head to head · open source
orm vs sqlx
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sqlx has 17,622 stars, 1,772 forks, 754 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 170% (47,661 vs 17,622 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sqlx is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, sqlx 10%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (mariadb, mysql, 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.
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Side by side
| orm | sqlx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 sqlx if
- You want the sqlx 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 sqlx 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 sqlx
SQLx 🧰 The Rust SQL Toolkit Install Usage Docs Ecosystem Discord Built with ❤️ by The LaunchBadge team Have a question? Be sure to check the FAQ first! SQLx is an async, pure Rust † SQL crate featuring compile time checked queries without a DSL. Truly Asynchronous . Built from the ground up using async/await for maximum concurrency. Compile time checked queries (if you want). See SQLx is not an ORM. Database Agnostic . Support for [PostgreSQL], [MySQL], [MariaDB], [SQLite]. [MSSQL] was supported prior to version 0.7, but has been removed pending a full rewrite of the driver as part of our [SQLx Pro initiative]…
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or sqlx more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and sqlx has 17,622. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and sqlx free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sqlx under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and sqlx?
orm is written in TypeScript and sqlx 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 sqlx?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sqlx if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.