Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022
Applies to: 
SQL Server 2022 (16.x)
This article provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2022 (16.x).
For information about other versions, see:
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2017
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016
For information about Azure SQL, see Features comparison: Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance.
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.
For the latest release notes and what's new information, see the following articles:
Try SQL Server! Download SQL Server 2022 from the Evaluation Center.
Note
Microsoft Entra ID was previously known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
SQL Server editions
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. Enterprise edition is available for evaluation. An evaluation deployment is available for 180 days. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents. |
| 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 (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. |
1 Unlimited virtualization is available on Enterprise edition for customers with Software Assurance. Deployments must comply with the licensing guide. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents.
Choose SQL Server features
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 features
| Feature | 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 heterogeneous data sources, and Machine Learning Services to run Python and R scripts with relational data. |
| 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. |
| Machine Learning Services (In-Database) | Machine Learning Services (In-Database) supports distributed, scalable machine learning solutions using enterprise data sources. In SQL Server 2016, the R language was supported. SQL Server 2022 (16.x) supports R and Python. |
| Data Virtualization with PolyBase | Query different types of data on different types of data sources from SQL Server. |
| Azure connected services | SQL Server 2022 (16.x) extends Azure connected services and features including Azure Synapse Link, Microsoft Purview access policies, Azure extension for SQL Server, pay-as-you-go billing, and the link feature for SQL Managed Instance. |
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, which is deprecated in SQL Server 2022 (16.x).
Scale limits
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 1,410 MB | 1,410 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 | 16 GB 2 64 GB 3 |
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 Tabular
3 MOLAP
Azure connected services
SQL Server 2022 includes features for connecting to Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Microsoft Purview.
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Azure extension for SQL Server | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Azure Synapse Link 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Link feature for SQL Managed Instance 1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Failover servers for disaster recovery in Azure | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Microsoft Entra integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Purview access policies 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 |
| Pay-as-you-go billing | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 These features are governed by their respective Lifecycle Policies.
2 Configure in Azure portal.
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 7 | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
| Backup compression | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Database snapshot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always On failover cluster instances 4 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Always On availability groups 5 | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Basic availability groups 6 | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Contained availability groups | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Distributed availability groups | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Automatic read write connection rerouting | Yes | No | 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 |
| Resumable online ADD CONSTRAINT | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Online schema change | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Fast recovery | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Accelerated database recovery | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 |
| Backup and restore to S3-compatible object storage over REST API | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Snapshot backup | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cluster-less availability group 5,6 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Failover servers for disaster recovery | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Failover servers for high availability | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 For more information on installing SQL Server on Server Core, see Install SQL Server on Server Core.
2 Full safety only
3 Witness only
4 On Enterprise edition, the maximum number of nodes is 16. On Standard edition, there's support for two nodes.
5 On Enterprise edition, provides support for up to 8 secondary replicas, including 5 synchronous secondary replicas.
6 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 Always On availability groups for a single database.
7 Database mirroring is a deprecated feature.
RDBMS scalability and performance
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columnstore 1, 2 | 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 Database: In-Memory OLTP 1, 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes |
| In-Memory Database: hybrid buffer pool | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: hybrid buffer pool support for direct write | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: Memory-optimized TempDB metadata | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: persistent memory support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Stretch Database 4 | 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 and large page memory and buffer array allocation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Buffer pool extension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Buffer pool parallel scan | 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 |
| Intelligent Database: approximate count distinct | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: approximate percentile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: automatic tuning | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: batch mode for row store 1 | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: cardinality estimate feedback | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: degree of parallelism feedback | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: memory grant feedback persistence and percentile | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: optimized plan forcing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: parameter sensitive plan optimization | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: row mode memory grant feedback | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: table variable deferred compilation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: scalar UDF inlining | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intelligent Database: Batch mode adaptive joins | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: Batch mode memory grant feedback | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Intelligent Database: Interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bulk insert improvements | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) 512 integration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Integrated acceleration and offloading (hardware) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Integrated acceleration and offloading (software) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| System page latch concurrency enhancements | 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 degree of parallelism (DOP) for batch mode operations is limited to 2 for SQL Server Standard edition and 1 for SQL Server Web and Express editions. This refers to columnstore indexes created over disk-based tables and memory-optimized tables.
2 Aggregate Pushdown, String Predicate Pushdown, and SIMD Optimizations are SQL Server Enterprise edition scalability enhancements. For more detail, see What's new in columnstore indexes.
3 This feature isn't included in the LocalDB installation option.
4 Stretch Database is a deprecated feature.
RDBMS security
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always Encrypted | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always Encrypted with secure enclaves | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database audit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data classification and auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic data masking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Extensible key management (EKM) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Ledger for SQL Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Entra authentication 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Row-level security | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server audit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent data encryption (TDE) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Requires SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.
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 |
| Peer to peer - last write wins - 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 Assessment API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Vulnerability Assessment | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Configuration Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQLCMD (Command Prompt tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 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.
Note
Distributed Replay has been deprecated in SQL Server 2022 (16.x).
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 1 | Yes 1 |
| SysPrep support 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PowerShell scripting support 3 | 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 |
| Direct query SQL Server Analysis Services | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Automatic indexed views maintenance | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Distributed partitioned views | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Parallel index 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 |
| Master instance for big data cluster | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Compatibility certification | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 With trace flag
2 For more information, see Considerations for installing SQL Server using SysPrep.
3 On Linux, PowerShell scripts are supported, from Windows computers targeting SQL Server 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 |
| Data Virtualization with PolyBase | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| JSON | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store: on by default for new databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store: hint support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store: read-replica support | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Temporal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Java Language Runtime Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native XML support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML compression | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MERGE and 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 |
| Time series support | 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 3 | No 3 | No 3 |
| Transact-SQL endpoints | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Graph | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UTF-8 support | 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 Client only.
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 Support.
Data warehouse
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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.
Reporting Services
For information about the Reporting Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see SQL Server Reporting Services features supported by editions.
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 SQL Server Reporting Services features supported by editions.
Spatial and location services
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Planar and geodetic data types | 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 | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server Migration Assistant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Related content
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