Which version of SharePoint 2016 is right for you?

Michael Downing
By | Updated December 19, 2017 | 6 min read
SharePoint 2016

With Microsoft’s introduction of SharePoint 2016, there is no longer a foundation (free version) variant available. Currently, there are two options; Standard and Enterprise.

 

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With that said, we understand that deciding on which version is best for you could potentially be an overwhelming task, so we’ve gone ahead and collected information from Microsoft to compare the feature sets that are available in both environments on SharePoint 2016.

We always like to recommend customers to keep in mind the scalability of their environment, in which, BrightWork will be housed on.

Here is a summary of the available feature sets available in SharePoint 2016 Standard and Enterprise:

IT Professional features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Active Directory Synchronization Yes Yes
Alternate Access Mapping (AAM) Yes Yes
Analytics Platform Yes Yes
Anti-malware protection No No
Claims-Based Authentication Support Yes Yes
Configuration Wizards Yes Yes
Deferred Site Collection upgrade Yes Yes
Distributed Cache Yes Yes
Data loss prevention No Yes
Encryption at rest No No
Host Header Site Collections Yes Yes
Improved Permissions Management Yes Yes
Improved Self-Service Site Creation Yes Yes
Managed Accounts Yes Yes
Minimal Download Strategy (MDS) Yes Yes
OAuth Yes Yes
Patch Management Yes Yes
Quota Templates Yes Yes
Read-Only Database Support Yes Yes
Remote BLOB Storage Yes Yes
Request Management Yes Yes
Request throttling Yes Yes
Resource throttling Yes Yes
Service Application Platform Yes Yes
SharePoint Health Analyzer Yes Yes
SharePoint admin center No No
Shredded Storage Yes Yes
Site Collection Compliance Policies Yes Yes
Site Collection Health Checks Yes Yes
State Service Yes Yes
Streamlined Central Administration Yes Yes
System Status Notifications Yes Yes
Unattached Content Database Recovery Yes Yes
Upgrade evaluation site collections Yes Yes
Usage Reporting and Logging Yes Yes
Windows PowerShell Support Yes Yes
Content features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Accessibility Standards Support Yes Yes
Asset Library Enhancements/Video Support Yes Yes
Auditing Yes Yes
Auditing & Reporting (e.g. doc edits, policy edits, deletes) Yes Yes
Content Organizer Yes Yes
Design Manager Yes Yes
Document Sets Yes Yes
Document Translation in Word Online Yes Yes
eDiscovery Search Yes Yes
eDiscovery Hold No Yes
eDiscovery Export No Yes
Email enabled lists and libraries Yes Yes
External Sharing: External Access No No
External Sharing: Guest Link No No
Folder Sync Yes Yes
IRM using Azure Rights Management Yes Yes
IRM using Windows Server AD RMS Yes Yes
Managed Metadata Service Yes Yes
Metadata-driven Navigation Yes Yes
Multi-stage Disposition Yes Yes
Office Online (edit) Yes Yes
Office Online (view) Yes Yes
Office Web Apps Server integration Yes Yes
PowerPoint Automation Services Yes Yes
Preservation hold library No Yes
Quick Edit Yes Yes
Records management Yes Yes
Recycle Bin (SharePoint admin center) No No
Recycle Bin (site collection) Yes Yes
Related Items Yes Yes
Rich Media Management Yes Yes
Shared Content Types Yes Yes
SharePoint Translation Services Yes Yes
Site mailbox Yes Yes
Surveys Yes Yes
Unique Document IDs Yes Yes
Video Search No Yes
WCM: Analytics Yes Yes
WCM: Catalog No Yes
WCM: Category page and catalog item page
WCM: Search web parts No Yes
WCM: Cross-Site Publishing No Yes
WCM: Designer Tools Yes Yes
WCM: Faceted navigation No Yes
WCM: Image Renditions Yes Yes
WCM: Managed navigation Yes Yes
