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Applies to: 
SQL Server 2025 (17.x)
This article provides details of features supported by the various editions of SQL Server 2025 (17.x).
For information about other versions, see:
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019
- Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2017
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 2025 from the Evaluation Center.
SQL Server editions
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
| Edition | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enterprise 1 | The premier offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition is built for organizations demanding uncompromising performance, security, and scalability. This edition is both an AI-powered database and a mission-critical engine designed to power the most complex workloads across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. |
| Standard | SQL Server Standard edition delivers a balance of performance, security, and affordability for businesses that need enterprise-class capabilities without the complexity. This edition empowers growing businesses with enterprise-grade performance, modern AI capabilities, and hybrid flexibility. |
| Enterprise Developer | SQL Server Enterprise 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. Developer editions are an ideal choice for people who build and test applications. |
| Standard Developer | Similar to Enterprise Developer edition, SQL Server Standard Developer edition includes all the functionality of Standard edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. |
| Evaluation | SQL Server Evaluation edition includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition. An evaluation deployment is available for 180 days. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents. |
| Express 2 | SQL Server Express edition is the entry-level, free database, ideal for learning and building desktop and small server data-driven applications. This unified edition includes SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), machine learning integration, and Full Text Search. It's 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 editions of SQL Server. SQL Server Express LocalDB is a lightweight version of Express edition that has all its programmability features, runs in user mode and has a fast, zero-configuration installation and a short list of prerequisites. |
1 Enterprise edition offers unlimited virtualization for customers with Software Assurance. Deployments must comply with the licensing guide. For more information, see SQL Server Licensing Resources and Documents.
2 Starting with SQL Server 2025 (17.x), Express edition includes all the functionality that was available in SQL Server Express edition with Advanced Services.
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, XML, and JSON data, in database analytics integration, and Machine Learning Services to run Python and R scripts with relational data. |
| Data virtualization with PolyBase | Query storage-based data sources (for example, Azure Storage and S3), and ODBC data sources from SQL Server. |
| Analysis Services | Analysis Services includes the tools for creating and managing online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining applications. |
| Integration Services | Integration Services is a set of graphical tools and programmable objects for moving, copying, and transforming data. |
Enterprise Developer, Standard Developer, and Evaluation editions
For features supported by Enterprise Developer and Evaluation editions, see features listed for Enterprise edition in the following table. For features supported by Standard Developer edition, see the features listed for Standard edition.
Scale limits
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine 1 | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores 2 | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
| Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - Analysis Services | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores 3 | N/A |
| Maximum memory for buffer pool per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Operating system maximum | 256 GB | 1,410 MB |
| Maximum memory for columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 352 MB |
| Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB | 352 MB |
| Maximum memory utilized per instance of Analysis Services | Operating system maximum | 16 GB 4 64 GB 5 |
N/A |
| Maximum relational database size | 524 PB | 524 PB | 50 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 In SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and earlier versions, the limit is the lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores.
3 Analysis Services limits compute capacity to 16 physical cores. With simultaneous multithreading (SMT) enabled, this limit is doubled.
4 Tabular.
5 MOLAP.
Azure connected services
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure extension for SQL Server | Yes | Yes | No |
| Link feature for SQL Managed Instance 1 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Failover servers for disaster recovery in Azure | Yes | Yes | No |
| Microsoft Entra integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pay-as-you-go billing | Yes | Yes | No |
1 These features are governed by their respective Lifecycle Policies.
High availability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server core support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Log shipping | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database mirroring 2 | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes 4 |
| Backup compression | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database snapshot | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always On failover cluster instances 5 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Always On availability groups 6 | Yes | No | No |
| Basic availability groups 7 | No | Yes | No |
| Contained availability groups | Yes | No | No |
| Distributed availability groups | Yes | No | No |
| Automatic read write connection rerouting | Yes | No | No |
| Online page and file restore | Yes | No | No |
| Online index create and rebuild | Yes | No | No |
| Resumable online index create and rebuild | Yes | No | No |
Resumable online ADD CONSTRAINT |
Yes | No | No |
| Online schema change | Yes | No | No |
| Fast recovery | Yes | No | No |
| Accelerated database recovery (ADR) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mirrored backups | Yes | No | No |
| Hot add memory | Yes | No | No |
| Database recovery advisor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encrypted backup | Yes | Yes | No |
| Backup and restore to S3-compatible object storage over REST API | Yes | Yes | No |
| Snapshot backup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Clusterless availability group 6, 7 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Failover servers for disaster recovery | Yes | Yes | No |
