ORM
ORM tools are for talking to a database from application code — the kind of work every indie hacker eventually hits and would rather not build from scratch. 8 tools are listed here, each picked and written up individually rather than pulled from an affiliate feed. Drizzle ORM is usually the first one people try: lighter and closer to raw SQL than Prisma — the ORM most edge and serverless-first indie hackers reach for now. Knex.js takes a different angle — skip the ORM abstractions and write near-raw SQL with a thin, portable query builder — the escape hatch when an ORM fights you. And Kysely is worth a look too: a fully type-safe SQL builder, not an ORM — pick it for Drizzle-level TypeScript inference without ORM magic on top. Every listing below includes the actual tradeoff, not marketing copy, so you can pick based on what you're building instead of what ranks highest in a sponsored roundup elsewhere.
Lighter and closer to raw SQL than Prisma — the ORM most edge and serverless-first indie hackers reach for now.
Skip the ORM abstractions and write near-raw SQL with a thin, portable query builder — the escape hatch when an ORM fights you.
A fully type-safe SQL builder, not an ORM — pick it for Drizzle-level TypeScript inference without ORM magic on top.
The default schema layer for MongoDB in Node — reach for it the moment raw collections stop scaling for your app.
The most polished TypeScript ORM around — great migrations and autocomplete, though its engine adds real weight on serverless.
The original mainstream Node ORM — still fine for classic SQL apps, just don't expect it to feel modern anymore.
Still the gold-standard ORM for Python — more verbose than the JS options, but nothing else matches its maturity.
The old-guard decorator-based ORM for Node — battle-tested in big NestJS apps, but its DX shows its age next to newer options.