Is Drizzle Really Better Than Prisma? | Devhouse Blog | Devhouse

If you're choosing between Drizzle ORM and Prisma, you're deciding between two very different approaches to working with databases in TypeScript. Both offer type safety, but their philosophies, performance characteristics, and developer experiences diverge quite a bit.
Let's explore the differences in detail, with plenty of real-world code examples so you can feel the trade-offs for yourself.

Philosophy

Prisma: A higher-level ORM focused on developer experience. It abstracts SQL behind a schema file (schema.prisma) and generates a type-safe client.
Drizzle: A query builder + lightweight ORM that emphasizes SQL-first, migrations-first, and type-safety directly in TypeScript (no extra schema language).

Schema & Migrations

Prisma

You define models in schema.prisma using Prisma's schema language
Migrations are generated with prisma migrate dev → SQL is generated under the hood
Pros: Clean developer experience, single schema as source of truth
Cons: Limited direct SQL control, potentially non-optimal queries for advanced cases

Drizzle

You write schema directly in TypeScript (no additional DSL required)
Migrations are SQL-first (drizzle-kit generates SQL migration files)
Pros: No learning curve for a schema language, transparent migrations, full SQL control
Cons: More verbose schema definition for large-scale projects

Querying

Prisma

Auto-generated client with intuitive methods:

await prisma.user.findMany({
  where: { email: "test@example.com" },
  include: { posts: true },
});

Feels like a high-level data mapper.
Pros: Developer-friendly, great autocomplete, relations handled automatically.
Cons: Sometimes hard to express very complex SQL (window functions, CTEs).

Drizzle

Query builder with full SQL control:

const users = await db
  .select()
  .from(users)
  .where(eq(users.email, "test@example.com"));

Feels like writing raw SQL directly.
Pros: More control, you can write raw SQL alongside queries easily.
Cons: Slightly less "magical" than Prisma, so queries can look more verbose.

Type Safety

Prisma

Excellent type safety on queries and models (thanks to generated client).
But types come from schema → you need to run prisma generate.

Drizzle

Type safety is built-in since schema is written in TypeScript.
No codegen step → types exist at runtime + compile time.

Performance

You can find the benchmark here.

The benchmark image above shows a significant performance difference between Drizzle and Prisma. Drizzle consistently outperforms Prisma in raw query execution speed, especially in serverless environments where cold starts are critical. This is primarily due to Drizzle's lightweight architecture that doesn't rely on an external query engine. However, it's important to note that for most applications, the performance difference may not be noticeable unless you're dealing with high-traffic scenarios or have strict performance requirements. The developer experience and feature set might be more important considerations for many projects.

Prisma

Uses a query engine written in Rust under the hood (runs as a separate process)
Pros: Optimized for most common queries
Cons: Extra binary overhead, slower cold starts (e.g., in serverless)

Drizzle

Pure TypeScript/JS, no extra query engine
Pros: Lightweight, better for serverless (fast cold start, no binary)
Cons: Query performance depends on your DB driver (no Rust optimizations)

Ecosystem & Integrations

Prisma

Mature ecosystem: Studio (GUI), Data Proxy, ORM client, migrations.
Integrates easily with Next.js, NestJS, GraphQL, etc.
Big community, strong docs.

Drizzle

Newer ecosystem, still growing.
Very popular with modern frameworks (Next.js 13+, Vercel serverless, Bun, Turborepo).
Strong focus on Postgres, MySQL, SQLite (MongoDB not supported yet).

Use Cases

Choose Prisma if…

You want maximum productivity and minimal boilerplate.
You like working with an abstract schema instead of SQL.
You need polished tooling (Prisma Studio, generators, etc.).
Project is medium-to-large teams where dev speed matters most.

Choose Drizzle if…

You want full SQL control with TypeScript safety.
You’re building a serverless app (better cold starts).
You don’t want to depend on a binary query engine.
Project is modern stack (Next.js 13+, Bun, Cloudflare Workers).

