head to head · open source
drawDB vs neo4j
drawDB has 40,223 GitHub stars, 3,350 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. neo4j has 17,386 stars, 2,835 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. drawDB leads on adoption by 131% (40,223 vs 17,386 stars). drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0; neo4j is written in Java under GPL-3.0. drawDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, neo4j 16%. 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 | neo4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 17K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 neo4j if
- You want the neo4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and neo4j 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 neo4j
= Neo4j: Graphs for Everyone = is the world's leading Graph Database. It is a high performance graph store with all the features expected of a mature and robust database, like a friendly query language and ACID transactions. The programmer works with a flexible network structure of nodes and relationships rather than static tables yet enjoys all the benefits of enterprise quality database. For many applications, Neo4j offers orders of magnitude performance benefits compared to relational DBs. Learn more on the website]. users]] == Using Neo4j == Neo4j is available as a fully managed solution where you can get…
read the full neo4j overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is drawDB or neo4j more popular?
drawDB has 40,223 GitHub stars and neo4j has 17,386. drawDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are drawDB and neo4j free?
Both are open source. drawDB is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and neo4j under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between drawDB and neo4j?
drawDB is written in JavaScript and neo4j in Java. 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 neo4j?
Choose drawDB if you want the larger community (40,223 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose neo4j if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.