head to head · open source
typeorm vs rocksdb
typeorm has 36,652 GitHub stars, 6,670 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. rocksdb has 32,108 stars, 6,931 forks, 1,645 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. typeorm leads on adoption by 14% (36,652 vs 32,108 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; rocksdb is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. typeorm has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, rocksdb 22%. rocksdb 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
| typeorm | rocksdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 32K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 6.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick typeorm if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rocksdb if
- You want the rocksdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and rocksdb fits your workflow better
About typeorm
TypeORM is an MIT licensed object relational mapper for TypeScript and JavaScript that runs on Node.js, in the browser, and across mobile and desktop platforms, and it is aimed at developers who want to model, query, and migrate SQL and NoSQL databases from one decorator driven codebase.
read the full typeorm overview →
About rocksdb
RocksDB is an embeddable, persistent key value store written in C++ and developed by the Facebook Database Engineering Team. It is a library rather than a standalone server, and it forms the core building block for a fast key value server. The project builds on earlier work on LevelDB by Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean, and it lives in the systems infrastructure and database ecosystem, carrying the topics database and storage engine. It has been public for roughly fourteen years and is dual licensed under GPLv2 and Apache 2.0, so a user may select either license at their option.
read the full rocksdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or rocksdb more popular?
typeorm has 36,652 GitHub stars and rocksdb has 32,108. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and rocksdb free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and rocksdb under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and rocksdb?
typeorm is written in TypeScript and rocksdb in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, typeorm or rocksdb?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,652 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rocksdb if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.