Devart dotConnect vs. Redgate SQL Toolbelt Essentials

dotConnect for MySQL is suitable if you work with .net technologies and frameworks to develop applications but do not want to use SQL Server. This is a very common scenario and the Express edition can solve this problem if you need only basic connectivity features. If high performance is a crucial requirement for you, it may be a real concern. Maybe paid editions can deliver better performance, but you will need to deal with relevant costs.

Incentivized

We use SQL Compare to troubleshoot performance problems quite a bit since our data model is more like a template and not everything is 100% in sync and customization occurs between different client databases. We continually get pulled into performance issues and the developers will say Client A is performing different than Client B, why? Using SQL Compare, we usually find that one client was tuned and had indexes altered or added that weren't deployed to all clients or other objects weren't deployed correctly during the release. On the other hand, since our data model practices allow client databases to drift I tried to create a new golden image by trying to compare multiple databases based on the same data model and found it to be a very difficult process to complete using SQL Compare. SQL Compare gave me too much information and doesn't allow enough filtering to eliminate a lot of the noise.

Incentivized

• Easy to use, client report-friendly
• Easy integration when accessing multiple SQL servers on the client side
• Pulls/connects easily from any application

Incentivized

• Simple and easy comparison of database schemas and data. Differences can be copied or synced from one database to another with a click of a button.
• You can save "projects" so that you can easily rerun a previous comparison whenever you need to.
• It has a very simple, easy to learn interface. I've never needed to read any documentation or watch any tutorials in order to figure out how to do something.

Incentivized

• Better troubleshooting for errors in Visual Studio integration mode
• Improvements in performance
• Documentation could be better

Incentivized

• Pricing.... I wish there was an inexpensive developer version I could buy for myself.
• Portability.... I would like to use it from a flash drive so I can use it where ever I am asked to work.
• Unbundled.... This may be available already but I dont' recall I can buy it cheaply as a stand-alone product. Its only part of the bundle - cost effectively.

Incentivized

It's a good tool to have, but becomes expensive to buy a user license for each developer.

Incentivized

They have a great community website where you can search for answers but are also very responsive when it comes to direct support.

Incentivized

We had been using an outsourced company for such projects until we decided to hire our own team and do all of this DB work in-house. So this was our first year of experience with this product. So far, we're very pleased, as are our clients.

Incentivized

I've used Visual Studio Database Projects for this type of work in the past with some success, but Redgate SQL Compare is faster, more transparent, and simply easier to use. Faster is self explanatory. More transparent, means that it's much easier to set up your desired options for schema change deployment scripts. Easier to use, It's really dead simple. Start a project, connect your source, connect destination, click compare.

Incentivized

• Low-cost product for basic connectivity features
• Allows us to deliver applications for clients that requires MySQL as a database
• Allows us keep using our development tools and IDE due to integration capabilities (mainly Visual Studio)
• Easy to use

Incentivized

• Makes deployment fairly simple. Cutting our deployment time down.
• With the SDK, we can customize our deployment process very quickly and easily.
• History is not great, it does create scripts you can go back and see but it would be nice to have a quicker version view by object to save time.

Incentivized