An evaluation of .NET Object-Relational Mappers in relational databases : Entity Framework core and Dapper

Sammanfattning: Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) is a method intended to counter the incompatibilities between Object-Oriented programming languages and relational databases. As of today ORM goes further then solving these incompatibilities and often provides a lot of features like tracking and caching data. However there are other solutions with less features in the endeavor of getting better performance. Through this, ORM has fallen into two different categories: Regular ORM and micro ORM. This paper evaluates the regular ORM Entity Framework core (EF core) and the micro ORM Dapper by measuring execution time, memory allocation, and code metrics. The evaluation showed that in the meaning of pure performance Dapper was generally superior in all categories. However Entity Framework core, with its provided features offered a better implementation phase along with its superior documentation. This means that if the primary goal for the application is performance Dapper is the better option, but where development efficiency is important EF core is a suitable alternative.