Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2016
Applies to: 
SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later versions
This article provides details of features supported by the SQL Server editions.
For information about other versions, see:
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:
- SQL Server 2017 release notes
- SQL Server 2016 release notes
- What's new in SQL Server 2017
- What's new in SQL Server 2016
Try SQL Server
Download SQL Server 2016 from the Evaluation Center
Spin up a Virtual Machine with SQL Server 2016 already installed
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.
Use SQL Server with an Internet server
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. Download and install Management Studio from Download SQL Server Management Studio |
| SQL Server Configuration Manager | 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.
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 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 |
No | No | No | No |
| Basic availability groups 2 | No | 2 nodes | No | No | No |
| Online page and file restore | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Online indexing | 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 |
1 For more information on installing SQL Server on Server Core, see Install SQL Server on Server Core.
2 For more information about Basic availability groups, see Basic Availability Groups.
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) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 |
1 For more information, see Considerations for Installing SQL Server Using SysPrep.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
3 With trace flag.
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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Advanced R integration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| R Server (Standalone) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| PolyBase compute node | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1, 2 | Yes 1, 2 | Yes 1, 2 |
| 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 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 |
| 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 |
1 Scale out with multiple compute nodes requires a head node.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
3 Client only.
Integration Services
For info about the 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 |
| Autogenerate staging and data warehouse schema | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Change data capture | Yes | Yes 1 | 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 |
1 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
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 (multidimensional)
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.
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 | 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 | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services |
Express |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server Migration Assistant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Download the latest version of SQL Server Management Studio