head to head · open source
orm vs sled
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars, 2,538 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sled has 9,093 stars, 427 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. orm leads on adoption by 424% (47,640 vs 9,093 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sled is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, sled 5%. 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 | sled | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 427 |
| 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 sled if
- You want the sled feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and sled 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 sled
sled is an embedded key value database for Rust programs, written in Rust under the Apache 2.0 licence, aimed at developers who want a threadsafe, crash safe local store inside their own process instead of running a separate database server.
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or sled more popular?
orm has 47,640 GitHub stars and sled has 9,093. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and sled free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sled under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and sled?
orm is written in TypeScript and sled in Rust. 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 sled?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,640 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sled if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.