head to head · open source
nebula vs schemaspy
nebula has 12,398 GitHub stars, 1,329 forks, 678 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. schemaspy has 3,724 stars, 357 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. nebula leads on adoption by 233% (12,398 vs 3,724 stars). nebula is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; schemaspy is written in HTML under LGPL-3.0. nebula has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, schemaspy 10%. nebula 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
| nebula | schemaspy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-08 | 2026-03-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 357 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nebula if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- 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 nebula
NebulaGraph is an open source, distributed graph database written in C++ and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the graph database ecosystem and appears in the CNCF Database Landscape. The project describes itself as symmetrically distributed, with storage and computing separated into distinct layers, horizontal scalability across nodes, strong data consistency enforced through the RAFT protocol, an OpenCypher compatible query language, role based access control, and a set of graph analytics algorithms. It has been developed for roughly eight years and carries 12,387 stars, 1,330 forks, and 678 op…
read the full nebula overview →
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 nebula or schemaspy more popular?
nebula has 12,398 GitHub stars and schemaspy has 3,724. nebula has the larger community by that measure.
Are nebula and schemaspy free?
Both are open source. nebula is licensed under Apache-2.0 and schemaspy under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nebula and schemaspy?
nebula is written in C++ 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, nebula or schemaspy?
Choose nebula if you want the larger community (12,398 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.