What are some alternatives to using a trigger for tasks like auditing or enforcing business rules, and when might those alternatives be preferable?

Alternatives include using Change Data Capture for asynchronous change tracking with lower overhead, enforcing simple business rules directly through check constraints which are generally faster and simpler than a trigger, or handling more complex logic explicitly within application code or a stored procedure, which can be easier to test, debug, and maintain compared to logic hidden inside a trigger that might not be immediately obvious to other developers.

-- A check constraint is often simpler and faster
-- than a trigger for basic validation rules
ALTER TABLE Products ADD CONSTRAINT CK_PositivePrice CHECK (Price > 0);