head to head · open source
typeorm vs dbx
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars, 6,694 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. dbx has 28,664 stars, 2,616 forks, 1,406 open issues and last shipped yesterday. typeorm leads on adoption by 28% (36,665 vs 28,664 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; dbx is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. typeorm has attracted 18% 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, mysql, postgresql), 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
| typeorm | dbx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick typeorm if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 typeorm
TypeORM is an ORM that can run in Node.js, Browser, Cordova, Ionic, React Native, NativeScript, Expo, and Electron platforms and can be used with TypeScript and JavaScript (ES2023). Its goal is to always support the latest JavaScript features and provide additional features that help you to develop any kind of application that uses databases from small applications with a few tables to large scale enterprise applications with multiple databases. TypeORM supports more databases than any other JS/TS ORM: Google Spanner, Microsoft SqlServer, MySQL/MariaDB, MongoDB, Oracle, Postgres, SAP HANA and SQLite, as well as…
read the full typeorm overview →
About dbx
90+ databases in 25 MB. Desktop, Docker, CLI, built in AI assistant, and MCP Server. <img src="
More in Infrastructure & Operations
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or dbx more popular?
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars and dbx has 28,664. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and dbx free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and dbx under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and dbx?
typeorm 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, typeorm or dbx?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,665 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dbx if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.