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SQL Server 2016

Build intelligent, mission-critical applications using a scalable, hybrid database platform that has everything built in—from in-memory performance and advanced security to in-database analytics.

Available SQL Server 2016 SP1 editions

Enterprise

Access mission-critical capabilities to achieve unparalleled scale, security, high availability, and leading performance for your Tier 1 database, business intelligence, and advanced analytics workloads.

Download the datasheet

Standard

Find rich programming capabilities, security innovations, and fast performance for mid-tier applications and data marts. Easily upgrade to the Enterprise edition without having to change any code.

Get SQL Server SP1 Standard edition

Express

Build small, data-driven web and mobile applications up to 10 GB in size with this entry-level database. Available for free.

Download SQL Server 2016 SP1 Express

Developer

Build, test, and demonstrate applications in a non-production environment with this full-featured edition of SQL Server 2016 SP1. Available for free when you sign up for Visual Studio Dev Essentials and download.

SQL Server 2016 SP1 edition comparison

Includes consistent programming interface from SQL Server 2016 SP1. View the comprehensive feature comparison of SQL Server 2016 SP1 editions for feature details and limitations.

Features	SQL Server 2016 SP1 Enterprise	SQL Server 2016 SP1 Standard	SQL Server 2016 SP1 Express	SQL Server 2016 SP1 Developer

Features

SQL Server 2016 SP1 Enterprise

SQL Server 2016 SP1 EnterpriseSQL Server 2016 SP1 StandardSQL Server 2016 SP1 ExpressSQL Server 2016 SP1 Developer

Scale

Maximum number of cores	Unlimited	24 cores	4 cores	Unlimited
Memory: Maximum buffer pool size per instance	Operating system max	128 GB	1410 MB	Operating system max
Memory: Maximum Columnstore segment cache per instance	Operating system max	32 GB	352 MB	Operating system max
Memory: Maximum memory-optimized data per database	Operating system max	32 GB	352 MB	Operating system max
Maximum database size	524 PB	524 PB	10 GB	524 PB
Production use rights

Programmability

Programmability and developer tools: T-SQL, SQL CLR, Service Broker, JSON, XML, database snapshot

OLTP performance

Advanced OLTP: in-memory OLTP, operational analytics¹
Manageability: Management Studio, policy-based management
Basic high availability: two-node single database failover, non-readable secondary
Advanced high availability: AlwaysOn availability groups, multi-database failover, readable secondaries
Enterprise data management: Master Data Services, Data Quality Services

Security

Advanced Security: Always Encrypted, row-level security, data masking, fine-grained auditing
Transparent data encryption
Compliance reporting with SQL Server audit

Data integration

Advanced data integration: fuzzy grouping and look ups

Data warehousing

Data marts and data warehousing: partitioning, data compression, change data capture
In-memory columnstore¹
PolyBase²

Business intelligence

Maximum memory utilized per instance of Analysis Services	Operating system max	Tabular: 16 GB MOLAP: 64 GB
Maximum memory utilized per instance of Reporting Services	Operating system max	64 GB	Express with Advanced Services: 4 GB
Basic reporting and analytics
Basic data integration: SQL Server Integration Services, built-in connectors
Basic corporate business intelligence: basic multi-dimensional models, basic tabular model, in-memory storage mode
Mobile reports and KPIs
Advanced corporate business intelligence: advanced multi-dimensional models, advanced tabular model, DirectQuery storage mode, advanced data mining

Advanced analytics

Basic R integration: connectivity to R open, limited parallelism
Advanced R integration: full parallelism ScaleR

Hybrid cloud

Stretch Database

¹In-memory OLTP and in-memory columnstore are limited to the amount of memory specified by edition in the Scale Limits section. Columnstore and Real-time Operational Analytics are also limited to two degrees of parallelism (two cores/query) in SQL Server Standard edition and one degree of parallelism (one core/query) in SQL Server Web and Express editions.

²Scaling out queries using PolyBase requires using SQL Server SP1 Enterprise edition as a head node.