When building data-driven applications in .NET, choosing the right data access technology can significantly affect performance, maintainability, and development speed. Two of the most widely used approaches are ADO.NET and Dapper. Each comes with its strengths and trade-offs, making them suitable for different scenarios depending on the project's requirements, more details here: https://blog.devart.com/ado-net-vs-dapper.html
What is ADO.NET?
ADO.NET (Active Data Objects for .NET) is a low-level data access framework that has been part of the .NET ecosystem since its early days. It provides direct access to relational databases like SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL via SqlConnection, SqlCommand, DataReader, and DataSet.
The main advantages of ADO.NET include:
High performance: Since it operates closer to the metal, ADO.NET allows precise control over queries and data flow.
Flexibility: Developers can manually control connections, transactions, and data mappings.
Mature and reliable: Being part of the .NET Framework for decades, it’s thoroughly tested and widely supported.
However, this power comes with verbosity. Developers need to write a lot of boilerplate code to map database results to objects, which can slow development and increase the chance of bugs.
What is Dapper?
Dapper is a lightweight micro ORM (Object Relational Mapper) developed by Stack Overflow engineers. Built on top of ADO.NET, it streamlines the process of executing SQL queries and mapping query results to .NET objects using extension methods.
Key benefits of Dapper include:
Minimal setup: Dapper works with plain SQL queries and automatically maps results to C# classes.
Fast performance: While it abstracts some of ADO.NET’s boilerplate, Dapper adds very little overhead and is one of the fastest ORMs available.
Easy to use: Developers can focus on the SQL itself without worrying about complex ORM configurations.
That said, Dapper is best suited for read-heavy applications and simple CRUD operations. It does not support advanced features like change tracking, lazy loading, or complex relationship management, which are found in full ORMs like Entity Framework.
Which One Should You Choose?
Use ADO.NET if you need full control over database interactions, are working with complex transactions, or require the highest performance with custom logic.
Use Dapper if you want rapid development, cleaner code, and object mapping without a heavy ORM footprint.
In conclusion, ADO.NET and Dapper are not mutually exclusive — in fact, Dapper builds on ADO.NET. The choice depends on how much abstraction you need and how much control you want over your data access layer.
