head to head · open source
TiDB vs mikro-orm
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars, 6,243 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped today. mikro-orm has 9,229 stars, 673 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TiDB leads on adoption by 339% (40,553 vs 9,229 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; mikro-orm is written in TypeScript under MIT. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, mikro-orm 7%. TiDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (database), 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
| TiDB | mikro-orm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 673 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TiDB if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mikro-orm if
- You want the mikro-orm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mikro-orm fits your workflow better
About TiDB
TiDB is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, aimed at teams that need ACID transactions, real time analytics, and vector search at scale without data silos.
About mikro-orm
MikroORM is a TypeScript ORM for Node.js built on the Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns, aimed at TypeScript teams that want typed, entity based persistence across MongoDB, MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQLite/libSQL databases.
read the full mikro-orm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or mikro-orm more popular?
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars and mikro-orm has 9,229. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and mikro-orm free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mikro-orm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and mikro-orm?
TiDB is written in Go and mikro-orm in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, TiDB or mikro-orm?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mikro-orm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.