head to head · open source
typeorm vs sqlit
typeorm has 36,661 GitHub stars, 6,691 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. sqlit has 4,969 stars, 178 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. typeorm leads on adoption by 638% (36,661 vs 4,969 stars). typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT; sqlit is written in Python under MIT. typeorm has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, sqlit 4%. typeorm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 5 topic tags (cockroachdb, mariadb, mysql, postgresql), 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 | sqlit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 178 |
| 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 sqlit if
- You want the sqlit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and sqlit 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 sqlit
The lazygit of SQL databases Connect and query your database from your terminal in seconds. pipx install sqlit tui Connect Supports all major databases: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, MariaDB, FirebirdSQL, Oracle, DuckDB, CockroachDB, ClickHouse, Snowflake, Databricks, Supabase, CloudFlare D1, Turso, Athena, BigQuery, Spanner, RedShift, IBM Db2, SAP HANA, Teradata, Exasol, Trino, Presto, Apache Flight SQL, Apache Impala, SurrealDB and osquery. Query Syntax highlighting. History. Vim style keybindings. Results Load millions of rows. Inspect data, filter by content, fuzzy search. Docker Discovery…
read the full sqlit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is typeorm or sqlit more popular?
typeorm has 36,661 GitHub stars and sqlit has 4,969. typeorm has the larger community by that measure.
Are typeorm and sqlit free?
Both are open source. typeorm is licensed under MIT and sqlit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between typeorm and sqlit?
typeorm is written in TypeScript and sqlit in Python. 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 sqlit?
Choose typeorm if you want the larger community (36,661 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sqlit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.