head to head · open source
orm vs citus
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. citus has 12,779 stars, 793 forks, 1,075 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 273% (47,640 vs 12,779 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; citus is written in C under AGPL-3.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, citus 6%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, postgres), 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 | citus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 793 |
| 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 citus if
- You want the citus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and citus 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 citus
Citus is an AGPL 3.0 licensed PostgreSQL extension, written in C, that turns an ordinary Postgres server into a distributed database for teams whose applications have outgrown a single PostgreSQL node.
read the full citus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or citus more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and citus has 12,779. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and citus free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and citus under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and citus?
orm is written in TypeScript and citus in C. 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 citus?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose citus if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.