head to head · open source
orm vs better-sqlite3
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. better-sqlite3 has 7,546 stars, 483 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 532% (47,661 vs 7,546 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; better-sqlite3 is written in JavaScript under MIT. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, better-sqlite3 6%. 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 | better-sqlite3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 7.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-08-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 483 |
| 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 better-sqlite3 if
- You want the better-sqlite3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and better-sqlite3 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 better-sqlite3
better sqlite3 The fastest and simplest library for SQLite in Node.js. Full transaction support High performance, efficiency, and safety Easy to use synchronous API (better concurrency than an asynchronous API... yes, you read that correctly) Support for user defined functions, aggregates, virtual tables, and extensions 64 bit integers (invisible until you need them) Worker thread support (for large/slow queries) Help this project stay strong! & 128170; better sqlite3 is used by thousands of developers and engineers on a daily basis. Long nights and weekends were spent keeping this project strong and dependable…
read the full better-sqlite3 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or better-sqlite3 more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and better-sqlite3 has 7,546. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and better-sqlite3 free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and better-sqlite3 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and better-sqlite3?
orm is written in TypeScript and better-sqlite3 in JavaScript. 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 better-sqlite3?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose better-sqlite3 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.