FluentMigrator vs sqldef
FluentMigrator
fluentmigrator.github.io
sqldef
sqldef.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | FluentMigrator | sqldef |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Database Migration Tools | 8.2 (#10) | 7.2 (#26) |
| Distribution | The repository says releases are stored on NuGet and prerelease CI builds on Azure Artifacts. | The project provides pre-built single-binary executables and Docker images. |
| Integrations | The project documents in-process integration with .NET dependency injection and CI/CD examples for Azure DevOps and Jenkins. | The README links to a GitHub Action that previews database schema changes. |
| License | The project is released under the Apache-2.0 License. | The sqldef source files are distributed under the MIT License, while the parser is distributed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Purpose | FluentMigrator is a .NET framework for managing database schema changes through version-controlled C# migrations. | sqldef is a CLI tool for diffing SQL schemas and managing RDBMS migrations with regular SQL DDLs. |
| Support | The project points users to GitHub Discussions, bug reports and feature requests, and the fluent-migrator Stack Overflow tag. | The project invites feature requests through pull requests or GitHub Discussions. |
Plans
In their own words
FluentMigrator
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.