The edition of SQL Server 2016 should be selected based on your needs. SQL Server 2016 offers five downloadable editions, targeting specific business use cases for different prices and levels of capabilities. These five editions are Enterprise, Standard, Web, Developer, and Express. Generally, for an organization, you select one of the premium editions (which is Enterprise) or one of the core editions (which is Standard). There is another premium edition called Analytics Platform System (APS), formerly Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW); that will not be discussed in this book as it is beyond the scope. For an individual, it is always the Developer edition that has all functionality of the Enterprise edition. It can be downloaded and installed without paying Microsoft. Yes, it is free for developers and is licensed for use as a development or test system, not as a production server.
SQL Server 2012 and 2014 had an edition called Business Intelligence, which is no longer available with SQL Server 2016. You can try out Reporting Services with Enterprise Edition without purchasing, as it is available for a 180-day trial period. If you need to use the cheapest edition, which is Express, you need to have Express with Advanced Services.
Features supported by editions are different. For understanding, without discussing all features, we will see the features that are supported only by Enterprise edition.
The following features are supported only by Enterprise edition:
Mobile reports and KPIs
Data-driven report subscription
Scale out deployment
Alerting
Power view
Reporting Services maintain two databases: ReportServer database and ReportServerTempDB. It does not necessarily require the same edition for databases as you have used for Reporting Services. The following list shows you which editions of the Database engine can be used for specific editions of Reporting Services:
Enterprise edition of SSRS: Enterprise or Standard edition database engine
Standard edition of SSRS: Enterprise or Standard edition database engine
Web edition of SSRS: Web edition database engine (local only)
Express edition of SSRS: Express edition database engine (local only)
Developer edition of SSRS: Enterprise, Standard, or Developer edition database engine
Select the edition based on the capabilities required for your application. If you need the aforementioned items that are supported only by the Enterprise edition, then you have no option but select the Enterprise edition. If they are not required, then the Standard edition is enough for your implementation. Cost and limited budget are some other factors for selecting the Standard edition.
Select the Developer edition for development or testing, not as a production server.
Try using Web or Express, which have very limited features. These two editions are good for small-scale implementations.
You will be able to create, deploy, and consume reports with functionalities as per the features offered by the selected edition. Not only that, but the usage of processors of the system and memory consumption are based on the edition you have selected. Processors are more relevant to database engine. The Enterprise edition will use operating system maximum, but Standard and Web can utilize only four sockets or 24 cores. If you have selected, Express edition, it is limited to one socket or four cores.
Reporting Services consume memory for various operations. If the edition is Enterprise, it can consume operating system maximum. However, if the edition is Standard or Web, it consumes only 64 GB and, Express edition consumes only 1 GB.
For more information about feature comparison between editions, visit the following URL: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993.aspx