Skip to content

Kysely alternatives

6 tools you can use instead of Kysely, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Drizzle ORM, Prisma and Mongoose are the most used. Stats updated 6 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
Kysely pricing, features and usage

The alternatives

Most used first.

1

Drizzle ORM

TypeScript ORM that maps closely to SQL, for Postgres, MySQL and SQLite.

Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 36.2knpm a week 44M
View Drizzle ORM
2

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 25M
View Prisma
3

Mongoose

Schema-based object modeling library for MongoDB on Node.js.

Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 27.5knpm a week 8.8M
View Mongoose
4

TypeORM

MIT-licensed ORM for TypeScript and JavaScript with Active Record and Data Mapper support.

Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 36.7knpm a week 7.1M
View TypeORM
5

Sequelize

Promise-based ORM for Node.js and TypeScript that supports six SQL databases.

Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 30.3knpm a week 4.1M
View Sequelize
6

MikroORM

TypeScript ORM for Node.js built on Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns.

Pricing Open sourceOpen source yesStars 9.3knpm a week 1.4M
View MikroORM

Kysely and its alternatives, side by side

ToolPricingFree planPaid fromOpen sourceGitHub stars
KyselyOpen sourceYes. Kysely is free and open source.Not listedYes, MIT14.3k
Drizzle ORMOpen sourceYes, the ORM itself is free and open source; paid add-ons like Drizzle Studio and OneDollarStats are separate productsNot listedYes, Apache-2.036.2k
PrismaFreemiumYes: 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-2.047.7k
MongooseOpen sourceYes: free and open sourceNot listedYes, MIT27.5k
TypeORMOpen sourceYes: free and open source.Not listedYes, MIT36.7k
SequelizeOpen sourceYes: free and open sourceNot listedYes, MIT30.3k
MikroORMOpen sourceYes: free and open source. Sponsorship is accepted through GitHub Sponsors.Not listedYes, MIT9.3k

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 36.2k stars.

Which Kysely alternatives are open source?

Drizzle ORM, Prisma, Mongoose, TypeORM, Sequelize and MikroORM are open source.

Which Kysely alternatives have a free plan?

Drizzle ORM, Prisma, Mongoose, TypeORM, Sequelize and MikroORM have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.

All ORM tools

Kysely alternatives: 6 options compared (2026) | ScratchDB