head to head · open source
orm vs efcore
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. efcore has 14,793 stars, 3,419 forks, 2,343 open issues and last shipped today. orm leads on adoption by 222% (47,640 vs 14,793 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; efcore is written in C# under MIT. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, efcore 23%. efcore was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, 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 | efcore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| 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 efcore if
- You want the efcore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and efcore 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 efcore
EF Core is a modern object database mapper for .NET, maintained by Microsoft under the MIT License as a .NET Foundation project, and it is intended for .NET developers who want to work with relational and non relational databases through LINQ queries, change tracking, updates, and schema migrations instead of hand written data access code.
read the full efcore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or efcore more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and efcore has 14,793. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and efcore free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and efcore under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and efcore?
orm is written in TypeScript and efcore 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 efcore?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose efcore if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.