SQL Server editions

The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.

SQL Server
Definition
edition
The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers comprehensive high-end
datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance, unlimited virtualization, and end-to-end
Enterprise
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
Standard
common development tools for on-premise and cloud — enabling effective database
management with minimal IT resources.
SQL Server Web edition is a low total-cost-of-ownership option for Web hosters and Web
Web VAPs to provide scalability, affordability, and manageability capabilities for small to large
scale Web properties.
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
Developer
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 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
Express
database features, SQL Server Express can be seamlessly upgraded to other higher end
editions
versions of SQL Server. SQL Server Express LocalDB, a lightweight version of Express that
has all of its programmability features, yet runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-
configuration installation and a short list of prerequisites.

Using 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.

Using 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.
Deciding 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
Description
components
SQL Server Database Engine includes the Database Engine, the core service for
storing, processing, and securing data, replication, full-text search, tools for managing
SQL Server
relational and XML data, in database analytics integration, and Polybase integration for
Database Engine
access to Hadoop and other heterogeneous data sources, and the Data Quality Services
(DQS) server.
Analysis Services includes the tools for creating and managing online analytical
Analysis Services
processing (OLAP) and data mining applications.
Reporting Services includes server and client components for creating, managing, and
Reporting Services 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 is a set of graphical tools and programmable objects for moving,
Integration
copying, and transforming data. It also includes the Data Quality Services (DQS)
Services
component for Integration Services.
Master Data Services (MDS) is the SQL Server solution for master data management.
Master Data MDS can be configured to manage any domain (products, customers, accounts) and
Services 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 Machine Learning Services (In-Database) supports distributed, scalable machine
Services (In- learning solutions using enterprise data sources. In SQL Server 2016, the R language
Database) was supported. SQL Server 2017 supports R and Python.
Machine Learning Server (Standalone) supports deployment of distributed, scalable
Machine Learning
machine learning solutions on multiple platforms and using multiple enterprise data
Server
sources, including Linux, Hadoop, and Teradata. In SQL Server 2016, the R language
(Standalone)
was supported. SQL Server 2017 supports R and Python.
Management
Description
tools
SQL Server Management Studio is an integrated environment to access, configure,
manage, administer, and develop components of SQL Server. Management Studio lets
SQL Server
developers and administrators of all skill levels use SQL Server.
Management
Studio
Download and install
Management Studio from Download SQL Server Management Studio
SQL Server
SQL Server Configuration Manager provides basic configuration management for SQL
Configuration
Server services, server protocols, client protocols, and client aliases.
Manager
SQL Server SQL Server Profiler provides a graphical user interface to monitor an instance of the
Profiler Database Engine or Analysis Services.
Database Engine Database Engine Tuning Advisor helps create optimal sets of indexes, indexed views,
Tuning Advisor and partitions.
Provides a highly simple and intuitive graphical user interface to connect to the DQS
Data Quality
server, and perform data cleansing operations. It also allows you to centrally monitor
Client
various activities performed during the data cleansing operation.
 Management
Description
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
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 Installs components for communication between clients and servers, and network
Components 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
Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Advanced Express
Services
Maximum compute capacity Limited to Limited to Limited to Limited to
Operating
used by a single instance - lesser of 4 lesser of 4 lesser of 1 lesser of 1
system
SQL Server Database sockets or 24 sockets or 16 socket or 4 socket or 4
maximum
Engine1 cores cores cores cores
Maximum compute capacity Limited to Limited to Limited to Limited to
Operating
used by a single instance - lesser of 4 lesser of 4 lesser of 1 lesser of 1
system
Analysis Services or sockets or 24 sockets or 16 socket or 4 socket or 4
maximum
Reporting Services cores cores cores cores
Maximum memory for
Operating
buffer pool per instance of
System 128 GB 64 GB 1410 MB 1410 MB
SQL Server Database
Maximum
Engine
Maximum memory for
Columnstore segment cache Unlimited
32 GB 16 GB 352 MB 352 MB
per instance of SQL Server memory
Database Engine
Maximum memory-
optimized data size per Unlimited
32 GB 16 GB 352 MB 352 MB
database in SQL Server memory
Database Engine
Maximum memory utilized Operating
Tabular: 16 GB
per instance of Analysis System N/A N/A N/A
Services Maximum
 Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Advanced Express
Services
MOLAP: 64
GB
Maximum memory utilized Operating
per instance of Reporting System 64 GB 64 GB 4 GB N/A
Services Maximum
Maximum relational
524 PB 524 PB 524 PB 10 GB 10 GB
database size

