head to head · open source
typeorm vs sequelize
typeorm has 36,652 GitHub stars, 6,670 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. sequelize has 30,362 stars, 4,341 forks, 1,080 open issues and last shipped today. typeorm leads on adoption by 21% (36,652 vs 30,362 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; sequelize is written in TypeScript under MIT. typeorm has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, sequelize 14%. sequelize was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (javascript, mariadb, 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 | sequelize | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 30K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| 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 sequelize if
- You want the sequelize feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sequelize 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 sequelize
Sequelize is a promise based object relational mapping tool for Node.js, written in TypeScript and distributed under the MIT license. It maps JavaScript and TypeScript objects onto relational tables, so application code works with models and relations instead of hand written SQL strings. The package is published on npm as @sequelize/core , documentation lives at sequelize.org, and the project has existed for roughly sixteen years with about 30,000 stars and 4,300 forks on GitHub. It belongs to the Node.js ecosystem, where it occupies the ORM layer between an application and its database driver.…
read the full sequelize overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or sequelize more popular?
typeorm has 36,652 GitHub stars and sequelize has 30,362. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and sequelize free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and sequelize under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and sequelize?
typeorm is written in TypeScript and sequelize 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 sequelize?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,652 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sequelize if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.