head to head · open source
orm vs dbx
orm has 47,664 GitHub stars, 2,634 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dbx has 28,664 stars, 2,616 forks, 1,406 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 66% (47,664 vs 28,664 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; dbx is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, dbx 9%. dbx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (database, mongodb, mysql), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| orm | dbx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick orm if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dbx if
- You want the dbx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and dbx fits your workflow better
About orm
Docs Discord X Blog Post Architecture Using Prisma 7? It remains fully supported. Its source lives on the v7 branch of this repository and its docs at prisma.io/docs/orm/v7. Prisma 8 is a release candidate. 8.0.0 final is expected in the next four to eight weeks. Until then a release candidate may include breaking changes, and every release ships with an upgrade recipe that the prisma 8 skill applies for you. The candidate is a complete implementation we stand behind: we treat bugs in it as urgent, and the risk you take on is a feature that is not built yet rather than churn. The feature scoreboard names every…
About dbx
90+ databases in 25 MB. Desktop, Docker, CLI, built in AI assistant, and MCP Server. <img src="
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or dbx more popular?
orm has 47,664 GitHub stars and dbx has 28,664. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and dbx free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dbx under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and dbx?
orm is written in TypeScript and dbx in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, orm or dbx?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,664 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dbx if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.