ASP.NET + MySQL - Any reason not to?

Beginning development on a new project, we are currently deciding which technologies to use. For various reasons, we have pretty much decided to use Windows/IIS/C# over Linux/Apache/PHP, but are currently reviewing our database options. We are seriously considering MySQL (running on a Linux server) for cost-saving reasons, but do not want to sacrifice functionality or stability.

Is there any reason not to use a MySQL back-end with a .NET application?

Thanks

You'll only have the mysql drivers to use, unlike sql server where you have a native driver in addition to odbc. You can run mysql on your windows computer if you want. My former windows hosting company had php/mysql/mssql/asp/NET available on their servers so you could use whatever technology you wanted.

Is the MySQL Connector/Net driver not native? I understand that we can run MySQL on the Windows server itself, but this is a large application - the database will need to be on its own servers.

I don't know much about connector/NET, except it's from mysql, not microsoft, hence not a native driver like the mssql client driver that's included in the NET framework.

Not native in the sense that it is a non-Microsoft component, but it is not ODBC either. It is actually written in C# and supposedly much faster than using the ODBC driver. The question is how its performance will compare with MS SQL.

I'm sure there must be some performance comparison studies posted somewhere, and I suspect there are load testing applications for both mssql and mysql available. In any case this isn't really IIS related, you'll probably find a more complete answer in a mysql related forum or site.

If you want a guess, in general mssql will slightly outperform mysql, and the ms sql drivers are probably a skosh faster than the mysql drivers.