Oracle Enterprise edition (EE), standard edition (SE), and express (XE) Features list

Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

Updated April 24, 2013

List of features by release

The allowed features within each release change, so please refer to these Oracle documents:

- Oracle 11g product family and features by release (SE1 SE and EE)

- Oracle 10g product family and features by database edition

Oracle currently has three main "Editions" of the Oracle database, each with different features and prices:

Oracle Enterprise Edition (EE) - Oracle EE contains most of the robust features required by large Oracle shops.
Oracle Standard Edition (SE) - Oracle SE contains the basic database management functions for small and medium-sized shops.
Oracle Express (XE) - Oracle Express contain some DBA features.

When choosing the appropriate Oracle edition for your shop you must recognize those database features that you want. There are many features of Oracle Enterprise Edition (EE) that are not available to Oracle Standard Edition One (SE). These Oracle Enterprise Edition Features not available in Oracle Standard Edition One include:

Advanced queuing
Analytical functions (rank, moving average)
Bitmap indexes
Export transportable tablespaces
Fast-start fault recovery
Incremental backup & recovery
Materialized Views - Pre-summarize data and pre-join tables
Online index build
Oracle advanced Security:
Oracle connection manager (CMAN)
Oracle Data Guard - Automated standby/failover database
Oracle Parallel Query (OPQ) - Get fast large-table full-table scans
Oracle partitioning - For database over 100 gigabytes
Oracle Replication - Multi-master replication and database links
Oracle Streams - High-speed system replication and failover software.
Parallel backup & recovery
Parallel DML
Parallel index rebuilding
Parallel index scans
SQL Optimizer plan stability - Freeze Oracle execution plans
Transparent Application Failover (TAF)

Add-on Oracle Options:

In addition, Oracle offers many extra-cost database features that you can buy independently from the Oracle database edition. These include:

Oracle Real Application Clusters - RAC is the Oracle flagship software for scalability and high availability.
Oracle OLAP - Online Analytical processing for the Oracle Data Warehouse.
Oracle Data Mining - Advanced artificial intelligence for finding hidden data correlations.
Oracle Tuning Pack - Online tools for tuning the Oracle database.
Oracle Change Management Pack - Version control and change auditing.

Oracle XE Features

These features are not included with Oracle Database XE:

Advanced Security Option
interMedia
Messaging Gateway
Oracle Change Management Pack
Oracle Clusterware
Oracle Configuration Management Pack
Oracle Connection Manager
Oracle Data Guard
Oracle Data Mining
Oracle Diagnostic Pack
Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Fail Safe
Oracle Label Security
Oracle Names
Oracle OLAP
Oracle Partitioning
Oracle Real Application Clusters
Oracle Spatial
Oracle Streams (Apply process only)
Oracle Tuning Pack
Oracle Workflow
Oracle Workspace Manager
Ultra Search

As of

Table 1-1 Feature Availability for Oracle Database Editions

Feature/Option	SE1	SE	EE	Notes
High Availability
Oracle Fail Safe	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
Oracle Data Guard?Redo Apply	N	N	Y
Oracle Data Guard?SQL Apply	N	N	Y
Rolling Upgrades?Patch Set, Database, and Operating System	N	N	Y
Online index rebuild	N	N	Y
Online index-organized table organization	N	N	Y	`ALTER` `TABLE` ... `MOVE` `ONLINE` operations
Online table redefinition	N	N	Y	Using the `DBMS_REDEFINITION` package
Duplexed backup sets	N	N	Y
Block change tracking for fast incremental backup	N	N	Y
Unused block compression in backups	N	N	Y
Block-level media recovery	N	N	Y
Parallel backup and recovery	N	N	Y
Tablespace point-in-time recovery	N	N	Y
Trial recovery	N	N	Y
Fast-start fault recovery	N	N	Y
Flashback Table	N	N	Y
Flashback Database	N	N	Y
Flashback Transaction Query	N	N	Y
Scalability
Oracle Real Application Clusters	N	Y	Y	Extra cost with EE, included with SE
Automatic Workload Management	N	Y	Y	Requires RAC
Performance
In-Memory Database Cache	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Security
Oracle Advanced Security	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle Label Security	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Virtual Private Database	N	N	Y
Fine-grained auditing	N	N	Y
Development Platform
SQLJ	Y	Y	Y	Requires Oracle Programmer
Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio .NET	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator support	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
Active Directory integration	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
Native .NET Data Provider?ODP.NET	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
.NET Stored Procedures	Y	Y	Y	Windows only
Manageability
Oracle Change Management Pack	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle Configuration Management Pack	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle Diagnostic Pack	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle Tuning Pack	N	N	Y	Extra cost option, also requires the Diagnostic Pack
Oracle Provisioning and Patch Automation Pack	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Database Resource Manager	N	N	Y
VLDB, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence
Oracle Partitioning	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle OLAP	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Oracle Data Mining	N	N	Y	Extra cost option
Data Compression	N	N	Y
Bitmapped index, bitmapped join index, and bitmap plan conversions	N	N	Y
Parallel query/DML	N	N	Y
Parallel statistics gathering	N	N	Y
Parallel index build/scans	N	N	Y
Parallel Data Pump Export/Import	N	N	Y
Transportable tablespaces, including cross-platform	N	N	Y	Import of transportable tablespaces supported into SE, SE1, and EE
Summary management?Materialized View Query Rewrite	N	N	Y
Asynchronous Change Data Capture	N	N	Y
Integration
Basic Replication	Y	Y	Y	SE1/SE: read-only, updateable materialized view
Advanced Replication	N	N	Y	Multi-master replication
Oracle Streams	N	N	Y	SE1/SE: apply only
Messaging Gateway	N	N	Y
Transparent Gateways	Y	Y	Y	Extra cost option
Networking
Oracle Connection Manager	N	N	Y
Infiniband Support	N	N	Y
Content Management
Oracle Spatial	N	N	Y	Extra cost option