I am using the free tools now and have been for the past two years. The eVC++ is a true compilier and creates much smaller footprint files. I am currently porting over a program that I wrote a couple of years ago in eVB to eVC++. There are some limitations in eVC++ that you can't do that you could do in VC++, but there usually are work arounds.
A good site to goto for help in eVC++ is
Pocket Projects
This site is sometimes slow, but it does have a good search feature and you can get answers if you are patient.
Hope this helps,
-Eric