Comparing SharePoint Versions and Editions

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SharePoint Versions and Editions

Microsoft offers two primary versions of SharePoint:

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3. This is the free/unlicensed version of SharePoint that is built upon Windows Server 2003/2008, SQL Server 2000/2005, IIS, ASP.Net 2.0, and .NET 2.0/3.0. All you need is a licensed copy of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. There are no other licensing costs unless you want the full-fledged version of SQL Server.
- Refer to Microsoft's WSS 3.0 page for more information about this product.
- To download and install WSS 3.0, refer to the WSS 3.0 download page.
- Be aware that WSS 3.0 is free for Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. This is the licensed version of SharePoint that is built upon WSS v3. It has two primary versions: MOSS 2007 Standard and MOSS 2007 Enterprise. There are a host of other licensing options as well, such as the ability to use Microsoft Search Server 2008 or Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express with WSS instead of MOSS.
- To download and install a trial version of MOSS 2007, refer to the MOSS 2007 Trial download page.

For more details on the differences between these versions see the following documents from Microsoft:

To determine whether you have WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 installed, go to Windows Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs.

If you see 'Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007' in the list, then MOSS 2007 has been installed.
If you see only 'Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services' in the list (and not 'Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007') then you only have WSS 3.0 installed.

To see the SharePoint connector features available with each edition of SharePoint, refer to our installation guide.