Developer Edition offers the power of Enterprise without the cost, but without the right to go live.

Organizations should standardize on Developer Edition for all non-production environments (Dev, Test, QA, UAT). However, IT governance must ensure these instances are clearly labeled and firewalled off from production traffic to avoid licensing violations.

Because Developer Edition is functionally identical to Enterprise Edition, you can "draft" and test high-end features such as: Editions and Supported Features of SQL Server 2022

Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition is a full-featured, free version of the SQL Server database engine, specifically licensed for development, testing, and demonstration purposes. It provides developers with access to the complete set of features found in the Enterprise Edition—including high-end performance optimizations and security tools—without the associated high licensing costs, provided it is never used for production workloads. Key Features and Capabilities

| Feature | Developer | Express | Evaluation | |--------|-----------|---------|------------| | | Free | Free | Free (180 days) | | Max Database Size | Unlimited | 10 GB | Unlimited | | Max Memory | Unlimited | 1 GB | Unlimited | | Max CPU Cores | Unlimited | 4 cores | Unlimited | | Enterprise Features | Yes (all) | No | Yes (all) | | Production Use | No | Yes (limited) | No | | License Duration | Perpetual | Perpetual | Time-limited |

There are two primary methods to obtain the software: