Is SQL Server Express good enough for a developer, or should they get Developer edition?

Question

Just wondering if it's worth it for a developer to use SQL Server 2005/2008 Developer Edition instead of the bundled SQL Server Express edition that comes with Visual Studio. I'm talking about for initial development of a website, where you need to create SQL scripts to generate the tables and things like that. I know with Express it's easy to add an .mdf file to your project and program against that, but wouldn't it be better to install Developer edition and program against a "real" database that would mimic what you're going to be using in production? That way if you're using VS Professional and can create a "database project" you can include all of your creation scripts and run them in production to recreate the environment.

Answer 1

If you have access to it, you're better off using Developer Edition because it supports more features and larger databases. For example, if you want to restore a 50gb database from your production server onto your workstation to do testing, you'll need Developer Edition.

Another example is if you're working with Enterprise-only features like partitioning, compression or the Resource Governor. Those features aren't available in Express, but they are available in Developer Edition.