A note:

Two Different Standards at Play

Standard	What It Means	Applies To
UK/EU Licensing Law	You’re allowed to resell and reuse perpetual software licences under specific conditions (e.g. UsedSoft ruling)	Resellers offering reused OEM/Volume licences
Microsoft-Supported	Microsoft will recognise, activate, and provide support or escalation for your licence	Only applies to new, genuine licences from Microsoft-authorised channels

I have here compared both Windows Server 2025 Essentials with Standard Edition for a business, with a key priority: allowing external users to connect via Remote Desktop (RDP) without excessive licensing complexity or cost.

Below is I hope my clear breakdown of the licensing model and technical feature differences between the two editions — along with a recommendation based on the day to day needs.

Note a CAL is a Client Access Licence and an RD Cal is a Remote Desktop Client Access Licence.

🧾 Licensing & Usage Comparison

Feature	Essentials	Standard
User/Device Limit	Up to 25 users and 50 devices	No inherent limit; requires CALs for each user or device
Client Access Licenses	Not required	Required for each user or device accessing the server
Licensing Model	Per server	Core-based (minimum of 16 cores per server)
Remote Desktop Services	Limited to 2 simultaneous sessions for admin only; RDS CALs not supported. DEAL-BREAKER	Fully supports Remote Desktop Services with RDS CALs – So you have to have both CALS and RD CALS
Virtualization Rights	No virtualization rights included	Includes rights for 2 VMs and 1 Hyper-V host per license
Installation Options	OEM only	Available via multiple channels

🛠️ Technical Feature Comparison

Feature	Essentials	Standard
Active Directory Domain Services	Supported	Supported
Hyper-V	Not supported	Supported
Storage Spaces Direct	Not supported	Not supported (Datacenter only)
Shielded Virtual Machines	Not supported	Not supported (Datacenter only)
Software-Defined Networking	Not supported	Not supported (Datacenter only)
Windows Admin Center	Supported	Supported
Hotpatching	Not supported	Supported –USEFUL

—

💡 My Conclusion

After comparing both editions, here’s what I conclude:

• Remote Desktop Access: Essentials only permits two concurrent admin sessions and explicitly does not support RDS CALs. That makes it unsuitable as we need more than two users accessing the server via RDP at the same time, probably around 5.
  
• Avoiding CALs: Essentials looks attractive because it avoids CALs altogether — but that comes at the cost of RDP limitations and other technical restrictions.
  
• Standard Edition: Standard requires CALs and gives the flexibility to deploy Remote Desktop Services, to scale RDP sessions, and support a growing environment without artificial caps.
  

🔥 Why Essentials Was a Dealbreaker for me

Essentials has a critical limitation:

🚫 It does not support Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) — legally or technically.

That means:

• ❌ No full RDP hosting
• ❌ No RDS CALs can be added later
• ❌ You’re locked at two admin-only connections — always
  

For a small team or limited internal use, that could be acceptable. But for external access and proper RDP use, it’s not viable.

✅ Why I select Standard Edition

I chOose Windows Server 2025 Standard because it:

• ✅ Fully supports Remote Desktop Services
• ✅ Scales with needs (just add RDS CALs)
• ✅ Avoids the “hard cap” problem of Essentials
• ✅ Comes with 2 VM rights, giving us flexible deployment options, this is more important than at first apparent.
  

And importantly:

• One can buy only the RDS CALs we need, either per-user or per-device – and for example the Shop machine might have device (RD) CALS whereas individuals have their own.
  

✅ Summary: Essentials is only viable if…

• You’re a very small office (under 25 users)

– You only need 1–2 admin-only RDP sessions

– You’re happy with strict limitations and no RDS expansion

Otherwise, the flexibility and scalability of Windows Server 2025 Standard far outweigh the additional licensing costs — and that’s why I choose it; frankly I don’t see a choice.