Licensing SQL Server CAL or Core

Hello Community,

our distributor told us the following:

• SQL server licensing relies on "direct users" and "indirect users
• "direct users" are users directly connecting to the SQL server without any application server in between
• "indirect users" are users connecting to the server application (client/server) which is connecting to the SQL server
• if a company is running a server application with "indirect users" the core license model is mandatory
• only a "direct users" model can use server and CAL licensing

 Is this right?

Background, we have a little healthcare company and the running software is running on SQL express where the database nearly hits the 10GB limit.

We have to offer a SQL Server Standard license to keep the system running in the future.

The company's server is a VMWare VM with 4 vCores.

Thanks very much in advance for any answer

Regards

Bernhard