head to head · open source
drawDB vs QuestDB
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars, 3,248 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. QuestDB has 17,326 stars, 1,647 forks, 952 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB leads on adoption by 128% (39,572 vs 17,326 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; QuestDB is written in Java under Apache-2.0. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, QuestDB 10%. QuestDB 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 | QuestDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 17K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 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 QuestDB if
- You want the QuestDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and QuestDB 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 QuestDB
QuestDB open source time series database. Java, Apache 2.0, category Infrastructure & Operations / Databases. Lives in open source database ecosystem for massive data scale, low latency, real time analytics.
read the full QuestDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or QuestDB more popular?
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars and QuestDB has 17,326. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and QuestDB free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and QuestDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and QuestDB?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and QuestDB in Java. 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 QuestDB?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,572 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose QuestDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.