---
title: "Dapper vs EF Core for a new greenfield ASP.NET Core API"  
description: "Dapper vs EF Core for a new greenfield ASP.NET Core API"  
author: "Hemant Patel"  
published: 2026-09-30  
updated: 2026-09-30  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162229/dapper-vs-ef-core-for-a-new-greenfield-asp-net-core-api  
category: "Architecture"  
tags: ["Dapper", "Entity Framework Core", "asp.net core", "architecture"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Dapper vs EF Core for a new greenfield ASP.NET Core API

We're starting a greenfield service and trying to decide whether to standardize on Dapper or EF Core. The team likes Dapper's speed and lack of abstraction, but I'm nervous about losing change tracking, migrations, and LINQ composability later on.

For a new ASP.NET Core API with moderate domain complexity — roughly 15 entities, some reporting endpoints, and a couple of CRUD screens — what would you actually pick today? I'd rather hear from folks who've lived through the maintenance pain of one or the other, not just benchmark numbers.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/162229/dapper-vs-ef-core-for-a-new-greenfield-asp-net-core-api

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