| Failover servers for high availability | Yes | Yes | No |
1 For more information on installing SQL Server on Server Core, see Install SQL Server on Server Core.
2 Database mirroring is a deprecated feature.
3 Full safety only.
4 Witness only.
5 On Enterprise edition, the maximum number of nodes is 16. On Standard edition, there's support for two nodes.
6 On Enterprise edition, provides support for up to 8 secondary replicas, including 5 synchronous secondary replicas.
7 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.
Scalability and performance
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columnstore 1, 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Large object binaries in clustered columnstore indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Online nonclustered columnstore index rebuild | Yes | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: In-Memory OLTP 1, 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes 3 |
| In-Memory Database: hybrid buffer pool | Yes | Yes | No |
| In-Memory Database: hybrid buffer pool support for direct write | Yes | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: Memory-optimized TempDB metadata | Yes | No | No |
| In-Memory Database: persistent memory support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-instance support | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Table and index partitioning 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data compression 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Resource governor | Yes | Yes | No |
| Partitioned table parallelism 2 | Yes | Yes | No |
| Multiple filestream containers 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NUMA aware large page memory and buffer array allocation | Yes | No | No |
| Buffer pool extension | Yes | Yes | No |
| Buffer pool parallel scan | Yes | Yes | No |
| Read-ahead | Yes | No | No |
| Advanced scanning | Yes | No | No |
| Delayed durability | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support for Advanced Vector Extension (AVX) 512 4 | Yes | No | No |
| Integrated acceleration and offloading (hardware) | Yes | No | No |
| Integrated acceleration and offloading (software) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Optimized locking | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tempdb space resource governance | Yes | Yes | No |
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 Express edition.
2 Aggregate pushdown, string predicate pushdown, and SIMD optimizations are SQL Server Enterprise edition scalability enhancements. For more information, see What's new in columnstore indexes.
3 This feature isn't included in the LocalDB installation option.
4 With trace flag.
Intelligent query processing
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approximate count distinct | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Approximate percentile | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic tuning | Yes | No | No |
| Batch mode on row store 1 | Yes | No | No |
| Batch mode adaptive joins | Yes | No | No |
| Batch mode memory grant feedback | Yes | No | No |
| Cardinality estimate feedback | Yes | No | No |
| Cardinality estimation feedback for expressions | Yes | No | No |
| Degree of parallelism feedback | Yes | No | No |
| Interleaved execution for multi-statement table valued functions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Memory grant feedback persistence and percentile | Yes | No | No |
| Optimized plan forcing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Optional parameter plan optimization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Optimized sp_executesql |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Parameter sensitive plan optimization | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Row mode memory grant feedback | Yes | No | No |
| Scalar UDF inlining | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Table variable deferred compilation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Batch mode on rowstore only supports disk-based heaps and B+ tree indexes. It doesn't support In-Memory OLTP tables, XML columns, or sparse column sets. The degree of parallelism (DOP) for batch mode operations is limited to 2 for SQL Server Standard edition, and 1 for SQL Server Express edition.
Security
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Always Encrypted | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Always Encrypted with secure enclaves | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Database audit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data classification and auditing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dynamic data masking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | No |
| Extensible Key Management (EKM) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Ledger for SQL Server | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Entra authentication 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Row-level security | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server audit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent data encryption (TDE) | Yes | Yes | No |
| User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Requires SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc or running on an Azure Virtual Machine.
