head to head · open source
drawDB vs postgrest
drawDB has 39,575 GitHub stars, 3,249 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. postgrest has 27,670 stars, 1,229 forks, 400 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 43% (39,575 vs 27,670 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; postgrest is written in Haskell under MIT. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, postgrest 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 | postgrest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 28K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Haskell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 postgrest if
- You want the postgrest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Haskell
- You evaluated both and postgrest 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 postgrest
PostgREST is a Haskell written server that serves a fully RESTful API from any existing PostgreSQL database, and it is aimed at developers, database administrators, and operators who want a standards compliant HTTP API without writing and maintaining one from scratch.
read the full postgrest overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or postgrest more popular?
drawDB has 39,575 GitHub stars and postgrest has 27,670. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and postgrest free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and postgrest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and postgrest?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and postgrest in Haskell. 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 postgrest?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,575 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose postgrest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.