This will be my first project with Basic availability group so I thought would check before implementing .
As per Microsoft documentation below it says we will need to have Software assurance for failover servers for disaster recovery / high availability.
Will greatly appreciate if someone can clarify on this as I will need to have the capabilities to do automatic / manual failover without the need to purchase software assurance
The idea of BAGs is that you can use them on lower cost editions. You still can't do things like read from it, run backups on it or run DBCC. You can have one secondary node for HA/DR.
I'm always of the mindset, though, that licensing questions should only ever be answered by the company (or its partners) that would sue you for non compliance. I'd recommend going with your licensing provider for full clarification as every configuration is different and has different licensing considerations.
So you want free HA\DR?
There is only one way and that is to use developer Edition which will allow you to set up 2 servers with SQL instances on them and play around with availability groups.
Of course, you can't use that with a production product because Developer only allows non-prod use, but if you are just after a test pit to figure out Availability groups - that's the way to go.
You can TECHNICALLY install Standard edition and do the same thing. The product will let you as SQL Edition is about what license you SHOULD HAVE not what you DO HAVE. You will just be in breach of licensing and putting your business in an awkward legal position.
I also agree with the sentiment in Kris's answer about licensing questions in forums like this. I can tell you my understanding, but I don't work for Microsoft. They can tell you how your specific solution needs to be licensed.
