It’s been long overdue but Sitecore have finally opened up their software downloads to the public.
It used to be the case that you needed a Sitecore account tied to a certification in order to download the installation packages. I must admit I did used to find this puzzling as it seemed to place obstacles in the way of potential customers looking to try out or get started with the platform for the first time.
Happily since the 14th December 2020, you can now download Sitecore without an account as announced by Jason recently. You still need a license to run the product but trial versions are readily obtainable.
The publicly accessible Docker repository has been available for a while but it is nice to see all the downloads being made available through dev.sitecore.net including the Installation / Upgrade documentation, as well as the XP / XM packages and all the modules such as Horizon and the Publishing Service.
Ironically I feel the product is now more Enterprise focused than ever so smaller customers might not be as interested in this change as they may have been in the past but that is purely speculation on my part. I’d be interested to hear from you if you are a user of Sitecore with a smaller scale implementation and your experience with the platform.
For now, happy downloading 🙂