head to head · open source
orm vs mycli
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mycli has 11,976 stars, 699 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 298% (47,640 vs 11,976 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mycli is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, mycli 6%. mycli was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, mysql), 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 | mycli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 699 |
| 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 mycli if
- You want the mycli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and mycli 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 mycli
mycli is a rich terminal client for MySQL compatible databases, aimed at developers, data scientists, and operators who want auto completion, syntax highlighting, and dataframe tooling inside an interactive SQL shell.
read the full mycli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or mycli more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and mycli has 11,976. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and mycli free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mycli under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and mycli?
orm is written in TypeScript and mycli in Python. 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 mycli?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mycli if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.