--- title: Entity Framework Core Reviews meta_title: 'Entity Framework Core Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 26 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Entity Framework Core works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 26 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-04' parent_category: name: DevOps url: https://www.g2.com/categories/devops --- # Entity Framework Core Reviews **Vendor:** Microsoft **Category:** [ Database DevOps Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/database-devops-software) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 26 ## About Entity Framework Core Entity Framework Core is a lightweight, extensible, open-source, and cross-platform version of Microsoft's popular Entity Framework data access technology. It serves as an object-relational mapper , enabling .NET developers to interact with databases using .NET objects, thereby eliminating much of the boilerplate code typically required for data access. EF Core supports multiple database engines, making it a versatile choice for various applications. Key Features and Functionality: - Cross-Platform Support: EF Core runs on .NET Core, allowing applications to operate seamlessly across different operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. - Modular and Lightweight: Designed with a modular architecture, EF Core provides only the necessary components for object-relational mapping, with the flexibility to extend functionality as needed. - LINQ Integration: Developers can utilize Language Integrated Query to perform database operations, enabling expressive and type-safe queries directly within C# code. - Change Tracking: EF Core automatically tracks changes made to entities, simplifying the process of updating the database with modified data. - Migrations: The framework supports code-based migrations, facilitating the evolution of the database schema alongside the application's data model. - Lazy Loading: EF Core provides lazy loading capabilities, allowing related data to be loaded from the database only when explicitly requested, which can improve application performance by fetching only the necessary data. - Support for Multiple Database Providers: EF Core is compatible with various database engines, including SQL Server, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and more, offering flexibility in database selection. Primary Value and Problem Solved: EF Core streamlines data access in .NET applications by abstracting the complexities of database interactions. It allows developers to work with databases using object-oriented principles, reducing the need for extensive data-access code. This abstraction enhances developer productivity, ensures type safety through LINQ queries, and provides a consistent approach to data access across different platforms and database systems. By managing tasks such as change tracking and migrations, EF Core enables developers to focus more on business logic rather than the intricacies of database operations. ## Entity Framework Core Reviews ### 1. Entity Framework Core: Fast, Intuitive, and Type-Safe Data Access with LINQ **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 05, 2026 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Entity Framework Core is a phenomenal tool for .NET developers because it smoothly bridges the gap between object-oriented programming and relational databases through LINQ. It offers an intuitive, type-safe experience that can significantly speed up development, while still giving you the flexibility to manage complex migrations and support high-performance data operations across multiple platforms. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** As much as I love EF Core for the speed it gives me, it definitely has a few quirks that make me want to pull my hair out sometimes. One of the biggest headaches is the "Magic SQL" problem. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** Entity Framework Core reduces the “cognitive friction” that comes from constantly switching between C# and SQL. For me, it’s really about staying in “code mode” while still tapping into the full power of the database, without feeling like I’m giving anything up. ### 2. Best ORM for.net development **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Niraj O. | Software Engineer IIA, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 16, 2023 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Best ORM for development and easy to integrate with your data access layer with easily sync with your database changes from code to db and db to code. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** It should be compatible with more db types **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** Code with db queries and code first approach with easily sync with db and we can manage migration to up to date db and also part of code due to code first approach. ### 3. Powerful and Flexible ORM **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kashif F. | Chief Technology Officer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 07, 2024 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** support mutlipe databases and large set of APIs **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** difficult to handle Migration in many clients for single codebase **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** Create, and manage databases Seeding Initial Data, Object Mapping ### 4. Entity Framework Core **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shivam S. | Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 13, 2023 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Entity Framework's Code-First approach stands out as a remarkable feature. It empowers developers to define and manage the database schema directly within their C# code, simplifying the development process and fostering a more intuitive workflow. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** Azure DevOps pipeline lacks full support for database migrations. It would be highly beneficial to have a tool within the DevOps Pipeline that can apply migrations when necessary, all configured through YAML. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** It acts as an open-source ally, streamlining database connectivity and querying processes, thus alleviating the necessity of crafting extensive, often repetitive, code structures that could span over a hundred lines. ### 5. Connect directly with any DB and execute **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** SRIRAM M. | Software Developer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** It gives me a good advantage in handling multi-threading and multi-connections from the same application. It also helps me maintain the loosely coupled code from an application standpoint. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** Some of the errors while executing queries may be difficult to debug. The error description will be so generic, and I feel like the error description can be improved. More details documents can be provided for the initial setup. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** The conventional way of connection gives me a hard time while coding or developing a large-scale application. Despite any type of database, we can write our structure with the entity framework. ### 6. Entity Framework Core Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jonathan M. | Data Analytics, Online Media, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 11, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Thanks to Entity Framework core, I and other developers all over the world can easily connect to databases and perform mundane and complex tasks in the.NET framework without causing the system to bog down. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** When working with newer versions, it can be difficult to implement updates since incompatible dlls make it necessary to rethink our approach to the SOLAN in projects and double-check that everything is in sync. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** With Entity Framework core, you can easily retrieve data from any database and save it to another table or column. As a result of implementing entity framework core, our entire project has become more portable and user-friendly. ### 7. EF Core is a well thought out ORM that speeds the time to write CRUD operations **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** EF Core works with various databases and makes it relatively easy to write CRUD code to interface with a database. Instead of hand coding use ADO.NET directly you have a nice abstraction layer. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** So far, we have been happy with EF Core. The performance metrics are looking pretty good - this was our biggest concern before using it but so far, so good, we have not had any issues. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** Improve our rapid application development cycles. We wanted to reduce the amount of time it takes to write data access code as well as reduce the boiler plate code you typically need. ### 8. Pretty fast and flexible **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vikas T. | Technical Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 15, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Reduces the efforts to write SQL queries every time and map them to POJO objects. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** Decreases the control of the generated SQL query. Debugging for the query is also tough. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fetch data from DB in an elegant way. ### 9. Lightweight framework for everyone. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lakshit S. | Growth associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** Entity core framework reduces development time and cost! **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** Data Migrations Break Easily & Lack of Certain Functionality like poorly written SQL queries. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** cost benefit ### 10. it's pretty nice **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer & Network Security | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2022 **What do you like best about Entity Framework Core?** love that it's open source, gives it a sense of community, and opens it up for other developers to work on. **What do you dislike about Entity Framework Core?** Could be kind of tricky to understand up front. Need to take a good look at the documentation. **What problems is Entity Framework Core solving and how is that benefiting you?** enables the companies .NET developers to connect to databases, utilizing .NET objects - [View Entity Framework Core pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/entity-framework-core/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-07+00%3A52%3A08+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=7c09b497-7e74-4192-ba05-5f47ec9341d1&secure%5Btoken%5D=58606235cbcd04e526a8ac2d41091aa345768825811b200d65a654fab1b97370&format=llm_user) ## Entity Framework Core Features **Functionality** - Automation - Change validation - Version control **Management** - Visibility - Rollbacks - Post-deployment validation ## Top Entity Framework Core Alternatives - [Harness Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/harness-platform/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (304 reviews) - [DbVisualizer](https://www.g2.com/products/dbvisualizer/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (263 reviews) - [Liquibase](https://www.g2.com/products/liquibase/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (28 reviews)