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

Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
Server core support 1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Log shipping Yes Yes Yes No No
Yes
Witness Witness
Database mirroring Yes Witness only
Full safety only only
only
Backup compression Yes Yes No No No
Database snapshot Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Always On failover cluster
Yes Yes No No No
instances2
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 indexing 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 Windows Azure
Yes Yes No No No
(backup to URL)
Clusterless availability group Yes Yes No No No
Minimum replica commit
Yes Yes Yes No No
availability group

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

Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
Columnstore 1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Large object binaries in clustered
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
columnstore indexes
Online non-clustered columnstore index
Yes No No No No
rebuild
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 and Large Page Memory and
Yes No No No No
Buffer Array Allocation
Buffer Pool Extension Yes Yes No No No
IO Resource Governance 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
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Table Valued Functions
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
Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
Heterogeneous subscribers Yes Yes No No No
Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber
Merge replication Yes Yes
only) only) only)
Oracle publishing Yes No No No No
Peer to peer transactional
Yes No No No No
replication
Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber
Snapshot replication Yes Yes
only) only) only)
SQL Server change tracking Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber Yes (Subscriber
Transactional replication Yes Yes
only) only) only)
Transactional replication to
Yes Yes No No No
Azure
Transactional replication
Yes No No No No
updateable subscription

Management tools
Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
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
Yes (Up to 16 Yes (1 Yes (1
Distributed Replay - Controller No No
clients) client) client)
SQL Profiler Yes Yes No 1 No 1 No 1
SQL Server Agent Yes Yes Yes No No
Microsoft System Center Operations
Yes Yes Yes No No
Manager Management Pack
 Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
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
Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
User instances No No No Yes Yes
LocalDB No No No Yes No
Yes with
Dedicated admin connection Yes Yes Yes Yes with trace flag
trace flag
SysPrep support 1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PowerShell scripting support2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Support for data-tier application component
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
operations - extract, deploy, upgrade, delete
Policy automation (check on schedule and
Yes Yes Yes No No
change)
Performance data collector Yes Yes Yes No No
Able to enroll as a managed instance in
Yes Yes Yes No No
multi-instance management
Standard performance reports Yes Yes Yes No No
Plan guides and plan freezing for plan
Yes Yes Yes No No
guides
Direct query of indexed views (using
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
NOEXPAND hint)
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
Yes No No No No
optimizer
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
Express with Advanced
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Services
Microsoft Visual Studio integration Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
 Express with Advanced
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Services
Intellisense (Transact-SQL and
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MDX)
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) Yes Yes Yes Yes No
MDX edit, debug, and design tools Yes Yes No No No

Programmability
Express with
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Advanced Services
Basic R integration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Advanced R integration Yes No No No No
Basic Python integration Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Advanced Python integration Yes No No No No
Machine Learning Server
Yes No No No No
(Standalone)
Polybase compute node Yes Yes 1 Yes 1, 2 Yes 1, Yes 1,
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
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
(CLR) Integration
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
No (Client No (Client
Service Broker (messaging) Yes Yes No (Client only)
only) only)
Transact-SQL endpoints Yes Yes Yes No No
Graph Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

1
Scale out with multiple compute nodes requires a head node.

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
Express with Advanced
Feature Enterprise Standard Web Express
Services
Create cubes without a database Yes Yes No No No
Auto-generate staging and data warehouse
Yes Yes No No No
schema
Change data capture Yes Yes No No No
Star join query optimizations Yes No No No No
Scalable read-only Analysis Services
Yes No No No No
configuration
Parallel query processing on partitioned
Yes No No No No
tables and indexes
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.

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

Express with Advanced
Feature Name Enterprise Standard Web Express
Services
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
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
data formats

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
Express with
Feature Name Enterprise Standard Web Advanced Express
Services
StreamInsight StreamInsight StreamInsight
StreamInsight No No
Premium Edition Standard Edition Standard Edition
StreamInsight StreamInsight
No No No No
HA Premium Edition

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Next steps
Product Specifications for SQL Server
Installation for SQL Server