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:
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
Edition
Definition
Enterprise
The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance, unlimited virtualization 1, and end-to-end business intelligence, enabling high service levels for mission-critical workloads and end-user access to data insights.
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 (including choosing Web edition on IaaS on Azure) 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 edition
SQL Server Express edition is the entry-level, free database and is ideal for learning and building desktop and small server data-driven applications. It is the best choice for independent software vendors, developers, and hobbyists building client applications. If you need more advanced database features, SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to other higher end versions of SQL Server. SQL Server Express LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express edition that has all of its programmability features, runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation and a short list of prerequisites.
On an Internet server, such as a server that is running Internet Information Services (IIS), you will typically install the SQL Server client tools. Client tools include the client connectivity components used by an application connecting to an instance of SQL Server.
Note
Although you can install an instance of SQL Server on a computer that is running IIS, this is typically done only for small web sites that have a single server computer. Most Web sites have their middle-tier IIS systems on one server or a cluster of servers, and their databases on a separate server or federation of servers.
SQL Server with client/server applications
You can install just the SQL Server client components on a computer that is running client/server applications that connect directly to an instance of SQL Server. A client components installation is also a good option if you administer an instance of SQL Server on a database server, or if you plan to develop SQL Server applications.
The client tools option installs the following SQL Server features: backward compatibility components, SQL Server Data Tools, connectivity components, management tools, software development kit, and SQL Server Books Online components. For more information, see Install SQL Server.
Decide among SQL Server components
Use the Feature Selection page of the SQL Server Installation Wizard to select the components to include in an installation of SQL Server. By default, none of the features in the tree are selected.
Use the information in the following tables to determine the set of features that best fits your needs.
Server components
Description
SQL Server Database Engine
SQL Server Database Engine includes the Database Engine, the core service for storing, processing, and securing data, replication, full-text search, tools for managing relational and XML data, in database analytics integration, and PolyBase integration for access to Hadoop and other heterogeneous data sources, and the Data Quality Services (DQS) server.
Analysis Services
Analysis Services includes the tools for creating and managing online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining applications.
Reporting Services
Reporting Services includes server and client components for creating, managing, and deploying tabular, matrix, graphical, and free-form reports. Reporting Services is also an extensible platform that you can use to develop report applications.
Integration Services
Integration Services is a set of graphical tools and programmable objects for moving, copying, and transforming data. It also includes the Data Quality Services (DQS) component for Integration Services.
Master Data Services
Master Data Services (MDS) is the SQL Server solution for master data management. MDS can be configured to manage any domain (products, customers, accounts) and includes hierarchies, granular security, transactions, data versioning, and business rules, as well as an Add-in for Excel that can be used to manage data.
R Services (In-Database)
R Services (In-Database) supports distributed, scalable R solutions on multiple platforms and using multiple enterprise data sources, including Linux, Hadoop, and Teradata.
Management tools
Description
SQL Server Management Studio
SQL Server Management Studio is an integrated environment to access, configure, manage, administer, and develop components of SQL Server. Management Studio lets developers and administrators of all skill levels use SQL Server.
SQL Server Configuration Manager provides basic configuration management for SQL Server services, server protocols, client protocols, and client aliases.
SQL Server Profiler
SQL Server Profiler provides a graphical user interface to monitor an instance of the Database Engine or Analysis Services.
Database Engine Tuning Advisor
Database Engine Tuning Advisor helps create optimal sets of indexes, indexed views, and partitions.
Data Quality Client
Provides a highly simple and intuitive graphical user interface to connect to the DQS server, and perform data cleansing operations. It also allows you to centrally monitor various activities performed during the data cleansing operation.
SQL Server Data Tools
SQL Server Data Tools provides an IDE for building solutions for the Business Intelligence components: Analysis Services, Reporting Services, and Integration Services.
(Formerly called Business Intelligence Development Studio). SQL Server Data Tools also includes "Database Projects", 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.
Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine 1
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 capacity for buffer pool extension per instance of SQL Server Database Engine
32 * (max server memory configuration)
4 * (max server memory configuration)
N/A
N/A
N/A
Maximum memory for Columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine
Unlimited memory
32 GB 2
16 GB 2
352 MB 2
352 MB 2
Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine
Unlimited memory
32 GB 2
16 GB 2
352 MB 2
352 MB 2
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.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
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 4
Yes 5
Yes 5
Yes 5
Backup compression
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Database snapshot
Yes
Yes 3
Yes 3
Yes 3
Yes 3
Always On failover cluster instances
16 nodes
2 nodes
No
No
No
Always On availability groups
Yes
Up to 8 secondary replicas, including 2 synchronous secondary replicas
3 Applies to SQL Server 2016 SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
4 Full Safety only.
5 Witness only.
RDBMS scalability and performance
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express with Advanced Services
Express
Columnstore 1, 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
In-Memory OLTP 1, 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes 3
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 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Data compression 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Resource Governor
Yes
No
No
No
No
Partitioned Table Parallelism 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Multiple Filestream containers 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
NUMA Aware Large Page Memory and Buffer Array Allocation
Yes
No 4
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
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 degree of parallelism is limited. The degree 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 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a Common Programmability Surface Area (CPSA) across editions. Aggregate Pushdown, String Predicate Pushdown, and SIMD Optimizations are SQL Server Enterprise Edition scalability enhancements. For more detail, see Columnstore indexes - what's new.
3 This feature isn't included in the LocalDB installation option.
4 Standard Edition and SQL Server + CAL-based licensing can restrict how many processors SQL Server Standard can use, but SQL Server Standard is NUMA aware.
RDBMS security
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express
Express with Advanced Services
Row-level security
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Always Encrypted
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Dynamic data masking
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Server audit
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Database audit
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
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
1 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
Replication
Feature
Enterprise
Standard
Web
Express with Advanced Services
Express
Heterogeneous subscribers
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Merge replication
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Oracle publishing
Yes
No
No
No
No
Peer to peer transactional replication
Yes
No
No
No
No
Snapshot replication
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
SQL Server change tracking
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Transactional replication
Yes
Yes
Yes 1
Yes 1
Yes 1
Transactional replication to Azure
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Transactional replication updatable subscription
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
1 Subscriber only.
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
Up to 16 clients
1 client
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 3
Yes 3
PowerShell scripting support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
SysPrep support 1
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)
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