diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/AppSetup.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/AppSetup.cs
index 20f07832..27670313 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/AppSetup.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/AppSetup.cs
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ internal static class AppSetup
 {
     private class ProjectSetupInfo
     {
-        public required Uri Url { get; set; }
+        public required AzureDevOpsProjectUrl Url { get; set; }
         public required string Token { get; set; }
         public bool AutoComplete { get; set; }
         public List<int>? AutoCompleteIgnoreConfigs { get; set; }
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@ public static async Task SetupAsync(WebApplication app, CancellationToken cancel
         var projects = await context.Projects.ToListAsync(cancellationToken);
         foreach (var setup in setups)
         {
-            var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)setup.Url;
-            var project = projects.SingleOrDefault(p => new Uri(p.Url!) == setup.Url);
+            var url = setup.Url;
+            var project = projects.SingleOrDefault(p => p.Url == setup.Url);
             if (project is null)
             {
                 project = new Models.Management.Project
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/MainDbContext.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/MainDbContext.cs
index a56bb19c..455ba3b0 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/MainDbContext.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/MainDbContext.cs
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.EntityFrameworkCore;
 using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.ChangeTracking;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage.ValueConversion;
 using Tingle.Dependabot.Models.Management;
+using Tingle.Dependabot.Workflow;
 
 namespace Tingle.Dependabot.Models;
 
@@ -14,6 +17,13 @@ public MainDbContext(DbContextOptions<MainDbContext> options) : base(options) {
 
     public DbSet<DataProtectionKey> DataProtectionKeys => Set<DataProtectionKey>();
 
+    protected override void ConfigureConventions(ModelConfigurationBuilder configurationBuilder)
+    {
+        base.ConfigureConventions(configurationBuilder);
+
+        configurationBuilder.Properties<AzureDevOpsProjectUrl>().HaveConversion<AzureDevOpsProjectUrlConverter, AzureDevOpsProjectUrlComparer>();
+    }
+
     protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
     {
         base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
@@ -60,4 +70,18 @@ protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
             builder.OwnsOne(j => j.Resources);
         });
     }
+
+    private class AzureDevOpsProjectUrlConverter : ValueConverter<AzureDevOpsProjectUrl, string>
+    {
+        public AzureDevOpsProjectUrlConverter() : base(convertToProviderExpression: v => v.ToString(),
+                                                       convertFromProviderExpression: v => v == null ? default : new AzureDevOpsProjectUrl(v))
+        { }
+    }
+    private class AzureDevOpsProjectUrlComparer : ValueComparer<AzureDevOpsProjectUrl>
+    {
+        public AzureDevOpsProjectUrlComparer() : base(equalsExpression: (l, r) => l == r,
+                                                      hashCodeExpression: v => v.GetHashCode(),
+                                                      snapshotExpression: v => new AzureDevOpsProjectUrl(v.ToString()))
+        { }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/Management/Project.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/Management/Project.cs
index 00ad2345..31bfeec0 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/Management/Project.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Models/Management/Project.cs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
 using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
+using Tingle.Dependabot.Workflow;
 
 namespace Tingle.Dependabot.Models.Management;
 
@@ -29,8 +30,7 @@ public class Project
     /// <summary>URL for the project.</summary>
     /// <example>https://dev.azure.com/tingle/dependabot</example>
     [Url]
-    [Required]
-    public string? Url { get; set; } // TODO: change this to AzureDevOpsProjectUrl when we have converters for JSON and EfCore hence reduce the conversions all over the code
+    public AzureDevOpsProjectUrl Url { get; set; }
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Token for accessing the project with permissions for repositories, pull requests, and service hooks.
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProjectUrl.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProjectUrl.cs
index f765573d..272da2bb 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProjectUrl.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProjectUrl.cs
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 using System.ComponentModel;
 using System.Globalization;
+using System.Text.Json;
+using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
 
 namespace Tingle.Dependabot.Workflow;
 
