head to head · open source
TiDB vs drawDB
TiDB has 40,541 GitHub stars, 6,242 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB has 39,572 stars, 3,248 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. TiDB leads on adoption by 2% (40,541 vs 39,572 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, drawDB 8%. TiDB 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
| TiDB | drawDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TiDB if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 TiDB
TiDB is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, aimed at teams that need ACID transactions, real time analytics, and vector search at scale without data silos.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or drawDB more popular?
TiDB has 40,541 GitHub stars and drawDB has 39,572. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and drawDB free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and drawDB under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and drawDB?
TiDB is written in Go 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, TiDB or drawDB?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,541 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose drawDB if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.