Most applications require storing and retrieving data. Usually, we store this data in a database. Working with databases can often be rather complicated. You have to manage database connections, convert data from your application to a format the database can understand, and handle many other subtle issues.

The .NET ecosystem has libraries you can use for this, such as ADO.NET. However, it can still be complicated to manually build SQL queries and convert the data from the database into C# classes back and forth.

EF, which stands for Entity Framework, is a library that PROVIDES an object-oriented way to access a database. It ACTS as an object-relational mapper, communicates with the database, and maps database responses to .NET classes and objects.

Entity Framework (EF) Core is a lightweight, open-source, and cross-platform version of the Entity Framework.

Here are the essential differences between the two:

Cross-platform:

• We can use EF Core in cross-platform apps that target .NET Core.
• EF 6.x targets .NET Framework, so you’re limited to Windows.

Performance:

• EF Core is fast and lightweight. It significantly outperforms EF 6.x.

FEATURES:

• EF Core has some features that EF 6.x doesn’t have (batching statements, client-side key GENERATION, in-memory database for testing)
• EF 6.x is much more feature-rich than EF Core. EF Core is missing some headline features at the time of writing, such as lazy-loading and full server-side Group By. However, it is under active development, so those features will no doubt appear soon.