Pricing and licensing for Windows Server 2016

Performance and scalability

Windows Server 2016 edition
Ideal for
Licensing model
CAL requirements*
Pricing Open NL ERP (US$)***
Datacenter**
Highly virtualized and software-defined datacenter environments
Core-based
Windows Server CAL
$6,155
Standard**
Low density or non-virtualized environments
Core-based
Windows Server CAL
$882
Essentials
Small businesses with up to 25 users and 50 devices
Specialty servers (server license)
No CAL required
$501

*CALs are required for every user or device accessing a server. See the Product Use Rights for details.
**Datacenter and Standard edition pricing is for 16 core licenses.
***Pricing is shown in USD and may vary from country to country. Please contact your Microsoft representative for a quote.

Windows Server 2016 feature differentiation


Feature

Datacenter

Standard
Core functionality of Windows Server  ✔️  ✔️
OSEs / Windows Server containers with Hyper-V isolation Unlimited 2
Windows Server containers without Hyper-V isolation Unlimited Unlimited
Host Guardian Service  ✔️ ✔️
Storage features including Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica  ✔️  
Shielded Virtual Machines  ✔️  
Networking stack  ✔️