head to head · open source
drawDB vs mikro-orm
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars, 3,253 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. mikro-orm has 9,229 stars, 673 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB leads on adoption by 329% (39,590 vs 9,229 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; mikro-orm is written in TypeScript under MIT. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, mikro-orm 7%. mikro-orm 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 | mikro-orm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 673 |
| 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 mikro-orm if
- You want the mikro-orm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mikro-orm 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 mikro-orm
MikroORM is a TypeScript ORM for Node.js built on the Data Mapper, Unit of Work and Identity Map patterns, aimed at TypeScript teams that want typed, entity based persistence across MongoDB, MySQL, MariaDB, MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQLite/libSQL databases.
read the full mikro-orm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or mikro-orm more popular?
drawDB has 39,590 GitHub stars and mikro-orm has 9,229. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and mikro-orm free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mikro-orm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and mikro-orm?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and mikro-orm 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 mikro-orm?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,590 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mikro-orm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.