The primary allure of the MSSQL Developer Edition is its feature set. Unlike the "Express" edition, which is also free but limited in database size and processing power (utilizing only a limited number of CPU cores and RAM), the Developer Edition is the full-featured equivalent of the expensive "Enterprise" edition. It includes advanced capabilities such as Always On availability groups, advanced security features like Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), and extensive business intelligence tools like Reporting Services (SSRS) and Integration Services (SSIS). For a developer, this means there is no gap between the development environment and the production environment. One can build and test complex queries and high-availability solutions on a local machine without worrying that the code will break when deployed to an enterprise server.
: This will download a small installer stub (usually named SQL2022-SSEI-Dev.exe ). mssql developer edition download