SqlBulkPro 1.0.3

SqlBulkPro

High-performance SQL Server bulk operations for .NET 8/9+

SqlBulkPro provides blazing-fast bulk insert, upsert, update, delete, and sync operations for SQL Server using SqlBulkCopy + MERGE. Works seamlessly with EF Core and Dapper/ADO.NET.

Why SqlBulkPro?

• Measured against EF Core SaveChanges on one SQL Server 2022 container (see benchmarks; about 4× to 10× lower mean time in that run)
• 🎯 Production-ready with proper locking, transactions, and concurrency handling
• 🔧 Simple API - single method calls, no complex configuration
• 🔄 True upsert using SQL Server MERGE (solves EF Core issue #4526 open since 2016)
• Commercial license — developer $149/year or team $599/year for up to 10 developers. The license key is emailed after purchase. Competitor prices are cited with sources in docs/comparison.md

Quick Start

Installation

dotnet add package SqlBulkPro

EF Core

using SqlBulkPro;

await dbContext.BulkInsertAsync(products);

// Upsert: insert new, update existing
await dbContext.BulkUpsertAsync(products);

// Bulk update
await dbContext.BulkUpdateAsync(products);

// Bulk delete
await dbContext.BulkDeleteAsync(products);

// Keep explicit identity values. The library sets IDENTITY_INSERT on for the write, then off.
await dbContext.BulkInsertAsync(productsWithIds, new BulkOptions { KeepIdentity = true });

Dapper/ADO.NET

using SqlBulkPro;
using Microsoft.Data.SqlClient;

using var connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);

// Bulk insert with attributes or fluent config
await connection.BulkInsertAsync(products);

// Bulk upsert
await connection.BulkUpsertAsync(products, config => config
    .ToTable("Products", "dbo")
    .HasKey(nameof(Product.Id)));

// Sync, including a transaction overload. DeleteMissingRows is required.
await connection.BulkSyncAsync(products, config => config
    .WithOptions(opt => opt.DeleteMissingRows = true));

Features

Operations

• ✅ BulkInsert - Fast bulk insertion with identity propagation
• ✅ BulkUpsert - Insert new rows, update existing (MERGE, or UPDATE then INSERT when Strategy is UpdateInsert)
• ✅ BulkUpdate - Update matching rows only, including an ADO.NET transaction overload
• ✅ BulkDelete - Delete matching rows, including an ADO.NET transaction overload
• ✅ BulkSync - Upsert plus delete of missing rows, on DbContext, DbSet, and SqlConnection

Capabilities

• 🔑 Composite key support
• 🆔 Identity value propagation back to entities
• 🔄 Value converter support (EF Core)
• 🔒 Proper HOLDLOCK hints to prevent race conditions
• 📦 Configurable batch sizes
• ⏱️ Timeout control
• 🔐 Transaction support (respects ambient transactions)
• 🎛️ Column filtering (include/exclude specific columns)
• 🚀 Zero-reflection hot paths (compiled expressions)

Configuration

var options = new BulkOptions
{
    KeyColumns = new List<string> { "ProductCode", "Region" }, // Custom keys
    ColumnsToIgnore = new List<string> { "LastModified" },     // Don't update
    InsertOnlyColumns = new List<string> { "CreatedAt" },      // Insert only
    BatchSize = 10000,                                          // Batch size
    TimeoutSeconds = 60,                                        // Timeout
    UseHoldLock = true,                                         // Prevent races
    ReturnIdentities = true,                                    // Get IDs back
    UpdateOnlyIfChanged = true,                                 // Skip identical rows
    Strategy = MergeStrategy.Merge                              // or UpdateInsert
};

await dbContext.BulkUpsertAsync(products, options);

Performance

One BenchmarkDotNet 0.14.0 run on 9 November 2026. Host: Ubuntu 24.04, 4-core Intel Xeon, 15 GiB RAM, .NET 9.0.22. SQL Server 2022 ran in Docker on that same machine (mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest). Job: 1 warmup and 3 measured iterations. The speedup column is EF mean / SqlBulkPro mean.

Insert compares AddRange + SaveChanges with BulkInsertAsync. Update vs upsert compares UpdateRange + SaveChanges with BulkUpsertAsync after the rows already exist. Standard deviations and the full method notes are in docs/benchmarks.md.

Licensing

SqlBulkPro requires a commercial license for production use.

Trial Mode

• Limited to 1,000 rows per operation
• A 14-day in-memory trial check runs outside Development. DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT=Development, ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development, or an attached debugger skips that check. The row cap still applies

License options

The license key is emailed after purchase. Support: dbdavis1990apple@gmail.com

• Developer: $149 per developer per year
• Team (up to 10 developers): $599 per year

Issuing and the token format are documented in docs/licensing.md.

Activating your license

Use either method. The key is one long string; paste it unchanged.

Environment variable. The library reads SQLBULKPRO_LICENSE_KEY the first time a bulk method runs, unless SqlBulkProLicense.Register was already called. A missing or rejected variable leaves the library in trial mode (1,000 rows, and a console banner). It does not throw.

export SQLBULKPRO_LICENSE_KEY="paste-the-key-here"

$env:SQLBULKPRO_LICENSE_KEY = "paste-the-key-here"

Code. SqlBulkProLicense.Register checks the signature and expiry immediately. An empty, altered, or expired key throws, and a rejected key does not replace one that was already accepted. Call it at startup.

using SqlBulkPro;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
SqlBulkProLicense.Register(builder.Configuration["SqlBulkPro:LicenseKey"]!);
var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

appsettings.json (leave the real key out of source control):

{
  "SqlBulkPro": {
    "LicenseKey": ""
  }
}

User secrets for local development:

dotnet user-secrets set "SqlBulkPro:LicenseKey" "paste-the-key-here"

SqlBulkPro__LicenseKey is the environment-variable form of that configuration entry. It is only used if your startup code passes it to Register. The library itself reads SQLBULKPRO_LICENSE_KEY, not SqlBulkPro__LicenseKey.

If neither Register nor SQLBULKPRO_LICENSE_KEY is set, the library also checks sqlbulkpro.lic next to the application and license.key under the SqlBulkPro folder of the application-data directory. Details are in docs/licensing.md.

Free Tier

For bulk insert only, use the free SqlBulkPro.Lite package (MIT licensed):

dotnet add package SqlBulkPro.Lite

Documentation

• Getting Started
• API Reference
• Benchmarks
• FAQ
• Comparison with Alternatives
• Licensing

Requirements

• .NET 8.0 or later
• SQL Server 2016 or later
• Entity Framework Core 8.0+ (for EF integration)

Support

• Email: dbdavis1990apple@gmail.com
• NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/profiles/danieldavisdev
• Docs in this repository, including licensing

License

Commercial license required for production use. See LICENSE.txt and EULA.txt.

SqlBulkPro - Built for developers who need production-grade bulk operations without the enterprise price tag.