drawDB

drawDB is a browser-based editor for database schemas and entity relationship diagrams. You open it, draw tables and relationships, and get SQL out the other end, or you paste in existing DDL and it reverse-engineers the diagram for you. The core editor is free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, needs no account, and stores diagrams locally in your browser. drawDB Pro adds cloud storage, sharing, an AI schema assistant, an MCP server for coding agents and, on the Team plan, live collaboration and permissions. Nothing about the free editor requires a server, and a diagram can go from blank canvas to exported SQL without ever signing in.

The problem it goes after is that schema design tends to live in two bad places, a whiteboard photo nobody can edit or a migration file nobody can read at a glance. A diagram that round-trips to real SQL solves both. drawDB supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB, SQL Server and Oracle, plus a generic dialect, with import and export for each, and it also exports DBML, JSON and images. Templates and custom templates give you a starting point rather than a blank canvas. The generic dialect is useful when you're still deciding which database you'll use, and the DBML export is handy for teams that keep schemas as text in version control.

Day to day it's a visual editor. You add tables, set column types, draw relationships and annotate, and the SQL updates to match. Import takes a DDL script by paste or upload, so an existing database can be visualised without redrawing anything. Because the free editor keeps everything in IndexedDB, it works without sending your schema anywhere, though it also means you should export before clearing browser data. Self-hosting is supported with a Dockerfile, and a separate server component exists for file sharing. Keyboard shortcuts are documented, the interface is customisable, and the editor also generates migration scripts, so a change to the diagram can become a change to the database rather than a note to remember.

Pro is where teams and agents come in. Diagrams sync to the cloud and can be shared publicly. The AI schema assistant lets you describe what you need in plain language and drafts tables, relationships and types directly onto the diagram, and it can modify what's already there. The MCP server exposes your diagrams to coding tools, so an agent working in your codebase can read the schema it's meant to build against, and API keys let you script the same access. The Team plan adds live collaboration with shared cursors and presence, diagram permissions with roles, and a team-wide MCP server. The docs also describe version history and migration tracking.

It fits backend developers, data engineers and students designing or documenting relational schemas, and increasingly teams who want their coding agents to work from an accurate model instead of guessing at table names. Solo developers get the most from Pro's cloud sync and AI assistant, while teams are the audience for collaboration and permissions. Students and people learning SQL get a free tool that shows how a diagram maps to DDL in both directions, and consultants documenting a client's database can produce a diagram and an image export from a schema dump in a few minutes.

What makes it different is credibility. The open-source editor has more than 37,000 stars on GitHub, an active Discord, and a track record most schema tools can't match, and the Pro layer builds on that editor rather than replacing it. The MCP angle is also unusual among diagram tools. Rather than bolting a chatbot onto the side, drawDB treats agents as first-class consumers of the schema, which is the direction a lot of database work is heading. It's also a genuinely open project. The editor is AGPL-3.0 on GitHub, the docs are public, and you can self-host the free version with Docker if you'd rather keep everything inside your own network.

Pricing is freemium. The editor is free with no account. Solo Pro is $14 a month and Team Pro is $17 per user per month, both with a seven-day free trial and no card required, and an Enterprise tier adds SSO, audit logs and custom contracts. Students get a discount on Solo Pro. Billing runs through Paddle with a published refund policy, and support is reachable at support@drawdb.app, on Discord, or through GitHub issues. Sign-in is only needed for Pro features, and the FAQ on the pricing page is clear that the free editor stays free and open source with Pro layered on top, not in place of it.