head to head · open source
typeorm vs neo4j
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars, 6,694 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. neo4j has 17,386 stars, 2,835 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. typeorm leads on adoption by 111% (36,665 vs 17,386 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; neo4j is written in Java under GPL-3.0. typeorm has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, neo4j 16%. typeorm 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
| typeorm | neo4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 neo4j if
- You want the neo4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and neo4j 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 neo4j
= Neo4j: Graphs for Everyone = is the world's leading Graph Database. It is a high performance graph store with all the features expected of a mature and robust database, like a friendly query language and ACID transactions. The programmer works with a flexible network structure of nodes and relationships rather than static tables yet enjoys all the benefits of enterprise quality database. For many applications, Neo4j offers orders of magnitude performance benefits compared to relational DBs. Learn more on the website]. users]] == Using Neo4j == Neo4j is available as a fully managed solution where you can get…
read the full neo4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or neo4j more popular?
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars and neo4j has 17,386. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and neo4j free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and neo4j under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and neo4j?
typeorm is written in TypeScript and neo4j in Java. 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 neo4j?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,665 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose neo4j if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.