 /// <summary>Easier manager and parser for URLs of projects on Azure DevOps.</summary>
+[JsonConverter(typeof(AzureDevOpsProjectUrlJsonConverter))]
 [TypeConverter(typeof(AzureDevOpsProjectUrlTypeConverter))]
 public readonly struct AzureDevOpsProjectUrl : IEquatable<AzureDevOpsProjectUrl>
 {
@@ -112,4 +115,24 @@ private class AzureDevOpsProjectUrlTypeConverter : TypeConverter
             return base.ConvertTo(context, culture, value, destinationType);
         }
     }
+
+    private class AzureDevOpsProjectUrlJsonConverter : JsonConverter<AzureDevOpsProjectUrl>
+    {
+        public override AzureDevOpsProjectUrl Read(ref Utf8JsonReader reader, Type typeToConvert, JsonSerializerOptions options)
+        {
+            if (reader.TokenType == JsonTokenType.Null) return default;
+            if (reader.TokenType != JsonTokenType.String)
+            {
+                throw new InvalidOperationException("Only strings are supported");
+            }
+
+            var str = reader.GetString();
+            return new AzureDevOpsProjectUrl(str!);
+        }
+
+        public override void Write(Utf8JsonWriter writer, AzureDevOpsProjectUrl value, JsonSerializerOptions options)
+        {
+            writer.WriteStringValue(value.ToString());
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProvider.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProvider.cs
index 8f876f41..4a1dbb71 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProvider.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/AzureDevOpsProvider.cs
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ public async Task<List<string>> CreateOrUpdateSubscriptionsAsync(Project project
         };
 
         // fetch the subscriptions
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         var uri = new UriBuilder
         {
             Scheme = url.Scheme,
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ public async Task<List<string>> CreateOrUpdateSubscriptionsAsync(Project project
 
     public async Task<AzdoProject> GetProjectAsync(Project project, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         var uri = new UriBuilder
         {
             Scheme = url.Scheme,
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ public async Task<AzdoProject> GetProjectAsync(Project project, CancellationToke
 
     public async Task<List<AzdoRepository>> GetRepositoriesAsync(Project project, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         var uri = new UriBuilder
         {
             Scheme = url.Scheme,
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public async Task<List<AzdoRepository>> GetRepositoriesAsync(Project project, Ca
 
     public async Task<AzdoRepository> GetRepositoryAsync(Project project, string repositoryIdOrName, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         var uri = new UriBuilder
         {
             Scheme = url.Scheme,
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ public async Task<AzdoRepository> GetRepositoryAsync(Project project, string rep
 
     public async Task<AzdoRepositoryItem?> GetConfigurationFileAsync(Project project, string repositoryIdOrName, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
     {
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
 
         // Try all known paths
         foreach (var path in ConfigurationFilePaths)
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/Synchronizer.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/Synchronizer.cs
index aaed3b4a..ad7add13 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/Synchronizer.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/Synchronizer.cs
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ public async Task SynchronizeAsync(Project project, bool trigger, CancellationTo
                                                                    cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
 
             // Track for further synchronization
-            var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(((AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!).MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
+            var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(project.Url.MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
             syncPairs.Add((sci, repository));
         }
 
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ public async Task SynchronizeAsync(Project project, Repository repository, bool
                                                                cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
 
         // perform synchronization
-        var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(((AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!).MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
+        var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(project.Url.MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
         await SynchronizeAsync(project, repository, sci, trigger, cancellationToken);
     }
 
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ public async Task SynchronizeAsync(Project project, string? repositoryProviderId
                                 select r).SingleOrDefaultAsync(cancellationToken);
 
         // perform synchronization
-        var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(((AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!).MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
+        var sci = new SynchronizerConfigurationItem(project.Url.MakeRepositorySlug(adoRepo.Name), adoRepo, item);
         await SynchronizeAsync(project, repository, sci, trigger, cancellationToken);
     }
 
diff --git a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/UpdateRunner.cs b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/UpdateRunner.cs
index 12cf6233..8e3016b0 100644
--- a/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/UpdateRunner.cs
+++ b/server/Tingle.Dependabot/Workflow/UpdateRunner.cs
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@ internal async Task<IDictionary<string, string>> CreateEnvironmentVariables(Proj
               .AddIfNotDefault("DEPENDABOT_MILESTONE", update.Milestone?.ToString());
 
         // Add values for Azure DevOps
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         values.AddIfNotDefault("AZURE_HOSTNAME", url.Hostname)
               .AddIfNotDefault("AZURE_ORGANIZATION", url.OrganizationName)
               .AddIfNotDefault("AZURE_PROJECT", url.ProjectName)
@@ -300,7 +300,7 @@ internal async Task<string> WriteJobDefinitionAsync(Project project,
         [return: NotNullIfNotNull(nameof(value))]
         static JsonNode? ToJsonNode<T>(T? value) => value is null ? null : JsonSerializer.SerializeToNode(value, serializerOptions); // null ensures we do not add to the values
 
-        var url = (AzureDevOpsProjectUrl)project.Url!;
+        var url = project.Url;
         var credentialsMetadata = MakeCredentialsMetadata(credentials);
 
         // check if debug is enabled for the project via Feature Management