head to head · open source
orm vs realm-swift
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. realm-swift has 16,598 stars, 2,232 forks, 499 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 187% (47,661 vs 16,598 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; realm-swift is written in Objective-C under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, realm-swift 13%. 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.
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Side by side
| orm | realm-swift | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 realm-swift if
- You want the realm-swift feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and realm-swift 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 realm-swift
About Realm Database Realm is a mobile database that runs directly inside phones, tablets or wearables. This repository holds the source code for the iOS, macOS, tvOS & watchOS versions of Realm Swift & Realm Objective C. Why Use Realm Intuitive to Developers: Realm’s object oriented data model is simple to learn, doesn’t need an ORM, and lets you write less code. Built for Mobile: Realm is fully featured, lightweight, and efficiently uses memory, disk space, and battery life. Designed for Offline Use: Realm’s local database persists data on disk, so apps work as well offline as they do online. Object Oriented…
read the full realm-swift overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or realm-swift more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and realm-swift has 16,598. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and realm-swift free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and realm-swift under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and realm-swift?
orm is written in TypeScript and realm-swift in Objective-C. 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 realm-swift?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose realm-swift if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.