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Can SQL Server Developer Edition be used with real production data in Dev/Stage/PreProd?

Farid Zahin 0 Reputation points
2026-01-21T15:34:41.5433333+00:00

Hi,

I have two related questions about SQL Server Developer Edition licensing:

  1. Can we legally use Developer Edition in Stage or PreProd environments?

Our production data (without masking/virtualization) is restored for developers in the development environment. Can we still use Developer Edition here, or do we need Enterprise Edition for developers as well?

I want to make sure we comply with licensing rules while allowing realistic testing and development.

Thanks for any clarification!

SQL Server Database Engine
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  1. Erland Sommarskog 132.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-01-21T21:41:36.95+00:00

    Generally, my answer to licensing questions is that you cannot get authoritative answers here as this is a technical forum, and yours is a legal question. For an authoritative answer, you need to contact your local Microsoft representative.

    Nevertheless, this is one that I feel confident enough to answer, and I agree with Chris. As long as these environments are only used for developers for testing new features, performance etc, Developer Edition is OK.

    Watch out for grey areas, though. At my client, we too restore a copy of production to two test instances daily for troubleshooting. But these environments are also used by business users for testing out reconfigurations they want to do, before they apply them in prod. In my opinion, that is production use, and thus not OK to do Developer Edition (Thankfully, my client has Standard Edition, the same as production, on these instances.)

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  1. Chris McGuigan 5 Reputation points
    2026-01-21T16:52:55.9333333+00:00

    As far as I'm aware, you can, as long as you are not using it for production purposes. For example, running your invoicing off of it and sending them out to customers is not allowed but running them off to check your latest code changes are working, is OK.

    Hope that makes sense?

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