head to head · open source
orm vs Neon Postgres
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Neon Postgres has 23,294 stars, 1,132 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 105% (47,661 vs 23,294 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Neon Postgres is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Neon Postgres 5%. 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 | Neon Postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-08-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Neon Postgres if
- You want the Neon Postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Neon Postgres 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 Neon Postgres
Neon Neon is an open source serverless Postgres database platform. It separates storage and compute and substitutes the PostgreSQL storage layer by redistributing data across a cluster of nodes. Quick start Try the Neon Free Tier to create a serverless Postgres instance. Then connect to it with your preferred Postgres client (psql, dbeaver, etc) or use the online SQL Editor. See Connect from any application for connection instructions. Alternatively, compile and run the project locally. Architecture overview A Neon installation consists of compute nodes and the Neon storage engine. Compute nodes are stateless…
read the full Neon Postgres overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or Neon Postgres more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and Neon Postgres has 23,294. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and Neon Postgres free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Neon Postgres under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and Neon Postgres?
orm is written in TypeScript and Neon Postgres in Rust. 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 Neon Postgres?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Neon Postgres if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.