head to head · open source
orm vs pony
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pony has 3,818 stars, 255 forks, 358 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 1,148% (47,640 vs 3,818 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; pony is written in Python under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pony 7%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (cockroachdb, mysql, 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 | pony | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 255 |
| 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 pony if
- You want the pony feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and pony 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 pony
Pony is an Apache 2.0 licensed Python object relational mapper that maps Python classes to relational tables and translates generator expression and lambda queries into SQL for SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or pony more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and pony has 3,818. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and pony free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pony under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and pony?
orm is written in TypeScript and pony 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 pony?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pony if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.