SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE)

SharePoint Server 2019 was the last perpetual release. SE shifts on-prem SharePoint to a subscription model with annual billing, which lets Microsoft continuously ship feature updates rather than holding them for a three-year major release. The practical effect is that on-prem SharePoint now tracks closer to SharePoint Online in look-and-feel: the modern site templates, modern lists and libraries, Microsoft Search experience, and the Communications site / Hub site model are all available on-prem within months of their cloud debut, instead of waiting for the next major version.

Standard is the base CAL — sites, lists, content types, basic search, the modern UI, document libraries and workflows. Enterprise is additive (bought on top of Standard) and unlocks Excel Services, PowerPivot, Access Services, Business Connectivity Services, the BI Centre, dashboard designer, and the Microsoft Identity Manager connector. The common-sense approach is to buy Standard CALs for everyone and Enterprise CALs only for the subset of users who actually need the advanced features — typically finance, BI and integration teams.

License each server in the farm (Server licence per box: front-end web servers, application servers, batch / OWA servers) plus every internal user or device that connects (Standard CAL, optionally with Enterprise CAL stacked on top). External users — people outside your organisation, such as customers and partners — are licensed differently: their access is covered by the Server licence's external user rights at no additional per-user cost, but explicit Microsoft Product Terms about who counts as 'external' apply. An external user cannot be an employee, contractor, agent or vendor under your organisation's control.

A small farm runs SharePoint, SQL Server and Active Directory on three separate servers; a medium farm splits roles across multiple front-end and application servers; a large farm adds dedicated search, distributed cache and Office Online Server hosts. SE supports MinRole topologies that let Microsoft validate the role configuration automatically, simplifying scale-out. SQL Server requirements are stricter than ever: SE requires SQL Server 2019 or later, and benefits from SQL 2022 / 2025 features such as Always On AGs for the content databases and accelerated database recovery.

SE works comfortably alongside SharePoint Online in a hybrid configuration — hybrid sites, hybrid taxonomy, hybrid search across both estates, and a unified launcher that lets users hop between on-prem and cloud sites from one shell. Microsoft Teams expects SharePoint Online for the team-files backing store, so SE does not back Teams channels directly; organisations that need on-prem document storage typically use Microsoft Teams with files stored on SharePoint Online and link to SE content via tab apps where required.

SE ships feature updates approximately every six months, plus monthly security updates. Cumulative updates are simpler to apply than in 2016 / 2019 because the modern admin tooling stages prerequisite checks and content database upgrades. The support horizon is open-ended as long as the subscription is current — there is no fixed end-of-support date as there was for 2019.

Direct in-place upgrade from SharePoint 2019 to SE is supported and is the most common path. From 2016 the supported route is database-attach: stand up an SE farm side-by-side, mount the 2016 content databases, let SE upgrade them, then cut DNS over. Pre-2016 versions must hop through an intermediate (2016 then SE) — long-running 2013 farms in particular need careful planning, including a check that custom solutions and workflows still work in the modern UI. Plan a parallel run for at least a week before decommissioning the old farm, and budget for re-permissioning audits because the modern sharing model surfaces inherited permissions that legacy farms often hid behind classic site-collection layouts. Large publishing portals should also expect a content-type and navigation review during the upgrade window, since several legacy components are deprecated in SE and need replacement with modern equivalents before final cutover.