Licensing SQL Server for Development and Test

• Visual Studio and MSDN Platforms subscriptions entitle users to SQL Server for development and test purposes.
• SQL Server production licenses can be used for development and test purposes but could be more costly.
• Developer edition is freely downloadable for development and test purposes, but it should be used carefully.

Organizations build many solutions with SQL Server database, reporting, and business intelligence (BI) technologies. During development (dev) and testing (test) and prior to being moved into production, such technologies must be properly licensed. While customers can use production SQL Server licensing for dev/test, this approach is often expensive and carries additional administrative overhead. Alternatively, special licensing options are available for dev/test workloads that can help minimize overall licensing cost, compliance overhead, and audit risk, but with the trade-off of limited use rights or technical limitations. Organizations need to consider their existing production licenses and development workloads to determine the most cost-effective licensing option.