we use dotConnect to connect to MySQL and store valuable information in the cloud, also to access or replicate information in different applications developed in window environment, we knew this powerful data management tool, two years ago looking for alternatives to access from visual studio to mysql , now we can share information with our web pages from different applications, since this ado.net based connector allows us access in a fluid way using new algorithms that improve performance.

- Direct access to the MySQL server of applications without native access. - It offers a high performance, surpassing even the other suppliers based on ado.net. - Compatible with the latest versions of Mysql. - Works on connected and disconnected models. - It has the ability to monitor the execution of queries. - Works excellent with the Visual Studio development IDE. - Offer SSL connection to MySQL server.

- Since it is not a native tool, it is necessary to include certain dependencies for its operation. - Unexpected compatibility errors may occur.

We have not used the 'native' drivers - but use their Universal - which encapsulates many of the native drivers. It has been a very pleasant experience - to the point of we really do not notice that we are using it on a day to day basis...

We were looking for database connectivity that would allow our tools to connect to any database - quickly and easily. We also wanted one that would replace the drivers in .Net without needing a lot of customization. We found the answer to both in dotConnect Universal. We had no customization - just use their components instead of the standard .Net drivers - and away you go. Our tools can now easily connect to MSSQL on minute - and MySQL, Oracle, etc. the next. And they simply work. AND - they work with other tools like Active Query Builder, etc - without any need to change any code... Very nice.

We have honestly not really encountered any real downsides to these drivers.. We use them in a fairly generic way (but is that not the whole point of a Universal driver?).

If you have a tons of legacy code, this is very vial

Almost exact syntactical replacement of Linq2Sql technonlogy, capable of connecting to more DB, not only MSSQL.

Some semantical quirks. For instance clasical Linq2Sql (.NET Fw 3.5+) can distinguish which methods in select part can be converted to exppression tree and delegated to SQL (like ToLower) and which can't and in this case it materializes their input params and calls them in app. This part does not work well in linqConnect... room for improvment.

dotConnect is one of the easiest to use software packages that I evaluated and/or purchased lately, and it does what I want it to do without any known problems, whereas its competitors either lack some important functionality or completely fail at their task. I am planning to use dotConnect for MySQL in my HA (High-Availability) Geo-Distributed MariaDB/Calera4 database cluster, and I am very happy with dotConnect's features and performance.

1. Unlike the MySQL .NET Connector from Oracle, Devart's dotConnect for MySQL is truly asynchronous. 2. Unlike the MySQL .NET Connector from Oracle, Devart's dotConnect for MySQL works flawlessly with MariaDB 10.5. 3. The built-in Entity Developer not only speeds up the development process, but also eliminates the need to buy other database schema visualization and management tools. 4. The ease of use is a major advantage: in a database-first approach, I create or update the database schema, and then the Entity Framework Core model and context classes are generated with a single click of a button.

At a glance, the price of the Professional edition seems a bit steep for an individual developer, but - as I mentioned in the Pros section above, this software includes at least 2 (if not 3) tools in one, so that makes the price actually very competitive.

We had to look for alternatives when we faced a lot of problems using the native MySQL driver (performance issues, bugs, etc). dotConnect ADO.NET Providers was the perfect choice. All problems were gone.

Support truly asynchronous operations, great support, ease of use (full compatibility with native driver standard), direct TCP connection, good performance, easily integrated in Visual Studio.

I little bit expensive but considering the ammount of features included it's a fair price.