1. It's faster then SQL Server 2. It's not bloatware like most other DBs out there. 3. It's free for personal AND commercial use 4. Tons of free DB management applications. Thats all the advantages I can think of.. now for the disadvantages There are hardly any free fully usable data providers out there. ODBC is available but very slow, and parameters and strings combo do not work with the SET command. The prices for the non-free data providers range from $29 - $$$ and some of them do not even work correctly. I am currently using ODBC, but may need to switch due to the above issues. Haven't found any free fully working mysql data providers. I may end up paying for a fully working provider, once I find one :) Oh, mySQL is missing stored procedures, these will be added in the next major version (5.0). And it is not 100% SQL compatible, but I havent found a DB yet that is 100% compatible :) Besides the above, mySQL is quite good.