head to head · open source
drawDB vs lowdb
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars, 3,253 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lowdb has 22,580 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 75% (39,590 vs 22,580 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, lowdb 4%. drawDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (database), 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 | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 23K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 962 |
| 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 lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb 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 lowdb
lowdb is a small, MIT licensed embedded JSON database for JavaScript and TypeScript that persists data to a plain db.json file, aimed at Node.js, Electron, and browser projects that need local storage without running a database server.
read the full lowdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or lowdb more popular?
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,580. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and lowdb free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and lowdb?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and lowdb in JavaScript. 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 lowdb?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,590 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.