licensing model. For more information, see Compute Capacity Limits by Edition of SQL Server.
RDBMS high availability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Server core support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Log shipping | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Database mirroring | Yes | Yes Full safety only | Witness only | Witness only | Witness only | |
| Backup compression | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Database snapshot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Always On failover cluster instances2 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Always On availability groups3 | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Basic availability groups 4 | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Online page and file restore | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Online index create and rebuild | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Resumable online index rebuilds | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Online schema change | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Fast recovery | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Mirrored backups | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Hot add memory and CPU | Yes | No | No | No | No | |
| Database recovery advisor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Encrypted backup | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Hybrid backup to Azure (backup to URL) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Read-scale availability group | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Minimum replica commit availability group | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 For more information on installing SQL Server on Server Core, see Install SQL Server on Server Core.
2 On Enterprise Edition, the number of nodes is the operating system maximum. On Standard edition there is support for two nodes.
3 On Enterprise Edition, provides support for up to 8 secondary replicas - including 2 synchronous secondary replicas.
4 Standard Edition supports basic availability groups. A basic availability group supports two replicas, with one database. For more information about basic availability groups, see Basic Availability Groups.
RDBMS scalability and performance
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columnstore 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Large object binaries in clustered columnstore indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online nonclustered columnstore index rebuild | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| In-Memory OLTP 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, 2 | Yes |
| Stretch Database | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Persistent Main Memory | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-instance support | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Table and index partitioning | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data compression | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Resource Governor | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Partitioned Table Parallelism | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Multiple Filestream containers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NUMA Aware Large Page Memory and Buffer Array Allocation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Buffer Pool Extension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| I/O Resource Governance | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Read-Ahead | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Advanced Scanning | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Delayed Durability | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic Tuning | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Batch Mode Adaptive Joins | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Batch Mode Memory Grant Feedback | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Interleaved Execution for Multi-Statement Table Valued Functions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk insert improvements | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 In-Memory OLTP data size and Columnstore segment cache are limited to the amount of memory specified by edition in the Scale Limits section. The max degrees of parallelism is limited. The degrees of process parallelism (DOP) for an index build is limited to 2 DOP for the Standard Edition and 1 DOP for the Web and Express Editions. This refers to columnstore indexes created over disk-based tables and memory-optimized tables.
2 This feature is not included in the LocalDB installation option.
RDBMS security
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express | Express with Advanced Services |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row-level security | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always Encrypted | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic data masking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fine grained auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent database encryption | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Extensible key management | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Replication
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heterogeneous subscribers | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Merge replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
| Oracle publishing | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Peer to peer transactional replication | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Snapshot replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
| SQL Server change tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transactional replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
| Transactional replication to Azure | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Transactional replication updateable subscription | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Management tools
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Management Objects (SMO) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Configuration Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL CMD (Command Prompt tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Distributed Replay - Admin Tool | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Distribute Replay - Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Distributed Replay - Controller | Yes (Up to 16 clients) | Yes (1 client) | Yes (1 client) | No | No |
| SQL Profiler | Yes | Yes | No 1 | No 1 | No 1 |
| SQL Server Agent | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Database Tuning Advisor (DTA) | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | No | No |
1 SQL Server Web, SQL Server Express, SQL Server Express with Tools, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services can be profiled using SQL Server Standard and SQL Server Enterprise editions.
2 Tuning enabled only on Standard edition features
RDBMS manageability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User instances | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| LocalDB | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Dedicated admin connection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes with trace flag | Yes with trace flag |
| SysPrep support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PowerShell scripting support2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support for data-tier application component operations - extract, deploy, upgrade, delete | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Policy automation (check on schedule and change) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Performance data collector | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Able to enroll as a managed instance in multi-instance management | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Standard performance reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Direct query of indexed views (using NOEXPAND hint) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic indexed views maintenance | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Distributed partitioned views | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Parallel indexed operations | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Parallel consistency check | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| SQL Server Utility Control Point | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Buffer pool extension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 For more information, see Considerations for Installing SQL Server Using SysPrep.
2 On Linux, PowerShell scripts are supported, from Windows computers targeting SQL Servers on Linux.
Development tools
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Visual Studio integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intellisense (Transact-SQL and MDX) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MDX edit, debug, and design tools | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Programmability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic R integration 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Advanced R integration 2 | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Basic Python integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Advanced Python integration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Machine Learning Server (Standalone) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| PolyBase compute node | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| PolyBase head node | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| JSON | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Temporal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native XML support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MERGE & UPSERT capabilities | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FILESTREAM support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FileTable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Date and Time datatypes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Internationalization support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full-text and semantic search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Specification of language in query | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Service Broker (messaging) | Yes | Yes | No (Client only) | No (Client only) | No (Client only) |
| Transact-SQL endpoints | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Graph | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Basic integration is limited to 2 cores and in-memory data sets.
2 Advanced integration can use all available cores for parallel processing of data sets at any size subject to hardware limits.
3 Scale out with multiple compute nodes requires a head node.
Integration Services
For info about SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Integration Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Master Data Services
For information about the Master Data Services and Data Quality Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Master Data Services and Data Quality Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Data warehouse
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create cubes without a database | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Auto-generate staging and data warehouse schema | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Change data capture | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Star join query optimizations | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Scalable read-only Analysis Services configuration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Parallel query processing on partitioned tables and indexes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Global batch aggregation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Analysis Services
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
BI semantic model (Multi Dimensional)
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
BI semantic model (Tabular)
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Power Pivot for SharePoint
For information about the Power Pivot for SharePoint features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Microsoft Sql Server 2008 Editions Comparison
Data mining
For information about the Data Mining features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Reporting Services
For information about the Reporting Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Reporting Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Business intelligence clients
For information about the Business Intelligence Client features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server or Reporting Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Spatial and location services
| Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Planar and geodetic datatypes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced spatial libraries | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Additional database services
| Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server Migration Assistant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Other components
| Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StreamInsight | StreamInsight Premium Edition | StreamInsight Standard Edition | StreamInsight Standard Edition | No | No |
| StreamInsight HA | StreamInsight Premium Edition | No | No | No | No |
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