head to head · open source
orm vs bun
orm has 47,660 GitHub stars, 2,602 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. bun has 5,004 stars, 317 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 852% (47,660 vs 5,004 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; bun is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, bun 6%. bun was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (database, mssql, mysql, orm), 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 | bun | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 317 |
| 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 bun if
- You want the bun feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and bun 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 bun
Bun: SQL first Golang ORM Lightweight, SQL first Golang ORM for PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, SQLite, and Oracle Bun is a modern ORM that embraces SQL rather than hiding it. Write complex queries in Go with type safety, powerful scanning capabilities, and database agnostic code that works across multiple SQL databases. ✨ Key Features SQL first approach Write elegant, readable queries that feel like SQL Multi database support PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, MSSQL, SQLite, and Oracle Type safe operations Leverage Go's static typing for compile time safety Flexible scanning Query results into structs, maps, scalars, or…
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or bun more popular?
orm has 47,660 GitHub stars and bun has 5,004. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and bun free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bun under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and bun?
orm is written in TypeScript and bun 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 bun?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bun if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.