head to head · open source
drawDB vs lowdb
drawDB has 40,237 GitHub stars, 3,352 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. lowdb has 22,582 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 78% (40,237 vs 22,582 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, lowdb 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 | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 23K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 962 |
| 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 lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb fits your workflow better
About drawDB
drawDB Free, simple, and intuitive database schema editor and SQL generator. DrawDB is a robust and user friendly database entity relationship diagram (ERD) editor right in your browser. Build diagrams with a few clicks, export and import SQL scripts, generate migrations, customize your editor, and more without creating an account. See the full set of features on here. Getting Started Local Development Build Docker Build If you want to enable sharing, set up the server and environment variables according to .env.sample . This is optional unless you need to share files. Contributing Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for…
read the full drawDB overview →
About lowdb
lowdb Simple to use type safe local JSON database 🦉 If you know JavaScript, you know how to use lowdb. Read or create db.json Use plain JavaScript to change data In the same spirit, query using native Array functions: It's that simple. db.data is just a JavaScript object, no magic. Sponsors Become a sponsor and have your company logo here 👉 GitHub Sponsors Features Lightweight Minimalist TypeScript Plain JavaScript Safe atomic writes Hackable: Change storage, file format (JSON, YAML, ...) or add encryption via adapters Extend it with lodash, ramda, ... for super powers! Automatically switches to fast in memory…
read the full lowdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or lowdb more popular?
drawDB has 40,237 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,582. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and lowdb free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and lowdb?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and lowdb 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, drawDB or lowdb?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (40,237 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.