head to head · open source
NocoDB vs drawDB
NocoDB has 65,408 GitHub stars, 5,131 forks, 710 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB has 40,223 stars, 3,350 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. NocoDB leads on adoption by 63% (65,408 vs 40,223 stars). NocoDB is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. NocoDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, drawDB 8%. NocoDB 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
| NocoDB | drawDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 40K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NocoDB if
- You weight community size — 65K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick drawDB if
- You want the drawDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and drawDB fits your workflow better
About NocoDB
NocoDB is the fastest and easiest way to build databases online. Website • Discord • Community • Twitter • Reddit • Documentation See other languages » Join Our Community Installation Docker with SQLite Docker with PG Auto upstall Auto upstall is a single command that sets up NocoDB on a server for production usage. Behind the scenes it auto generates docker compose for you. bash bash install.nocodb.com/noco.sh script can be found here in our github Other Methods Binaries are only for quick testing locally. When running locally access nocodb by visiting: For more installation methods, please refer to our docs…
read the full NocoDB overview →
About drawDB
drawDB Free, simple, and intuitive database schema editor and SQL generator. DrawDB is a robust and user friendly database entity relationship diagram (ERD) editor right in your browser. Build diagrams with a few clicks, export and import SQL scripts, generate migrations, customize your editor, and more without creating an account. See the full set of features on here. Getting Started Local Development Build Docker Build If you want to enable sharing, set up the server and environment variables according to .env.sample . This is optional unless you need to share files. Contributing Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for…
read the full drawDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is NocoDB or drawDB more popular?
NocoDB has 65,408 GitHub stars and drawDB has 40,223. NocoDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are NocoDB and drawDB free?
Both are open source. NocoDB has no licence declared in this registry, and drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between NocoDB and drawDB?
NocoDB is written in TypeScript and drawDB 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, NocoDB or drawDB?
Choose NocoDB if you want the larger community (65,408 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose drawDB if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.