head to head · open source
drawDB vs Activeloop
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars, 3,253 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Activeloop has 9,241 stars, 722 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 328% (39,590 vs 9,241 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; Activeloop is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Activeloop 8%. drawDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| drawDB | Activeloop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 722 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick drawDB if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Activeloop if
- You want the Activeloop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Activeloop fits your workflow better
About drawDB
drawDB is a free, open source, browser based database entity relationship diagram (ERD) editor and SQL generator for developers, data modellers, and teams who need to design database schemas and turn them into SQL scripts without creating an account.
read the full drawDB overview →
About Activeloop
Activeloop Deep Lake is an open source database for AI data, written in C++ under Apache 2.0. It presents itself as a tensor database and AI data runtime for agents, combining serverless Postgres with a multimodal datalake for scalable retrieval and training. The project lives in the machine learning infrastructure ecosystem.
read the full Activeloop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or Activeloop more popular?
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars and Activeloop has 9,241. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and Activeloop free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Activeloop under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and Activeloop?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and Activeloop in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, drawDB or Activeloop?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,590 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Activeloop if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.