Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Entity Framework VS Bookshelf.js

Compare Entity Framework VS Bookshelf.js and see what are their differences

Entity Framework logo Entity Framework

See Comparison of Entity Framework vs NHibernate.

Bookshelf.js logo Bookshelf.js

Application and Data, Data Stores, and Object Relational Mapper (ORM)
  • Entity Framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-18
  • Bookshelf.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-21

Entity Framework features and specs

  • Productivity
    Entity Framework automates database-related code generation, reducing the amount of boilerplate code developers must write and maintain. This allows developers to work more efficiently and focus more on business logic.
  • Abstraction
    It abstracts the database interaction details, enabling developers to work with higher-level .NET objects instead of raw SQL queries, resulting in clearer and more manageable code.
  • Code First Approach
    This allows developers to define their database schema using C# classes, making it easy to evolve the database alongside the codebase using migrations.
  • Support for Multiple Databases
    Entity Framework supports a wide range of relational databases, including SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MySQL, providing flexibility and choice to the developers.
  • Change Tracking
    It provides automatic change tracking of entity objects, simplifying the process of updating data in the database without manually tracking object changes.

Possible disadvantages of Entity Framework

  • Performance Overhead
    The abstraction layer can lead to performance overhead compared to plain SQL queries, as the generated queries might not be as optimized as handcrafted SQL.
  • Complexity
    For simple or small applications, the complexity introduced by using an ORM like Entity Framework might be unnecessary and could complicate the architecture.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers need to learn the specific concepts and configurations of Entity Framework, which can be time-consuming compared to traditional database access methodologies.
  • Debugging Difficulty
    Debugging issues can be more challenging because of the abstraction, making it sometimes difficult to trace the exact query being executed and pinpoint performance bottlenecks.
  • Limited SQL Features
    While Entity Framework supports a wide range of SQL functionalities, there are advanced features specific to certain databases that may not be fully supported or could require custom implementation.

Bookshelf.js features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Bookshelf.js provides a simple and intuitive API for interacting with databases, making it easy for developers to perform CRUD operations without a steep learning curve.
  • Supports Transactions
    Bookshelf.js supports transactions, allowing developers to execute a series of operations that can be committed or rolled back, ensuring database integrity.
  • Promise-based
    The library uses promises for asynchronous operations, which makes it easier to work with asynchronous code and integrate with modern JavaScript frameworks.
  • Compatibility with Knex.js
    Bookshelf.js is built on top of Knex.js, giving it flexibility and power in constructing SQL queries, and it allows developers to use Knex's powerful feature set.
  • Active Record Pattern
    The active record pattern used by Bookshelf.js makes it easier to link database tables to models, simplifying data manipulation and retrieval.

Possible disadvantages of Bookshelf.js

  • Limited Support for Advanced Features
    Bookshelf.js may lack support for some advanced database features, which can limit its suitability for complex applications requiring advanced querying capabilities.
  • Performance Overhead
    Bookshelf.js introduces some performance overhead due to its abstraction layer, which can be a concern for applications needing high performance or low-latency database access.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    While Bookshelf.js has an active community, it is smaller compared to more popular ORM libraries and frameworks, which might result in fewer third-party plugins and slower community-driven progress.
  • Learning Curve for Complex Use-Cases
    While Bookshelf.js is easy for simple cases, developers may encounter a steep learning curve for more complex data models and relationships.
  • Documentation
    The documentation of Bookshelf.js, while decent, is sometimes considered less comprehensive compared to more mature ORMs, possibly leading to difficulties in finding solutions or understanding advanced use-cases.

Entity Framework videos

Entity Framework Best Practices - Should EFCore Be Your Data Access of Choice?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Entity Framework 6 Tutorial: Learn Entity Framework 6 from Scratch
  • Review - Getting the best out of Entity Framework Core - Jon P Smith

Bookshelf.js videos

Bookshelf.js crud for beginners

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Entity Framework and Bookshelf.js)
Web Frameworks
69 69%
31% 31
Development
65 65%
35% 35
Databases
78 78%
22% 22
Application And Data
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Entity Framework should be more popular than Bookshelf.js. It has been mentiond 15 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Entity Framework mentions (15)

  • Create a Simple .NET Workflow App From Scratch – Your Ultimate Guide
    For the simplicity we will use MSSQLProvider to fetch the data from the database. This class has basic functionality, if you want to create complex database queries, for example JOIN, you'd better use something like Entity Framework. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Entity Framework Core in .NET 7 7️⃣
    I only wanted to give a simple preview of what can be done with Entity Framework, but if this is something that interests you and you want to go further in-depth with all the possibilities, I recommend checking out the official docs where you can also find a great tutorial which will guide you through building your very own .NET Core web application. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Got an internship, need help with .NET
    Entity Framework documentation hub - Entity Framework is a modern object-relation mapper that lets you build a clean, portable, and high-level data access layer with .NET (C#) across a variety of databases, including SQL Database (on-premises and Azure), SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Azure Cosmos DB. It supports LINQ queries, change tracking, updates, and schema migrations. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • How to create a "Database Project" that can be used across multiple .NET apps?
    You can create the DAL using your existing code or start using a Object Relational Mapper like Entity Framework which will do a lot of the work for you, check this out here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/ also check out LINQ. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Website with Database. use C#
    And, possibly (not strictly speaking necessary but very useful) Entity framework as a backend part of it. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

Bookshelf.js mentions (6)

  • Top 6 ORMs for Modern Node.js App Development
    Bookshelf.js is an uncomplicated and lightweight ORM designed for Node.js, constructed atop the Knex.js query builder. Its primary aim is to support SQL databases, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite. Bookshelf.js focuses on simplicity and user-friendliness, offering a direct method for defining models and relationships through JavaScript classes and prototypal inheritance. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Is there a 'batteries included' backend framework like Django, but written in JS?
    If you're set on JS (using only one language on a team/project can be very nice) common choices for backend often involve using Express or hapi with some ORM (like Prisma or Bookshelf). Source: about 3 years ago
  • Using Database Transactions to Write Queries in Strapi
    Strapi uses Bookshelf.js library to send database queries in an ORM fashion. Bookshelf itself is powered by Knex.js, which is a SQL query builder. Knex.js supports popular SQL-based database engines like PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, and MariaDB, which are also supported by Strapi. Knex.js also supports database transactions, which then makes Bookshelf also provides support for it. With a basic understanding of both... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Recovering XAMPP developer looking to make a Node CRUD app. What Node database tools are easy to learn?
    I made the transition from LAMP to Node-based stacks 6 or 7 years ago and started out using BookshelfJS. Node is a different world though, one that lends itself to distributed services and server-less infrastructure, and it's changed how I interact with DBs. Source: over 3 years ago
  • How to get randomly sorted recordsets in Strapi
    First, we need to get all recordsets randomly sorted. To achieve this, we will need to build a query. Strapi is using Bookshelf as an ORM. So we can start by getting our Partnership model, so we can run a query on it. Inside the query, we get a knex (this is the query builder that Bookshelf uses under the hood) query builder instance. On this query builder instance, we can there ask to order recordsets randomly.... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Entity Framework and Bookshelf.js, you can also consider the following products

Sequelize - Provides access to a MySQL database by mapping database entries to objects and vice-versa.

Mikro orm - TypeScript ORM for Node.js based on Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns.

SQLAlchemy - SQLAlchemy is the Python SQL toolkit and Object Relational Mapper that gives application developers the full power and flexibility of SQL.

Beego - Beego Web is official blog and documentation website for beego app web framework

Hibernate - Hibernate an open source Java persistence framework project.

Propel ORM - Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Microframeworks (Backend)