head to head · open source
liam vs schemaspy
liam has 5,116 GitHub stars, 239 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. schemaspy has 3,724 stars, 357 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. liam leads on adoption by 37% (5,116 vs 3,724 stars). liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; schemaspy is written in HTML under LGPL-3.0. liam has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, schemaspy 10%. liam was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (database, documentation, entity-relationship-diagram, er-diagram), 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
| liam | schemaspy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.1K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-03-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 239 | ⑂ 357 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick liam if
- You weight community size — 5.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick schemaspy if
- You want the schemaspy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and schemaspy fits your workflow better
About liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
About schemaspy
SchemaSpy is a standalone Java based database metadata analyzer that reverse engineers an existing database schema and produces a browsable HTML report with entity relationship diagrams, for database administrators and developers who need to understand a data model they did not design.
read the full schemaspy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is liam or schemaspy more popular?
liam has 5,116 GitHub stars and schemaspy has 3,724. liam has the larger community by that measure.
Are liam and schemaspy free?
Both are open source. liam is licensed under Apache-2.0 and schemaspy under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between liam and schemaspy?
liam is written in TypeScript and schemaspy in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, liam or schemaspy?
Choose liam if you want the larger community (5,116 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose schemaspy if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.