# Alembic vs Kysely

| Attribute | Alembic | Kysely |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 65.7 (43% (low)) | 70.3 (79% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 15 | 25 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 52,456 | 1,155 |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,340 | 14,168 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 14,615,271 |
| deployment.options | - | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Alembic is an open-source database migrations tool that provides transactional DDL support, auto-generation of migration scripts, and non-linear versioning with dependency-graph structure for managing database schema changes. | A JavaScript and TypeScript SQL query builder that provides compile-time type safety and database schema validation. It works across multiple runtimes (Node, Deno, Bun, Cloudflare Workers, browsers) with zero runtime dependencies and emphasizes composable, type-safe queries over higher-level abstractions. |
| features.capabilities | `{"raw_sql":true,"multi_db":true,"languages":"Python","relations":true,"migrations":true,"schema_first":true}` | `{"raw_sql":true,"multi_db":true,"languages":"TypeScript, JavaScript (Node, Deno, Bun, Cloudflare Workers, browsers)","relations":true,"migrations":false,"studio_gui":false,"schema_first":true,"type_safe_queries":true,"connection_pooling":false}` |
| integrations.count | - | 21 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"Supabase"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"Windsurf"},{"name":"GitHub Copilot"},{"name":"ChatGPT"},{"name":"Claude"},{"name":"Claude Code"},{"name":"AirTrail"},{"name":"AWS Blocks"},{"name":"Conar"},{"name":"EmbedPDF"},{"name":"Hot Updater"},{"name":"inlang"},{"name":"Notesnook"},{"name":"OpenClaw"},{"name":"Reflect"},{"name":"Sink"},{"name":"Stacks"},{"name":"StudioCMS"},{"name":"Tunarr"},{"name":"ZenStack"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | MIT | MIT |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://alembic.sqlalchemy.org/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T16:51:56.374Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Completely free and open source (MIT license)","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://kysely.dev","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:37:15.404Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 17 | 10 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_19_1","date":"2026-08-08T16:32:07Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_19_1"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_19_0","date":"2026-08-04T18:57:11Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_19_0"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_5","date":"2026-06-25T15:21:00Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_5"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_4","date":"2026-02-10T16:00:54Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_4"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_3","date":"2026-01-29T20:24:21Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_3"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_2","date":"2026-01-28T21:23:36Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_2"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_1","date":"2026-01-14T18:53:22Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_1"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_18_0","date":"2026-01-09T21:22:29Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_18_0"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_17_2","date":"2025-11-14T20:35:09Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_17_2"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_17_1","date":"2025-10-29T00:23:22Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_17_1"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_17_0","date":"2025-10-11T18:40:20Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_17_0"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_5","date":"2025-08-27T18:02:11Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_5"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_4","date":"2025-07-10T16:17:25Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_4"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_3","date":"2025-07-08T18:57:56Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_3"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_2","date":"2025-06-16T18:05:14Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_2"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_1","date":"2025-05-21T23:11:12Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_1"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_16_0","date":"2025-05-21T19:18:54Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_16_0"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_15_2","date":"2025-03-28T13:52:07Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_15_2"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_15_1","date":"2025-03-04T22:02:46Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_15_1"},{"url":"https://github.com/sqlalchemy/alembic/releases/tag/rel_1_15_0","date":"2025-03-04T17:57:42Z","type":"stable","version":"rel_1_15_0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.5","date":"2026-08-10T01:06:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.30.0-beta.1","date":"2026-07-26T17:34:07Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.30.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.30.0-beta.0","date":"2026-07-25T12:45:33Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.30.0-beta.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.4","date":"2026-07-17T17:42:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.3","date":"2026-07-05T23:18:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.2","date":"2026-05-16T15:52:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.1","date":"2026-05-16T00:01:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.0","date":"2026-05-08T23:54:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.17","date":"2026-05-03T01:10:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.29.0-rc.0","date":"2026-04-24T20:13:08Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.29.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.16","date":"2026-04-10T18:07:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.15","date":"2026-03-31T01:49:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.14","date":"2026-03-20T11:28:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.13","date":"2026-03-18T22:12:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.12","date":"2026-03-14T09:13:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.11","date":"2026-01-31T18:58:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.10","date":"2026-01-18T07:13:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.9","date":"2025-12-13T17:48:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.8","date":"2025-10-09T21:47:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/kysely-org/kysely/releases/tag/v0.28.7","date":"2025-09-14T15:37:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.7"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 7.3 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=alembic&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=kysely&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (ORM & Database Tools)

| Capability | Alembic | Kysely |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Type-safe queries | - | ✓ |
| Schema migrations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Relations / joins API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Languages | Python | TypeScript, JavaScript (Node, Deno, Bun, Cloudflare Workers, browsers) |
| **Modelling** |  |  |
| Schema-first modelling | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Flexibility** |  |  |
| Raw SQL escape hatch | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Portability** |  |  |
| Multiple database backends | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Connection pooling | - | ✗ |
| **DX** |  |  |
| Data browser / studio | - | ✗ |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:18:16.025Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*