I came across someone who told me that their small organization (4-5 people) is using salesforce developer edition for complete day to day activities. When I asked them how - they simply deleted all data pre fed into the developer instance and uploaded their relevant data. From what I gather they have been using it for the past year. Is it really possible?
Technically speaking, Dev edition is same as enterprise except for lower limits on custom obj, etc.
It is technically possible to use a Developer Edition in any way that its technical specifications allow. From a contractual / agreement standpoint, it violates the Master Subscription Agreement (MSA).
When you sign up for a Developer Edition you must check the checkbox stating that you "have read and agreed to the Master Subscription Agreement".
The MSA has the following, which explicitly forbids the use of a Developer Edition for production use (note my bold text emphasis).
You may not, without our prior written consent, access or use the Developer Services:
- for production purposes, or
- if You are Our direct competitor, or
- to monitor the availability, performance or functionality of the Developer Services, or
- for any other benchmarking or competitive purposes.