Summary Table

Feature	Prisma ⭐	Drizzle 🌿
Schema definition	Separate `.prisma` file	TypeScript code
Migrations	Auto-generated, hidden SQL	SQL-first, transparent
Query style	High-level client	SQL-like builder
Type safety	From generated client	From TypeScript itself
Performance	Rust engine (heavy in serverless)	Lightweight (pure TS)
Ecosystem	Mature, polished	Growing, modern
Beginner-friendly	✅ Very easy	⚠️ Requires SQL comfort
Serverless-friendly	❌ Cold start overhead	✅ Great for serverless
Community	Large, well-established	Fast-growing (esp. Next.js devs)

Example Code

Prisma

Schema Definition

Let's look at how to set up and use Prisma in a typical project:

datasource db { provider = "postgresql"; url = env("DATABASE_URL") }
generator client { provider = "prisma-client-js" }

model User {
  id        String  @id @default(cuid())
  email     String  @unique
  name      String?
  posts     Post[]
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
}

model Post {
  id        String  @id @default(cuid())
  title     String
  content   String?
  author    User    @relation(fields: [authorId], references: [id])
  authorId  String
  tags      PostTag[]
  createdAt DateTime @default(now())
}

model Tag {
  id    String   @id @default(cuid())
  name  String   @unique
  posts PostTag[]
}

model PostTag {
  postId String
  tagId  String
  post   Post   @relation(fields: [postId], references: [id])
  tag    Tag    @relation(fields: [tagId], references: [id])
  @@id([postId, tagId])
}

Generated Prisma client:

npx prisma generate

Connecting to the Database

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

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

Querying the Database

Create:

const user = await prisma.user.create({
  data: { email: "a@b.co", name: "Alice" },
});
const post = await prisma.post.create({
  data: { title: "Hello", content: "World", authorId: user.id },
});

Read with relations

const userWithPosts = await prisma.user.findUnique({
  where: { email: "a@b.co" },
  include: { posts: true },
});

Many-to-many: attach tags

const updated = await prisma.post.update({
  where: { id: postId },
  data: {
    tags: {
      connectOrCreate: tagNames.map((name) => ({
        where: { name },
        create: { name },
      })),
    },
  },
  include: { tags: true },
});

Updating

const updated = await prisma.post.update({
  where: { id: postId },
  data: { title: "New Title" },
});

Delete (and cascade)

await prisma.post.delete({ where: { id: postId } });

Pagination (cursor vs offset)

Prisma - cursor (preferred)

const page = await prisma.post.findMany({
  take: 10,
  skip: cursor ? 1 : 0,
  cursor: cursor ? { id: cursor } : undefined,
  orderBy: { createdAt: "desc" },
});

Upsert

await prisma.tag.upsert({
  where: { name: "nextjs" },
  update: {},
  create: { name: "nextjs" },
});

Transaction

await prisma.$transaction(async (tx) => {
  const p = await tx.post.create({ data: { title, authorId } });
  for (const name of tagNames) {
    const t = await tx.tag.upsert({
      where: { name },
      update: {},
      create: { name },
    });
    await tx.postTag.create({ data: { postId: p.id, tagId: t.id } });
  }
});

Raw SQL / CTE / Window fn

const rows = await prisma.$queryRawUnsafe(`
  WITH recent AS (
    SELECT p.*, COUNT(*) AS likes7d
    FROM posts p
    JOIN likes l ON l.post_id = p.id AND l.created_at > now() - interval '7 days'
    GROUP BY p.id
  )
  SELECT * FROM recent ORDER BY likes7d DESC LIMIT 10;
`);

Full-text search

const q = "nextjs";
const results = await prisma.$queryRaw`
  SELECT id, title
  FROM posts
  WHERE to_tsvector('english', coalesce(title,'') || ' ' || coalesce(content,''))
        @@ plainto_tsquery('english', ${q})
  ORDER BY ts_rank(to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || coalesce(content,'')),
                   plainto_tsquery('english', ${q})) DESC
  LIMIT 20
`;

Drizzle

Now let's see how the same operations look with Drizzle ORM. You'll notice the SQL-first philosophy and TypeScript-native approach throughout.

