TypeSQL vs Drizzle

Drizzle is a TypeScript ORM. You declare tables in TypeScript (pgTable, sqliteTable), query them with a SQL-like builder or its relational query API, and manage migrations with drizzle-kit.

The same query

With Drizzle:

const rows = await db
	.select({ id: users.id, email: users.email, title: posts.title })
	.from(users)
	.leftJoin(posts, eq(posts.authorId, users.id))
	.where(gt(users.createdAt, new Date("2026-01-01")));

With TypeSQL:

const rows = await sql(
	`SELECT u.id, u.email, p.title
   FROM users u
   LEFT JOIN posts p ON p.author_id = u.id
   WHERE u.created_at > ${sql.param(new Date("2026-01-01"))}`,
).execute();

How they differ

	Drizzle	TypeSQL
You write	a TypeScript schema and builder calls	a schema type and SQL
Types come from	your Drizzle schema	your schema type
Raw SQL	sql<T>`…`, typed by the T you write	checked and typed from the SQL
Relations	the relational query API (db.query…)	joins and JSON aggregation in SQL
Migrations	drizzle-kit generates them from the schema	you write the DDL, and the schema type follows it
Databases	PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and more	PostgreSQL and SQLite; MySQL is planned

Choose Drizzle when

• You want the schema, relations and migrations defined in one TypeScript file.
• You want migrations generated from schema changes.
• You use MySQL or another database TypeSQL doesn't support yet.

Choose TypeSQL when

• You'd rather write the SQL itself, including syntax the builder has no method for.
• You want SQL that Drizzle would leave to sql<T>`…` checked against your schema too.
• You want queries you can copy into psql or a SQL log and run as they are.

Using them together

@typesql/drizzle reads your Drizzle schema module and runs queries on the driver client under your Drizzle database. Keep Drizzle for the schema and migrations, and write the queries that are easier in SQL with TypeSQL. See From Kysely, Drizzle or Prisma.