I bought the commercial version a year ago and I have it alongside my trusty mysql-client command line and Navicat.
Workbench has gathered dust rather than use even though I spent a couple of weeks learning to use it.
I’ve found workbench’s synchronization to be flaky and its layout of imported databases too painful for it to be really useful unless building a new database from scratch.
Navicat doesn’t lay out the relationships but its much faster and easier to setup to manage large numbers of databases.
When Navicat is too heavyweight or inflexible, the command line mysql client is still my most frequently used tool for general queries and routine maintenance.
I love the idea of Workbench but it has to synchronize flawlessly and handle multiple databases effectively to be worthwhile.
