head to head · open source
drawDB vs mcp-toolbox
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars, 3,248 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. mcp-toolbox has 16,443 stars, 1,727 forks, 292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB leads on adoption by 141% (39,572 vs 16,443 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; mcp-toolbox is written in Go under Apache-2.0. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, mcp-toolbox 11%. mcp-toolbox 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 | mcp-toolbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 16K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 mcp-toolbox if
- You want the mcp-toolbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and mcp-toolbox 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 mcp-toolbox
MCP Toolbox for Databases is an open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, that connects AI agents, IDEs, and applications directly to enterprise databases.
read the full mcp-toolbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or mcp-toolbox more popular?
drawDB has 39,572 GitHub stars and mcp-toolbox has 16,443. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and mcp-toolbox free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mcp-toolbox under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and mcp-toolbox?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and mcp-toolbox in Go. 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 mcp-toolbox?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (39,572 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mcp-toolbox if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.