head to head · open source
orm vs badger
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. badger has 15,762 stars, 1,318 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 202% (47,640 vs 15,762 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; badger is written in Go under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, badger 8%. orm 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
| orm | badger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 badger if
- You want the badger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and badger fits your workflow better
About orm
Prisma ORM is a next generation TypeScript ORM for Node.js and TypeScript applications, supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, SQLite, MongoDB, and CockroachDB, and it is aimed at developers and teams building data backed applications in that ecosystem.
About badger
BadgerDB is an embeddable, persistent, fast key value database written in pure Go, aimed at Go developers who need local high performance storage inside their own applications rather than a separate database server.
read the full badger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or badger more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and badger has 15,762. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and badger free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and badger under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and badger?
orm is written in TypeScript and badger in Go. 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 badger?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose badger if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.