head to head · open source
orm vs postgres
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. postgres has 8,730 stars, 374 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 446% (47,640 vs 8,730 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; postgres is written in JavaScript under Unlicense. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, postgres 4%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (cockroachdb, database, nodejs, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| orm | postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 374 |
| 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 postgres if
- You want the postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postgres 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 postgres
Postgres.js is a full featured PostgreSQL client for JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes — Node.js, Deno, Bun and Cloudflare — published to npm as postgres , and it is aimed at developers who need to query a PostgreSQL database from application code without adopting a heavier ORM or query builder.
read the full postgres 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 postgres more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and postgres has 8,730. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and postgres free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and postgres under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and postgres?
orm is written in TypeScript and postgres in JavaScript. 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 postgres?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose postgres if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.