The Evolution of Prisma in 2025 with Søren Bramer Schmidt, CEO and Founder of Prisma
Mar 12, 2025
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Søren Bramer Schmidt, CEO and Founder of Prisma, shares his journey of transforming Prisma from Graphcool to a leading ORM trusted by Fortune 2000 companies. He discusses balancing open-source growth with enterprise needs and introduces Prisma Postgres, a user-friendly managed database. Søren also tackles the N+1 query problem and highlights the shift from Rust to TypeScript for enhanced performance. With AI shaping development, he emphasizes how Prisma is evolving to meet modern demands, making database interactions simpler and more efficient.
Prisma evolved from Graphcool to become a popular ORM for 50% of Fortune 2000 companies, emphasizing stability and user feedback.
The shift from Rust to TypeScript aims to simplify Prisma's codebase, enhancing productivity and accessibility for developers.
Deep dives
Transition to TypeScript Exclusivity
The evolution of the development landscape has led to a clear consensus that TypeScript is now the predominant language, overshadowing previous competitors like Flow. A decision was made to pivot entirely toward TypeScript, which allows for the elimination of the Rust query engine previously used. This transition enables the creation of a unified monorepo and simplifies the codebase, making it more accessible for developers familiar with TypeScript. With this focused approach, the expectation is that the ease of use will enhance productivity for TypeScript developers significantly.
From Graphcool to Prisma: Lessons Learned
Prisma's journey from its inception as Graphcool illustrates a crucial lesson learned from the founders' early experiences with backend services. Initial success with Graphcool revealed that while it attracted many users for prototyping, those looking to build for production often transitioned to conventional tools, leading to challenges in sustaining a business model. The development of Prisma as an ORM was driven by the desire to innovate on the database abstraction layer, learning from feedback about what enterprise users truly valued. As a result, Prisma's design aligns with GraphQL-like structures, aiming to provide an intuitive and efficient developer experience.
Balancing Open Source and Enterprise Needs
A significant challenge in building Prisma has been ensuring its appeal to both hobbyists and large enterprises, requiring careful navigation between innovation and reliability. The early strategies, which involved actively engaging with early adopters and creating a buzz around the ORM, ultimately needed to shift focus to stability and dependable upgrades for enterprise users. Continuous feedback indicated a strong preference for predictable updates without breaking changes, prompting the adoption of a more conservative approach in feature releases. Although the company aims to be innovative, establishing a reputation for reliability has become a priority in attracting larger, serious developers.
Prisma's Role in Simplifying Database Interaction
Prisma's architecture allows for a significant level of abstraction, which, while helpful in managing database interactions, raises concerns about vendor lock-in and understanding underlying processes. However, Prisma facilitates easier database migration, and users can flexibly switch among different databases with minimal effort, addressing worries about vendor dependency. The development of features like typed SQL and raw SQL queries ensures that developers can access the power of SQL without losing the advantages of using an ORM. As a result, Prisma aims to strike a balance between abstraction and power, equipping developers with the tools to operate efficiently while still maintaining control over more complex SQL operations when necessary.
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, hosts Rob Ocel and Danny Thompson chat with Søren Bramer Schmidt, CEO and Founder of Prisma, about the evolution of Prisma to a widely adopted ORM used by 50% of Fortune 2000 companies. Søren shares insights on balancing open-source growth with enterprise adoption, optimizing ORM performance, and addressing concerns like N+1 queries and vendor lock-in.The discussion also covers the launch of Prisma Postgres, a managed database designed to make provisioning as easy as creating a Notion page, and the shift from Rust to TypeScript for better efficiency. With AI transforming development, Søren explores how Prisma is adapting to new demands in database tooling. Keypoints from this episode:1. Prisma’s Evolution – Søren Schmidt discusses how Prisma started as Graphcool and evolved into a widely used ORM, now adopted by 50% of Fortune 2000 companies.2. Balancing Open Source and Enterprise – The conversation explores Prisma’s approach to maintaining an open-source community while ensuring enterprise-grade performance and stability.3. Prisma Postgres & Tech Shifts – Søren introduces Prisma Postgres, a managed database aimed at simplifying provisioning, and explains the decision to shift Prisma’s query engine from Rust to TypeScript.4. AI and the Future of Databases – The episode highlights how AI-driven development is shaping modern database tooling and how Prisma is adapting to meet the needs of today’s developers.Follow Søren Bramer Schmidt on Social MediaTwitter: https://x.com/sorenbsLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorenbs/?originalSubdomain=de
Chapters
Introduction and Host Banter (00:00 - 02:26)
The Origins of Prisma (02:26 - 07:31)
Building an Open-Source Community (07:31 - 12:36)
Rearchitecting Prisma: Moving from Rust to TypeScript (12:36 - 18:31)
Prisma’s Role in Startups and Enterprises (18:31 - 25:40)
Introducing Prisma Postgres and the Future of Databases (25:40 - 33:10)
AI, Serverless, and the Evolution of App Development (33:10 - 42:25)
Optimizing Database Performance with Prisma (42:25 - 45:00)
Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks (45:00 - End)Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co
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