head to head · open source
orm vs rxdb
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars, 2,605 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rxdb has 23,419 stars, 1,184 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orm leads on adoption by 104% (47,661 vs 23,419 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; rxdb is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, rxdb 5%. rxdb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, nodejs), 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 | rxdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 rxdb if
- You want the rxdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rxdb 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 rxdb
A fast, local first , reactive Database for JavaScript Applications What is RxDB? RxDB (short for R eactive D ata b ase) is a local first , NoSQL database for JavaScript Applications. Reactive means that you can not only query the current state, but subscribe to all state changes like the result of a query or even a single field of a document. This is great for UI based realtime applications in a way that makes it easy to develop and also has great performance benefits. Use the quickstart, read the documentation or explore the example projects. Used by many RxDB is a proven technology used by thousands of…
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or rxdb more popular?
orm has 47,661 GitHub stars and rxdb has 23,419. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and rxdb free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rxdb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and rxdb?
orm is written in TypeScript and rxdb 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 rxdb?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,661 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rxdb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.