SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019: End of support and no ESU program

Since July 14, 2026, SharePoint Server 2016 and SharePoint Server 2019 are no longer receiving security updates, quality updates, or technical support. Microsoft states that these two products are no longer eligible for any kind of support, including security updates. No Extended Security Updates program covers them: the paid extension that Microsoft sells on Windows Server and for SQL Server is not available for SharePoint Server. No purchase extends coverage for a farm SharePoint.

The latest security update for SharePoint Server 2016 was released on the deadline, July 14, 2026, under the reference KB5002891: among other things, it addressed an elevation of privileges and remote code execution. SharePoint Server The Subscription Edition received its update on the same day and continues to receive updates.

Products with a maturity date of July 14, 2026

Several products commonly found on a farm SharePoint reached end-of-support on the same date. Of the six products listed below, only SQL Server 2016 offers a paid extension.

The SharePoint Designer 2013 and InfoPath 2013 target dependencies that are often missing from inventories: InfoPath forms and SharePoint Designer customizations. Replacing them requires development or rebuilding, so time must be set aside in the schedule.

SQL Extended Security Updates Server 2016

A farm SharePoint runs on SQL Server, and many 2016 farms were set up on SQL Server 2016. These installations reached end-of-support on two levels on the same day. However, the two levels are not handled in the same way.

For SQL Server 2016, Microsoft offers Extended Security Updates for three years after the end of extended support; the third year ends on July 17, 2029. The subscription covers only patches classified as critical by the Microsoft Security Response Center, with no regular release schedule, no fixes for non-security bugs, and no support for the product itself.

The instance must be linked to Azure Arc, and Microsoft states that without this integration, the offer does not apply—the integration itself is free. You must also have Software Assurance under an Enterprise Agreement, Enterprise Agreement Subscription, Server and Cloud Enrollment or Enrollment for Education Solutions; otherwise, Azure Arc will set up a pay-as-you-go billing plan that provides the same entitlement without Software Assurance. Microsoft does not publish any pricing for these extensions, either on its Swiss page or elsewhere: its documentation estimates the annual cost at approximately 75% of the on-premises license price, and that is the only publicly available reference.

Port the machine as-is to a virtual machine Azure no longer provides ESUs for free: this was the case for SQL Server 2014, but it is no longer the case for SQL Server 2016.

As for SharePoint Server, there is no equivalent: ESUs extend the database's coverage, not the farm's. It is therefore the application layer that sets the migration.

Options for migration

Microsoft outlines two paths to continue receiving support: migrate to SharePoint to Microsoft 365, its recommended approach, or upgrading to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition. The upgrade to Subscription Edition begins in SharePoint Server 2016 as well as SharePoint Server 2019.

SharePoint in Microsoft 365

Microsoft presents this option as its SharePoint core offering, the one that provides access to investments in productivity, security, and usability. Microsoft adds that updates to the Subscription Edition will remain much more limited in scope and that the gap in features between the two will widen.

The cost of the project stems from migration : taking over customizations, feeds, inherited permissions, and dormant sites that no longer have an owner. You must also apply your governance rules—external sharing, retention, site lifecycle—to a scope that the local farm previously managed.

SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

Current version of SharePoint Server, on a modern lifecycle: it remains supported as long as Microsoft maintains it, with no announced end date. It is suitable when the organization must keep hosting on-premises—for reasons of sovereignty, regulatory compliance, or a line-of-business application that connects to it.

Licensing requirement: Microsoft requires active Software Assurance or a subscription license to install and use the Subscription Edition —on both server licenses and CALs. A Subscription Edition license grants perpetual rights only for SharePoint Server 2019. If Software Assurance is discontinued, or if the organization purchases a perpetual license, it must uninstall the Subscription Edition and may install the 2019 version—for which support ended on July 14, 2026.

This expense has also increased. Microsoft raised the price of its on-premises server products sold separately by 10 percent, SharePoint Server effective July 1, 2025, and then raised the prices of the Core CAL and Enterprise CAL suites by 15% and 20%, respectively, effective August 1, 2025. No per-server or per-CAL amounts are published: the Subscription Edition is available through a volume license agreement, the rates for which are not public.

Our take. Between these two paths, it’s the license terms that matter more than the technical aspects. The Subscription Edition is paid for as long as it’s in use: Software Assurance must remain active on the servers and on each CAL without interruption; otherwise, the right to use the product ceases, and the fallback option documented by Microsoft is a version that no longer receives patches. For an organization accustomed to purchasing a version and then keeping it, the status quo also represents a recurring expense.

The Subscription Edition is justified when an external constraint requires it: data that cannot leave the country, a regulatory requirement, or a business application that communicates directly with the data center and cannot be rewritten. If none of these conditions are met, maintaining SharePoint on-premises is equivalent to paying a perpetual subscription for infrastructure that you are still responsible for operating.

The Case of Hybrid Environments

Many systems combine a local farm with online services. The local farm hosts historical libraries; business applications connect to it, and some of the workloads have already been migrated.

Take a close look at these environments: the local farm often no longer provides any service that users can see, even though it still hosts an authentication service, a feed, or a repository that an application depends on. Shutting it down without first taking inventory of these resources severs that connection.

So start by listing the dependencies before writing the migration. Our article on the hybrid SharePoint environment describes the points where the two worlds intersect: those are the ones you need to check.

Actions to Take, in Order of Priority

The farm is already out of service: first reduce the exposure, then schedule the migration.

1. Determine the exposure. Is the farm accessible via the Internet, either directly or through a device that publishes it? A strictly internal farm and a farm published on the Internet are not processed within the same timeframe: process the latter first.
2. Inventory dependencies: business applications, workflows, InfoPath forms, customizations SharePoint Designer, scheduled tasks, service accounts. This inventory defines what the migration will need to replicate or replace.
3. Check the version of SQL Server s in the farm. For SQL Server 2016, Extended Security Updates provide coverage for the database while the farm is undergoing maintenance—provided you agree to the affiliation with Azure Arc and its billing model.
4. Weigh the pros and cons of both approaches, both in terms of licensing and technical considerations. The Software Assurance for the Subscription Edition commits you to an ongoing expense, and discontinuing it will leave you with a version that is no longer supported.
5. Record the version and support status for each module in the farm: SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows Server. This list is then used to migration and for decisions regarding database extensions.

The first two points do not require any service provider and are prerequisites for all the others. Nothing in day-to-day operations indicates that a farm is no longer compliant: it operates exactly as it did the day before. The risk assessment therefore takes precedence over the migration.

Microsoft Sources

• End of Support in 2026 — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SharePoint Server , 2016 Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SharePoint Server , 2019 Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SharePoint Server , Subscription Edition Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• SQL Server , and 2016 Lifecycle — Microsoft Lifecycle
• End-of-Support Reminder for SharePoint , 2016, and 2019 — Microsoft SharePoint Microsoft Blog, March 2024
• Extended Security Updates for SQL Server —Microsoft Learn
• End-of-Support Options for SQL Server — Microsoft Learn
• Security Update KB5002891 for SharePoint Server , and 2016 — Microsoft Support
• SharePoint Product TermsServer — Microsoft Product Terms
• SharePoint Licensing GuideServer — Microsoft Licensing
• Changes in Prices for On-Premises Server Products — Blog Microsoft 365
• Upgrade to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition — Microsoft Learn
• Fixed Lifecycle Policy — Microsoft Learn