Evolve vs FluentMigrator

Evolve is a free, open-source database migration tool that applies plain SQL scripts to synchronize changes across environments and development teams, including continuous integration and delivery. It is available as a .NET library, .NET tool, or standalone CLI. Listed databases include PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, Cassandra, and CockroachDB. Versioned migrations run once; repeatable migrations run again when their contents change. Evolve records migration names and checksums in a metadata table and checks them whenever it runs. Commands are migrate, erase, repair, and info. Each migration normally uses its own transaction, while TransactionMode can group scripts for commit or rollback. Cluster mode uses a session-level lock to coordinate nodes. The standalone CLI supports x64 Windows and Linux without external dependencies. The library requires .NET 4.7.2+ or .NET Standard 2.0/.NET 5.0; the tool requires .NET Core SDK 3.0 or later.

FluentMigrator is a free .NET framework for managing database schema changes with version-controlled C# migrations. Its fluent C# API defines Up and Down methods for applying changes and rolling them back. The project lists providers for SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and Oracle, among others; provider packages are selected separately. Migrations can run inside an application, with the Migrate.exe console tool, or through dotnet-fm, which integrates with the cross-platform .NET CLI. By default, FluentMigrator creates a VersionInfo table to record completed migrations. Command-line runners can preview generated SQL without executing it, and the CLI can validate migrations before execution. The project documents .NET dependency injection integration and CI/CD examples for GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, and Jenkins. The Quick Start calls for .NET 8.0 or later, a supported database, and basic C# and database knowledge. FluentMigrator is released under the Apache-2.0 License, with releases distributed through NuGet.