Schema Definition

With Drizzle, your schema is pure TypeScript. No need to learn a new schema language:

import { pgTable, text, timestamp, pgEnum } from "drizzle-orm/pg-core";
import { relations } from "drizzle-orm";

export const users = pgTable("users", {
  id: text("id")
    .primaryKey()
    .$defaultFn(() => crypto.randomUUID()),
  email: text("email").notNull().unique(),
  name: text("name"),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").defaultNow().notNull(),
});

export const posts = pgTable("posts", {
  id: text("id")
    .primaryKey()
    .$defaultFn(() => crypto.randomUUID()),
  title: text("title").notNull(),
  content: text("content"),
  authorId: text("author_id")
    .notNull()
    .references(() => users.id),
  createdAt: timestamp("created_at").defaultNow().notNull(),
});

export const tags = pgTable("tags", {
  id: text("id")
    .primaryKey()
    .$defaultFn(() => crypto.randomUUID()),
  name: text("name").notNull().unique(),
});

export const postTags = pgTable("post_tags", {
  postId: text("post_id")
    .notNull()
    .references(() => posts.id),
  tagId: text("tag_id")
    .notNull()
    .references(() => tags.id),
});

// Define relations for type-safe queries
export const usersRelations = relations(users, ({ many }) => ({
  posts: many(posts),
}));

export const postsRelations = relations(posts, ({ one, many }) => ({
  author: one(users, {
    fields: [posts.authorId],
    references: [users.id],
  }),
  postTags: many(postTags),
}));

export const tagsRelations = relations(tags, ({ many }) => ({
  postTags: many(postTags),
}));

export const postTagsRelations = relations(postTags, ({ one }) => ({
  post: one(posts, {
    fields: [postTags.postId],
    references: [posts.id],
  }),
  tag: one(tags, {
    fields: [postTags.tagId],
    references: [tags.id],
  }),
}));

Generate migrations:

npx drizzle-kit generate:pg
npx drizzle-kit push:pg

Connecting to the Database

import { drizzle } from "drizzle-orm/postgres-js";
import postgres from "postgres";
import * as schema from "./schema";

const client = postgres(process.env.DATABASE_URL!);
const db = drizzle(client, { schema });

Querying the Database

Create:

import { users, posts } from "./schema";

const [user] = await db
  .insert(users)
  .values({ email: "a@b.co", name: "Alice" })
  .returning();

const [post] = await db
  .insert(posts)
  .values({ title: "Hello", content: "World", authorId: user.id })
  .returning();

Read with relations:

import { eq } from "drizzle-orm";

const userWithPosts = await db.query.users.findFirst({
  where: eq(users.email, "a@b.co"),
  with: {
    posts: true,
  },
});

Many-to-many: attach tags

// First, create or find tags
const tagData = tagNames.map((name) => ({ name }));
const createdTags = await db
  .insert(tags)
  .values(tagData)
  .onConflictDoNothing()
  .returning();

// Find all tags (including existing ones)
const allTags = await db
  .select()
  .from(tags)
  .where(inArray(tags.name, tagNames));

// Create post-tag relationships
await db.insert(postTags).values(
  allTags.map((tag) => ({
    postId: post.id,
    tagId: tag.id,
  })),
);

Updating

const [updated] = await db
  .update(posts)
  .set({ title: "New Title" })
  .where(eq(posts.id, postId))
  .returning();

Delete

await db.delete(posts).where(eq(posts.id, postId));

Pagination (cursor vs offset)

Drizzle makes cursor-based pagination intuitive:

import { desc, gt } from "drizzle-orm";

const page = await db
  .select()
  .from(posts)
  .where(cursor ? gt(posts.id, cursor) : undefined)
  .orderBy(desc(posts.createdAt))
  .limit(10);

Offset-based pagination:

const page = await db
  .select()
  .from(posts)
  .orderBy(desc(posts.createdAt))
  .limit(10)
  .offset(pageNumber * 10);

Upsert (Insert on conflict)

await db
  .insert(tags)
  .values({ name: "nextjs" })
  .onConflictDoUpdate({
    target: tags.name,
    set: { name: "nextjs" },
  });

Transaction

await db.transaction(async (tx) => {
  const [p] = await tx.insert(posts).values({ title, authorId }).returning();

  for (const name of tagNames) {
    const [t] = await tx
      .insert(tags)
      .values({ name })
      .onConflictDoNothing()
      .returning();

    await tx.insert(postTags).values({ postId: p.id, tagId: t.id });
  }
});

Raw SQL / CTE / Window Functions

Drizzle gives you full SQL power when you need it:

import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";

const rows = await db.execute(sql`
  WITH recent AS (
    SELECT p.*, COUNT(*) AS likes7d
    FROM posts p
    JOIN likes l ON l.post_id = p.id AND l.created_at > now() - interval '7 days'
    GROUP BY p.id
  )
  SELECT * FROM recent ORDER BY likes7d DESC LIMIT 10
`);

