ORMs — Drizzle & Prisma

ORMs map your database to TypeScript types. Drizzle and Prisma are the two front-runners.

5 min read Level 2/5 #nodejs#orm#drizzle

What you'll learn

Set up Drizzle or Prisma
Query type-safely
Decide between them

An ORM (“Object-Relational Mapper”) lets you query your DB using JS/TS objects instead of writing raw SQL. The two most popular choices for Node in 2026: Drizzle and Prisma.

Drizzle — SQL With Types

You write something that looks like SQL; you get typed results.

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/node-postgres";
import { pgTable, serial, text } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
import { eq } from "drizzle-orm";
import { Pool } from "pg";

const users = pgTable("users", {
  id:    serial("id").primaryKey(),
  name:  text("name").notNull(),
  email: text("email").notNull().unique(),
});

const db = drizzle(new Pool({ connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL }));

// query
const result = await db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.id, 42));

// insert
await db.insert(users).values({ name: "Ada", email: "ada@example.com" });

Schema lives in code (no codegen step at query time)
Generated TS types everywhere
Closer to SQL — easier to drop into raw when needed
drizzle-kit handles migrations

Prisma — Schema-First, Generated Client

Schema lives in a .prisma file; codegen produces a typed client.

// schema.prisma
model User {
  id    Int     @id @default(autoincrement())
  name  String
  email String  @unique
}

npx prisma migrate dev
npx prisma generate

import { PrismaClient } from "@prisma/client";

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

const user = await prisma.user.findUnique({ where: { id: 42 } });

await prisma.user.create({
  data: { name: "Ada", email: "ada@example.com" },
});

Schema lives in DSL (one source of truth)
Generated client — IntelliSense everywhere
Excellent migrations + Studio (UI)
Heavier — adds ~100MB to your build

Choose

You want	Pick
Close to SQL, light runtime	Drizzle
Schema-first, more abstractions	Prisma
Edge runtimes (Cloudflare Workers)	Drizzle (Prisma support exists but is heavier)
Already know SQL well	Drizzle
Coming from another ORM background	Prisma

Both are great. Many large Node apps run either successfully.

The Raw-SQL Escape Hatch

Both let you drop to raw SQL when needed:

// Drizzle
import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";
const rows = await db.execute(sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${42}`);

// Prisma
const rows = await prisma.$queryRaw`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${42}`;

Use this for complex CTEs, vendor-specific features, or performance optimization.

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