head to head · open source
drawDB vs typeorm
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars, 3,248 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. typeorm has 36,652 stars, 6,670 forks, 646 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 8% (39,572 vs 36,652 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; typeorm is written in TypeScript under MIT. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, typeorm 18%. drawDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, mariadb), 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 | typeorm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 37K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 6.7K |
| 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 typeorm if
- You want the typeorm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and typeorm 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 typeorm
TypeORM is an MIT licensed object relational mapper for TypeScript and JavaScript that runs on Node.js, in the browser, and across mobile and desktop platforms, and it is aimed at developers who want to model, query, and migrate SQL and NoSQL databases from one decorator driven codebase.
read the full typeorm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or typeorm more popular?
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars and typeorm has 36,652. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and typeorm free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and typeorm under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and typeorm?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and typeorm 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 typeorm?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,572 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose typeorm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.