ef6

Overview of ef6

What it is

Entity Framework 6 (EF6) is an object-relational mapper for .NET, previously maintained at entityframework.codeplex.com. It is a mature codebase with years of feature development and stabilization, designed to reduce the amount of data-access code developers need to write. EF6 is no longer actively developed; Microsoft only fixes security issues and, in some cases, high-impact bugs. New features are not implemented, and community pull requests are not accepted to ensure stability. Entity Framework Core (EF Core) is the actively developed successor, maintained at github.com/dotnet/efcore, and is designed for modern .NET only.

Key features

• Object-relational mapping for .NET, eliminating most data-access code.
• Tried and tested with many years of stabilization.
• Supported by Microsoft for security fixes and high-impact bug fixes.
• No new features or non-security bug fixes are planned.
• Does not support visual designer or EDMX files (unlike EF Core).
• Most EF6 projects can be ported to EF Core with some effort.

Use cases

• Existing applications that rely on EF6 and require long-term stability with minimal changes.
• Projects that cannot migrate to EF Core due to .NET Framework dependencies or other constraints.
• Scenarios where security fixes are sufficient and new features are not needed.

Getting started

See the repository README for installation and documentation links. The EF6 docs provide installation, tutorials, and samples, though they are no longer updated.

License and pricing

The license is MIT, and the project is open source. Pricing is not stated; it is open source, so no license fees are implied.

Based on the project's public README and repository metadata.