prisma vs typeorm
prisma is downloaded 2.8× more often than typeorm (50,109,989 vs 18,073,696 per month), so it has the larger community and more answered questions online. Both projects are actively maintained.
| Metric | prisma | typeorm |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly downloads | 11,736,834✓ | 4,208,495 |
| Monthly downloads | 50,109,989✓ | 18,073,696 |
| GitHub stars | 46,043✓ | 36,520 |
| Minified size | — | 692.3 kB |
| Minified + gzipped | — | 146.6 kB |
| Dependencies | — | 10 |
| Open issues | 2,624 | 546✓ |
| Last commit | 2026-06-01✓ | 2026-05-28 |
| Latest version | 7.8.0 | 1.0.0 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
When to choose which
prisma
Type-safe database access with an auto-generated client.
Choose it when: New TypeScript projects that want the best DX: a schema file, generated types, and a polished migration workflow.
- + Fully generated types
- + Great migrations & studio
- + Excellent docs
- - Extra schema file + generate step
- - Less raw-SQL flexibility
typeorm
Decorator-based ORM, popular with NestJS.
Choose it when: Decorator/entity style (e.g. NestJS apps) where you want both Active Record and Data Mapper patterns.
- + Decorator entities
- + NestJS-friendly
- + Active Record + Data Mapper
- - Uneven maintenance history
- - Runtime/type edge cases
Feature comparison
| Feature | prisma | typeorm |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | ORM | ORM |
| Type safety | Generated client | Decorators |
| Built-in migrations | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Databases | SQL + MongoDB | SQL + MongoDB |
| Pattern | Schema-first DSL | Active Record / Data Mapper |
prisma
Prisma is an open-source database toolkit. It includes a JavaScript/TypeScript ORM for Node.js, migrations and a modern GUI to view and edit the data in your database. You can use Prisma in new projects or add it to an existing one.
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[](https://devcompare.dev/compare/prisma-vs-typeorm)Data from npm, Bundlephobia and GitHub. Last updated 2026-06-02.