Drizzle ORM: A Headless TypeScript ORM for Modern Web Development

Introduction

Drizzle ORM is a powerful and lightweight headless ORM built for TypeScript and JavaScript. It provides a modern approach to interacting with SQL databases, focusing on performance, type-safety, and developer experience. Supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite, Drizzle ORM is designed to work seamlessly across various environments, including serverless functions and edge runtimes. Its zero-dependency architecture and tree-shakeable design make it an efficient choice for any project.

Installation

Getting started with Drizzle ORM is straightforward. You can install the core package using npm or yarn:

npm install drizzle-orm
# or
yarn add drizzle-orm

For database migrations and schema management, it's recommended to also install drizzle-kit:

npm install drizzle-kit
# or
yarn add drizzle-kit

Examples

Drizzle ORM allows you to define your SQL schemas using TypeScript and build both relational and SQL-like queries. Here's a basic example of defining a schema and performing a simple select query:

// schema.ts
import { pgTable, serial, text, varchar } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';

export const users = pgTable('users', {
  id: serial('id').primaryKey(),
  fullName: text('full_name'),
  phone: varchar('phone', { length: 256 }),
});

// query.ts
import { eq } from 'drizzle-orm';
import { db } from './db'; // Assume db is an initialized Drizzle client
import { users } from './schema';

async function getUserById(userId: number) {
  const result = await db.select().from(users).where(eq(users.id, userId));
  console.log(result);
}

getUserById(1);

Why use Drizzle ORM?

Drizzle ORM stands out for several reasons:

• Lightweight and Zero Dependencies: At only ~7.4kb minified+gzipped, it's highly efficient with no external dependencies.
• Serverless-Ready: Designed to work in all major JavaScript runtimes, including NodeJS, Bun, Deno, and Cloudflare Workers, making it ideal for serverless architectures.
• Broad Database Support: Compatible with every PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite database, including popular serverless providers like Turso, Neon, PlanetScale, and Vercel Postgres.
• Type-Safe and Extensible: Offers a robust TypeScript experience for declaring SQL schemas and building queries, balancing type-safety with flexibility.
• Powerful Ecosystem: Comes with Drizzle Kit for hassle-free migrations and Drizzle Studio for effortless data browsing and manipulation.
• Performance: Engineered for speed, allowing developers to build fast applications without introducing data proxies.

Links

• Website
• Documentation
• Twitter
• Discord