Enterprise Edition is the same server with a licence key applied. The binary differs, so the capabilities below exist only in an Enterprise build and are no-ops on a Community one; nothing about your schema, queries or SDK code changes when you move across.
What the edition adds
| Capability | What it is | Documented |
|---|---|---|
| Audit logging | An identity-bound record of every authenticated action - statements, queries, transactions, RPC calls, sign-ins, sessions and HTTP requests - written to a durable NDJSON sink, with optional SHA-256 hash chaining and PII redaction. | Audit logging |
| Distributed live queries | Live queries that resolve across every node in a cluster rather than the node holding the subscription. | Contact sales |
| File storage | S3-compatible backends for file and blob objects, addressed through DEFINE BUCKET. | DEFINE BUCKET |
| FIPS mode | FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic modules, and the switch that enforces their use. | Contact sales |
| Trusted execution | Running the server inside a trusted execution environment, with attestation. | Contact sales |
| Contractual support | Support tiers with defined response times by severity, and uptime commitments. | Contact sales |
Observability is where most of it is written down
The Enterprise observability surface is documented in full alongside the Community one, with the Enterprise-only parts marked. Start there rather than here:
Audit logging - events captured, record shape, rotation, hash chaining, redaction and overflow semantics.
Configuration - every audit-log environment variable, and the compliance checklist for a tamper-evident deployment.
Enterprise observability - the pipelines that exist only in an Enterprise build.
Slow-query logging - the sister pipeline for the long tail of slow queries.
Licensing and getting in touch
Licence models, pricing, support tiers and the specifics of FIPS, trusted execution and distributed live queries are handled by the SurrealDB team rather than published here. Contact us to discuss an evaluation, a licence, or an upgrade from an existing Community cluster.
Moving an existing deployment to Enterprise does not migrate data. The same storage backend and the same schema are read by the Enterprise binary; the licence key is what changes.