WCM: Mobile and Device Rendering Yes Yes
WCM: Multiple Domains Yes Yes
WCM: Recommendations Yes Yes
WCM: Search Engine Optimizations (SEO) Yes Yes
Word Automation Services Yes Yes
Insights features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Business Intelligence Center No Yes
Data Connection Library No Yes
Excel Services No Yes
Excel WebPart for SharePoint No Yes
ODC file support No Yes
PerformancePoint Services No Yes
PerformancePoint Services (PPS) Dashboard Migration No Yes
Power View for Excel in SharePoint No Yes
PowerPivot for Excel in SharePoint No Yes
Scorecards & Dashboards No Yes
Scheduled data refresh No Yes
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Integrated Mode Yes Yes
User-defined function assemblies No Yes
Using another workbook’s model as a data source No Yes
Visio Services No Yes
Search features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Advanced Content Processing Yes Yes
Continuous crawls Yes Yes
Custom entity extraction No Yes
Deep links Yes Yes
Event-based relevancy Yes Yes
Expertise Search Yes Yes
Extensible content processing No Yes
Graphical refiners Yes Yes
Hybrid search Yes Yes
Manage search schema Yes Yes
On-premises search index Yes Yes
Phonetic name matching Yes Yes
Query rules—Add promoted results Yes Yes
Query rules—advanced actions No Yes
Query spelling correction Yes Yes
Query suggestions Yes Yes
Query throttling Yes Yes
Quick preview Yes Yes
Ranking models Yes Yes
Refiners Yes Yes
RESTful Query API/Query OM Yes Yes
Result sources Yes Yes
Search connector framework Yes Yes
Search results sorting Yes Yes
Search vertical: “Conversations” Yes Yes
Search vertical: “People” Yes Yes
Search vertical: “Video” No Yes
“This List” searches Yes Yes
Sites features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Change the look Yes Yes
Connections to Microsoft Office Clients Yes Yes
Cross Browser Support Yes Yes
Custom Managed Paths Yes Yes
Governance Yes Yes
Large List Scalability and Management Yes Yes
Mobile Connectivity Yes Yes
Multi-Lingual User Interface Yes Yes
My Tasks Yes Yes
OOTB Web Parts Yes Yes
Permissions Management Yes Yes
Project functionality for team sites Yes Yes
Project site template Yes Yes
Project Summary web part No Yes
Project workspace Yes Yes
SharePoint Lists Yes Yes
SharePoint Ribbon Yes Yes
Site folders Yes Yes
Task list Yes Yes
Team Site: Drag & Drop Yes Yes
Team Site: Notebook Yes Yes
Team Site: Simplified Access Yes Yes
Templates Yes Yes
Themes Yes Yes
Variations Yes Yes
Usage Analytics No Yes
Work Management Service Yes Yes
Social features SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Ask Me About Yes Yes
Blogs Yes Yes
Communities Reputation, Badging, and Moderation Yes Yes
Community Yes Yes
Company Feed Yes Yes
Document Conversations with Yammer No No
Follow Yes Yes
Microblogging Yes Yes
Newsfeed Yes Yes
One Click Sharing Yes Yes
People, Sites, Document Recommendations Yes Yes
Personal Site Yes Yes
Photos and Presence Yes Yes
Profile Yes Yes
Ratings Yes Yes
Shared with Me No No
Site Feed Yes Yes
OneDrive for Business Yes Yes
Tag profiles Yes Yes
Tasks integrated with Outlook Yes Yes
Trending Tags Yes Yes
Wikis Yes Yes
Add-Ons SharePoint Server 2016 Standard CAL SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise CAL
Additional Storage Yes Yes
Azure Provisioned Apps: Access Services No No
Azure Provisioned Apps: Custom Code in Azure LWR No No
Duet Online No No
     

 

In addition to the above, you may also like to visit Microsoft’s summary of SharePoint 2016 on-premises feature availability here.

Michael Downing
Michael Downing

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