head to head · open source
drawDB vs Beekeeper Studio
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars, 3,253 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Beekeeper Studio has 23,629 stars, 1,628 forks, 1,168 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 68% (39,590 vs 23,629 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; Beekeeper Studio is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Beekeeper Studio 7%. Beekeeper Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, mariadb), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Beekeeper Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 24K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 Beekeeper Studio if
- You want the Beekeeper Studio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Beekeeper Studio 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 Beekeeper Studio
Beekeeper Studio is a cross platform, open source SQL editor and database manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows that gives developers and data teams one graphical client for many different database engines.
read the full Beekeeper Studio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or Beekeeper Studio more popular?
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars and Beekeeper Studio has 23,629. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and Beekeeper Studio free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Beekeeper Studio has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between drawDB and Beekeeper Studio?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and Beekeeper Studio in TypeScript. 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 Beekeeper Studio?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,590 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Beekeeper Studio if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.