I use the free (communitiy) version of Visual Studio. As I'm a single 
developer it suits me perfectly. The functionality is the same except 
for the enterprise "sharing" stuff. I really like it. A bit like the 
Paradox IDE 20 years younger and on steroids. SQL express not so much. 
You are limited to a certain database size, and you can't have more than 
one database in the same cluster. I think it's designed to replace access.

For a full-featured SQL database you can't go past PostgreSQL. It 
interfaces perfectly with Visual Studio with the Npgsql (.NET access) 
driver.

On 16/06/2020 4:28 am, Kevin Zawicki wrote:
> What do you think of the "free" Visual Studio Community and "free" SQL express
> for single PC, small business development?
> 
> I have done C# (extensive batch work) and some SQL. Not much in C# GUI though...
>