head to head · open source
orm vs HeidiSQL
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HeidiSQL has 6,315 stars, 600 forks, 324 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 655% (47,661 vs 6,315 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; HeidiSQL is written in Pascal under GPL-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, HeidiSQL 10%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (mariadb, mssql), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| orm | HeidiSQL | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Pascal |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 600 |
| 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 HeidiSQL if
- You want the HeidiSQL feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Pascal
- You evaluated both and HeidiSQL 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 HeidiSQL
HeidiSQL HeidiSQL is a graphical interface for managing MariaDB or MySQL servers, Microsoft SQL databases, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Interbase or Firebird. "Heidi" lets you browse and edit data, create and edit tables, views, procedures, triggers and scheduled events. Also, you can export structure and data, either to SQL file, clipboard or to other servers. Read about features or see some screenshots. Need help? Look at the online help page to learn how to use HeidiSQL. The forum is meant to ask questions. The issue tracker is the place to report bugs or request new features. Building For compiling on platforms other…
read the full HeidiSQL overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is orm or HeidiSQL more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and HeidiSQL has 6,315. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and HeidiSQL free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and HeidiSQL under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and HeidiSQL?
orm is written in TypeScript and HeidiSQL in Pascal. 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 HeidiSQL?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose HeidiSQL if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.