New free Editions present in SQL server 2025.

Q: What are new free Editions present in SQL server 2025. 

In SQL server 2025 , Microsoft has changed its free Editions a little more aligned towards its environment usage such as Development or Enterprise. It has removed Web Edition where as Standard Edition has been improved with more Compute and Memory. 

When you start SQL Server 2025 installation , you get below screen on Edition tab which gives 4 different option to choose from Free Editions as shown below. Let's deep dive in details below to understand what these different editions mean and what they offer to us. 



  • Evaluation: Full-feature trial for testing before purchase. Available Free (but time-limited).License: 180-day expiration (typical for past SQL versions).Technically identical to Enterprise Edition (all features enabled).Intended for short-term evaluation, POCs, testing feature sets, benchmarking, etc. Not allowed in production. After 180 days, the engine stops working until converted to a paid license (Enterprise/Standard).
  • Enterprise Developer:  Full Enterprise feature set for development only, available free of cost. License: Restricted strictly to non-production use. Feature-identical to SQL Server Enterprise - every advanced capability e.g. Always On AGs (multi-node),Advanced security (TDE, row-level security, etc.),In-memory OLTP, Columnstore Index, data compression, Advanced BI & ML features. Intended for developers, testers, labs, and DevOps environments. Not licensed for production workloads of any kind. Difference from Evaluation: No expiration, but strictly non-production. It is a permanent dev/test license.
  • Standard Developer: Test and develop using the Standard Edition feature set. Free available. License: Non-production use only. Feature-identical to SQL Server Standard (not Enterprise).Use this when your production environment will be Standard Edition and you want environment parity. Lacks major Enterprise features: Limited Always On AGs (Basic AG),No online indexing or advanced compression, No in-memory OLTP, Limited machine learning/BI features, Also not licensed for production. Difference vs Enterprise Developer: Same “free for development” licensing model, but features restricted to Standard Edition level.
  • Express: Lightweight database for small applications or learning. Free available, permanent. License: Free for production use. Can be used in production, unlike Development or Evaluation. Feature-limited and resource-limited, Max database size: around 10 GB per database,1 GB memory per instance (historically; may vary slightly in 2025), Limited CPU usage (1 socket or a few cores), Does not include SQL Agent (except Express with Advanced Services has partial scheduling).No advanced features (AGs, ML, Columnstore, etc.)Suitable for: Small apps, Local dev, Lightweight web or desktop applications, Learning SQL Server.
Below is the Quick Summary table containing a comparative view:

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