Manageability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| User instances | No | No | Yes |
| LocalDB | No | No | Yes |
| Dedicated admin connection | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 |
| Create new endpoints | Yes | Yes | No |
| SysPrep support 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PowerShell scripting support 3 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support for data-tier application component operations (extract, deploy, upgrade, delete) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Policy automation (check on schedule and change) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Performance data collector | Yes | Yes | No |
| Able to enroll as a managed instance in multi-instance management | Yes | Yes | No |
| Standard performance reports | Yes | Yes | No |
| Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides | Yes | Yes | No |
| Support for creating indexed views | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support for querying indexed views | Yes | Yes 4 | Yes 4 |
| Directly query SQL Server Analysis Services | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Distributed partitioned views | Yes | No | No |
| Parallel index maintenance operations | Yes | No | No |
| Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer | Yes | No | No |
| Parallel consistency check | Yes | No | No |
| Buffer pool extension | Yes | Yes | No |
| Compatibility certification support using database compatibility level | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Optional preview features 5 | 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.
4 Use the NOEXPAND hint to query indexed views on SQL Server Standard and Express editions.
5 For more information, see PREVIEW_FEATURES.
Programmability
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native JSON data type | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| JSON indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native XML support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| XML compression | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MERGE and upsert capabilities |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UTF-8 and UTF-16 support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Graph tables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Temporal tables | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Time series support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Regular expressions support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fuzzy string matching support 4 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full-text and semantic search | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Common language runtime (CLR) integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic R integration 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced R integration 2 | Yes | No | No |
| Basic Python integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Python integration | Yes | No | No |
| Java language runtime integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| .NET Core runtime integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Specification of external language in query | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Distributed queries with linked servers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| External REST endpoint invocation support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store on by default for new databases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store hints | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Query Store on secondary replicas | Yes | No | No |
| FILESTREAM support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FileTable | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Service Broker (messaging and queuing) | Yes | Yes | No 3 |
| Transact-SQL endpoints | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database mail | Yes | Yes | No |
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.
4 Requires PREVIEW_FEATURES database scoped configuration.
AI features
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native vector data type | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DiskANN-based vector indexing 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| External models support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Local ONNX models support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Embedding generation support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chunking support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Requires PREVIEW_FEATURES database scoped configuration.
Spatial and location services
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Planar and geodetic datatypes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced spatial libraries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Replication
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mirroring in Microsoft Fabric | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Heterogeneous subscribers | Yes | Yes | No |
| Merge replication | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 |
| Oracle publishing | Yes | No | No |
| Peer to peer transactional replication | Yes | No | No |
| Peer to peer transactional replication (last write wins) | Yes | No | No |
| Snapshot replication | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 |
| Change tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change data capture | Yes | Yes | No |
| Change event streaming 2 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transactional replication | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 |
| Transactional replication to Azure | Yes | Yes | No |
| Transactional replication updatable subscription | Yes | Yes | No |
1 Subscriber only.
2 Requires PREVIEW_FEATURES database scoped configuration.
Management tools
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Management Objects (SMO) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Assessment API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Vulnerability Assessment | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Server Configuration Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| sqlcmd utility (command line tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Profiler | Yes | Yes | No 1 |
| SQL Server Agent | Yes | Yes | No |
| Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack | Yes | Yes | No |
| Database Tuning Advisor (DTA) | Yes | Yes 2 | No |
1 SQL Server Express edition can be profiled using SQL Server Standard and SQL Server Enterprise editions.
2 Tuning enabled only on Standard edition features.
Development tools
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Visual Studio integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IntelliSense (Transact-SQL and MDX) | Yes | Yes | No |
| SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MDX edit, debug, and design tools | Yes | Yes | No |
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.
Data warehouse
| Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Express |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autogenerate staging and data warehouse schema | Yes | Yes | No |
| Star join query optimizations | Yes | No | No |
| Parallel query processing on partitioned tables and indexes | Yes | No | No |
| Global batch aggregation | Yes | No | No |
Analysis Services
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services features supported by SQL Server edition.
Power BI Report Server
Starting in SQL Server 2025 (17.x), on-premises reporting services is consolidated under Power BI Report Server. For more information, see Reporting Services consolidation FAQ.
Related content
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- Additional SQL Server help and feedback
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