Or use the type-safe query builder for CTEs:

import { sql as sqlFunc } from "drizzle-orm";

const recent = db.$with("recent").as(
  db
    .select({
      id: posts.id,
      title: posts.title,
      likes7d: sqlFunc<number>`COUNT(*)`.as("likes7d"),
    })
    .from(posts)
    .innerJoin(likes, eq(likes.postId, posts.id))
    .where(sqlFunc`${likes.createdAt} > now() - interval '7 days'`)
    .groupBy(posts.id),
);

const results = await db
  .with(recent)
  .select()
  .from(recent)
  .orderBy(desc(recent.likes7d))
  .limit(10);

Full-text Search

import { sql } from "drizzle-orm";

const q = "nextjs";
const results = await db.execute(sql`
  SELECT id, title
  FROM posts
  WHERE to_tsvector('english', coalesce(title,'') || ' ' || coalesce(content,''))
        @@ plainto_tsquery('english', ${q})
  ORDER BY ts_rank(to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || coalesce(content,'')),
                   plainto_tsquery('english', ${q})) DESC
  LIMIT 20
`);

Quick Takeaways from the Code

Looking at both examples side by side, here are the key differences:

Schema & Types

Prisma: Separate schema language means learning a new DSL, but it's clean and declarative
Drizzle: Pure TypeScript - no context switching, types are immediately available

Query Syntax

Prisma: More magical and concise (e.g., include, connectOrCreate)
Drizzle: More explicit and SQL-like, closer to what actually runs

Developer Experience

Prisma: Better for teams who want abstraction and don't want to think about SQL
Drizzle: Better for developers comfortable with SQL who want full control

Performance Considerations

Prisma: The Rust query engine adds overhead, especially in serverless environments with cold starts
Drizzle: Lightweight and fast to initialize - perfect for edge runtimes and serverless functions

Complex Queries

Prisma: Forces you into raw SQL for advanced cases (CTEs, window functions)
Drizzle: Supports both raw SQL and type-safe builder patterns for complex queries

When to Use Which?

Choose Prisma when:

✅ You're building a traditional web app (not serverless-first)
✅ Your team prefers high-level abstractions over SQL
✅ You value mature tooling (Prisma Studio is excellent)
✅ You want maximum productivity for standard CRUD operations
✅ You need GraphQL integration (Prisma plays well with type-graphql, Pothos, etc.)

Choose Drizzle when:

✅ You're building serverless/edge applications (Vercel, Cloudflare Workers)
✅ You want minimal bundle size and fast cold starts
✅ You're comfortable writing SQL and want full control
✅ You prefer everything in TypeScript (no separate schema language)
✅ You need to write complex queries regularly (CTEs, window functions, etc.)

Real-World Performance Numbers

In serverless environments, cold start time matters:

Prisma: ~500-800ms cold start (includes loading the query engine binary)
Drizzle: ~50-150ms cold start (pure JavaScript/TypeScript)

For query execution on the same database:

Prisma: Slightly faster on simple queries (Rust optimization)
Drizzle: Comparable performance, depends on your Postgres driver

The cold start difference is the real game-changer for serverless applications.

Migration Experience

Prisma migrations:

# Generate migration
npx prisma migrate dev --name add_tags

# Apply in production
npx prisma migrate deploy

Prisma generates SQL for you, but you can't easily customize it.

Drizzle migrations:

# Generate SQL migration files
npx drizzle-kit generate:pg

# You get actual SQL files you can review and modify
# Then apply them:
npx drizzle-kit push:pg

Drizzle gives you the SQL files directly - you can review, modify, and understand exactly what's happening to your database.

Final Verdict

Prisma is not "worse" than Drizzle - they solve different problems:

If you value developer ergonomics, mature tooling, and team productivity → Prisma
If you value performance, SQL control, and transparency → Drizzle

For modern serverless applications built with Next.js 13+ App Router, Vercel Edge Functions, or Cloudflare Workers, Drizzle has clear advantages. The cold start time alone makes it worth considering.

For traditional Node.js applications, Prisma's mature ecosystem and developer experience might give you faster iteration speed.

My recommendation: Try both! They're both excellent tools. Start a small project with each and see which philosophy resonates with how you think about databases.

Resources

What's your experience? Have you tried both? Drop a comment below with your thoughts!