head to head · open source
typeorm vs mikro-orm
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars, 6,694 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. mikro-orm has 9,264 stars, 699 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped yesterday. typeorm leads on adoption by 296% (36,665 vs 9,264 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; mikro-orm is written in TypeScript under MIT. typeorm has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, mikro-orm 8%. mikro-orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (database, javascript, mysql, orm), 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 | mikro-orm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 699 |
| 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 mikro-orm if
- You want the mikro-orm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mikro-orm fits your workflow better
About typeorm
TypeORM is an ORM that can run in Node.js, Browser, Cordova, Ionic, React Native, NativeScript, Expo, and Electron platforms and can be used with TypeScript and JavaScript (ES2023). Its goal is to always support the latest JavaScript features and provide additional features that help you to develop any kind of application that uses databases from small applications with a few tables to large scale enterprise applications with multiple databases. TypeORM supports more databases than any other JS/TS ORM: Google Spanner, Microsoft SqlServer, MySQL/MariaDB, MongoDB, Oracle, Postgres, SAP HANA and SQLite, as well as…
read the full typeorm overview →
About mikro-orm
TypeScript ORM for Node.js based on Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns. Supports MongoDB, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL (including CockroachDB and PGlite), SQLite (including libSQL), MSSQL and Oracle databases. Heavily inspired by Doctrine and Hibernate. Quick Start Install a driver package for your database: If you use additional packages like @mikro orm/cli , @mikro orm/migrations , or @mikro orm/entity generator , install @mikro orm/core explicitly as well. See the quick start guide for details. Define Entities The recommended way to define entities is using defineEntity with setClass : You can…
read the full mikro-orm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or mikro-orm more popular?
typeorm has 36,665 GitHub stars and mikro-orm has 9,264. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and mikro-orm free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and mikro-orm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and mikro-orm?
typeorm is written in TypeScript and mikro-orm 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, typeorm or mikro-orm?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,665 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mikro-orm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.