Drizzle ORM Has a Free API — The TypeScript ORM That Feels Like SQL

#drizzle #typescript #database #orm

TL;DR

Drizzle ORM is a TypeScript-first ORM that generates SQL you can actually read. Zero runtime overhead, full type safety, and it works with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, and serverless databases.

What Is Drizzle?

Drizzle ORM is SQL-like by design:

SQL-like syntax — if you know SQL, you know Drizzle
Zero overhead — thin SQL wrapper, no query builder bloat
Full type safety — schema-to-TypeScript type inference
Serverless ready — works with Neon, PlanetScale, Turso, D1
Migrations — automatic migration generation
Drizzle Studio — visual database browser
Free — Apache 2.0

Quick Start

npm install drizzle-orm postgres
npm install -D drizzle-kit

Define Schema

// src/db/schema.ts
import { pgTable, serial, text, timestamp, integer, boolean } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: serial("id").primaryKey(),
  name: text("name").notNull(),
  email: text("email").notNull().unique(),
  age: integer("age"),
  active: boolean("active").default(true),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").defaultNow(),
});

export const posts = pgTable("posts", {
  id: serial("id").primaryKey(),
  title: text("title").notNull(),
  content: text("content"),
  authorId: integer("author_id").references(() => users.id),
  published: boolean("published").default(false),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").defaultNow(),
});

Queries (SQL-like)

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js";
import postgres from "postgres";
import { users, posts } from "./schema";
import { eq, gt, like, and, desc, count } from "drizzle-orm";

const sql = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
const db = drizzle(sql);

// SELECT — feels like SQL!
const allUsers = await db.select().from(users);

// WHERE
const activeUsers = await db
  .select()
  .from(users)
  .where(and(eq(users.active, true), gt(users.age, 18)));

// JOIN
const usersWithPosts = await db
  .select({
    userName: users.name,
    postTitle: posts.title,
  })
  .from(users)
  .leftJoin(posts, eq(users.id, posts.authorId))
  .where(eq(posts.published, true))
  .orderBy(desc(posts.createdAt))
  .limit(10);

// INSERT
const newUser = await db
  .insert(users)
  .values({ name: "Alice", email: "alice@example.com", age: 30 })
  .returning();

// UPDATE
await db
  .update(users)
  .set({ active: false })
  .where(eq(users.id, 1));

// DELETE
await db.delete(users).where(eq(users.id, 1));

// Aggregations
const stats = await db
  .select({
    total: count(),
    avgAge: avg(users.age),
  })
  .from(users)
  .where(eq(users.active, true));

Migrations

// drizzle.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "drizzle-kit";

export default defineConfig({
  schema: "./src/db/schema.ts",
  out: "./drizzle",
  dialect: "postgresql",
  dbCredentials: {
    url: process.env.DATABASE_URL!,
  },
});

# Generate migration
npx drizzle-kit generate

# Apply migration
npx drizzle-kit migrate

# Open Drizzle Studio (visual DB browser)
npx drizzle-kit studio

Serverless (Neon, Turso, D1)

// Neon Serverless
import { neon } from "@neondatabase/serverless";
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/neon-http";

const sql = neon(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
const db = drizzle(sql);

// Turso (LibSQL)
import { createClient } from "@libsql/client";
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/libsql";

const client = createClient({ url: "libsql://...", authToken: "..." });
const db = drizzle(client);

// Cloudflare D1
import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/d1";
const db = drizzle(env.DB);

Drizzle vs Prisma vs TypeORM

Feature	Drizzle	Prisma	TypeORM
Syntax	SQL-like	Custom DSL	OOP
Bundle size	35 KB	2+ MB	500 KB+
Serverless	Perfect	Adapter needed	Poor
Raw SQL	Easy	$queryRaw	QueryBuilder
Type safety	Full inference	Generated	Decorators
Migrations	Auto-generate	Auto-generate	Auto/manual
Edge runtime	Yes	Limited	No

Resources

Storing scraped web data? My Apify tools extract structured data from any website — load it into your database with Drizzle ORM for type-safe data pipelines. Questions? Email spinov001@gmail.com

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