# Database Providers

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## Database Providers

Entity Framework Core can access many different databases through plug-in libraries called database providers.

* Database providers can extend EF Core to enable functionality unique to specific databases.
* Some concepts are common to most databases, and are included in the primary EF Core components.
* Such concepts include expressing queries in LINQ, transactions, and tracking changes to objects once they are loaded from the database.
* Some concepts are specific to a particular provider. For example, the SQL Server provider allows you to [configure memory-optimized tables](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/providers/sql-server/memory-optimized-table) (a feature specific to SQL Server).

The following providers are supported in Entity Framework Core 5.

| Name                                            | NuGet Package                                                                                                     |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [SQL Server](/database-providers/sql-server.md) | [Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer) |
| [SQLite](/database-providers/sqlite.md)         | [Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite)       |
| [InMemory](/database-providers/inmemory.md)     | [Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.InMemory](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.InMemory)   |
| [Cosmos](/database-providers/cosmos.md)         | [Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Cosmos](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Cosmos)       |
| [PostgreSQL](/database-providers/postgresql.md) | [Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Npgsql.EntityFrameworkCore.PostgreSQL)     |

### References

* [EF Core - Database Providers](https://www.learnentityframeworkcore.com/database-providers)


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