Drizzle ORM
TypeScript ORM that maps closely to SQL, for Postgres, MySQL and SQLite.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 36knpm a week 31M
Kysely alternatives
6 tools you can use instead of Kysely, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Drizzle ORM, Prisma and TypeORM are the most used. Stats updated 5 hours ago.
When Kysely is not a good fit
Kysely is an open source, type-safe SQL query builder for TypeScript, released under the MIT license. It is a query builder, not a full ORM: it checks queries against your database types and compiles them to SQL. It supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL Server, SQLite and PGlite.
It is a weaker choice for:
- Teams that want a full ORM with models and relations: Kysely is a query builder
- Projects that want a schema and model layer generated for them
- Developers who do not want to write SQL-shaped queries
The alternatives
Most used first.
View Drizzle ORM
Prisma
Open source ORM and database toolkit for Node.js and TypeScript, made by Prisma.
Pricing FreemiumPaid from $10 a month for Starter (5 million requests, 1 million operations, 10 GB storage)Open source yesStars 47.7knpm a week 22M
TypeORM
MIT-licensed ORM for TypeScript and JavaScript with Active Record and Data Mapper support.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 36.7knpm a week 6.6M
MikroORM
TypeScript ORM for Node.js built on Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 9.2knpm a week 1.3M
Mongoose
Schema-based object modeling library for MongoDB on Node.js.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yes
Sequelize
Promise-based ORM for Node.js and TypeScript that supports six SQL databases.
Pricing Open sourceOpen source yes
Kysely and its alternatives, side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kysely | Open source | Yes. Kysely is free and open source. | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 14.3k |
| Drizzle ORM | Open source | Yes, the ORM itself is free and open source; paid add-ons like Drizzle Studio and OneDollarStats are separate products | Not listed | Yes, Apache-2.0 | 36k |
| Prisma | Freemium | Yes: 200,000 database operations, 500 MB storage, up to 50 databases and 1 million requests a month, no credit card required | $10 a month for Starter (5 million requests, 1 million operations, 10 GB storage) | Yes, Apache-2.0 | 47.7k |
| TypeORM | Open source | Yes: free and open source. | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 36.7k |
| MikroORM | Open source | Yes: free and open source. Sponsorship is accepted through GitHub Sponsors. | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 9.2k |
| Mongoose | Open source | Yes: free and open source | Not listed | Yes, MIT | None |
| Sequelize | Open source | Yes: free and open source | Not listed | Yes, MIT | None |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
Questions
What is the most popular alternative to Kysely?
By GitHub stars, Drizzle ORM is the most used alternative to Kysely listed on ScratchDB, with 36k stars.
Which Kysely alternatives are open source?
Drizzle ORM, Prisma, TypeORM, MikroORM, Mongoose and Sequelize are open source.
Which Kysely alternatives have a free plan?
Drizzle ORM, Prisma, TypeORM, MikroORM, Mongoose and Sequelize have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.