head to head · open source
orm vs pglite
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pglite has 16,234 stars, 467 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 194% (47,661 vs 16,234 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; pglite is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pglite 3%. 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 | pglite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 467 |
| 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 pglite if
- You want the pglite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pglite 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 pglite
PGlite the WASM build of Postgres from Electric . Build reactive, realtime, local first apps directly on Postgres. PGlite Postgres in WASM PGlite is a WASM Postgres build packaged into a TypeScript client library that enables you to run Postgres in the browser, Node.js, Bun and Deno, with no need to install any other dependencies. It is only 3mb gzipped and has support for many Postgres extensions, including pgvector and PostGIS. It can be used as an ephemeral in memory database, or with persistence either to the file system (Node/Bun/Deno) or indexedDB (Browser). Unlike previous "Postgres in the browser"…
read the full pglite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or pglite more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and pglite has 16,234. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and pglite free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pglite under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and pglite?
orm is written in TypeScript and pglite in TypeScript. 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 pglite?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pglite if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.