head to head · open source
orm vs sequelize
orm has 47,618 GitHub stars, 2,537 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sequelize has 30,362 stars, 4,341 forks, 1,080 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 57% (47,618 vs 30,362 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sequelize is written in TypeScript under MIT. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, sequelize 14%. sequelize was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (javascript, mariadb, mssql, mysql), 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 | sequelize | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 30K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| 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 sequelize if
- You want the sequelize feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sequelize 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 sequelize
Sequelize is a promise based object relational mapping tool for Node.js, written in TypeScript and distributed under the MIT license. It maps JavaScript and TypeScript objects onto relational tables, so application code works with models and relations instead of hand written SQL strings. The package is published on npm as @sequelize/core , documentation lives at sequelize.org, and the project has existed for roughly sixteen years with about 30,000 stars and 4,300 forks on GitHub. It belongs to the Node.js ecosystem, where it occupies the ORM layer between an application and its database driver.…
read the full sequelize overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or sequelize more popular?
orm has 47,618 GitHub stars and sequelize has 30,362. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and sequelize free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sequelize under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and sequelize?
orm is written in TypeScript and sequelize 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 sequelize?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,618 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sequelize if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.