head to head · open source
orm vs q
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. q has 10,362 stars, 425 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 360% (47,640 vs 10,362 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; q is written in Python under GPL-3.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, q 4%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (database), 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 | q | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-02-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 425 |
| 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 q if
- You want the q feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and q 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 q
q is a Python command line tool, licensed under GPL 3.0, that runs SQL statements directly against delimited text files and multi file SQLite databases without importing the data into a database server first.
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 q more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and q has 10,362. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and q free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and q under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and q?
orm is written in TypeScript and q 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 q?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose q if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.