🚀 EF Core vs Dapper Benchmark – Real .NET 10 Test Results

I ran a full BenchmarkDotNet suite comparing:

EF Core (Tracked ✅ / NoTracking ❌)

Dapper (Raw SQL, no ORM fluff)

We tested:

• SelectById
• SelectMany (1000 rows)
• Insert speed
• Memory usage & allocations

💥 Results?

Dapper crushed EF in insert performance (65x faster)

Tracking in EF adds more overhead than you think

This is a real-world test, not just theory.
📹 Watch the video and see the numbers for yourself.

Comments

[Calvin Nel]

not ideal when to comment you have to sign-in

dapper and EF are doing different things but if you wanting to compare like this it would also benifit from comparing if the same feature exists...

Example:

var sql = "INSERT INTO Orders (Id, CustomerName, OrderDate, TotalAmount) VALUES (@p0, @p1, @p2, @p3)";
    await _context.Database.ExecuteSqlRawAsync(sql, order.Id, order.CustomerName, order.OrderDate, order.TotalAmount);

this would be closer to Dapper in terms of doing the same thing... and on performance..

i just think its important to understand the tooling and whats it offers, strength and weeknesses.

would love to see a big project... with lots of funcactionlity changed at wim to a different DB all together...

dont get me wrong i think both have their place, and if used correctly can be very powerful.