head to head · open source
NocoDB vs tbls
NocoDB has 65,408 GitHub stars, 5,131 forks, 710 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tbls has 4,372 stars, 216 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. NocoDB leads on adoption by 1,396% (65,408 vs 4,372 stars). NocoDB is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; tbls is written in Go under MIT. NocoDB has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, tbls 5%. NocoDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| NocoDB | tbls | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 216 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick NocoDB if
- You weight community size — 65K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tbls if
- You want the tbls feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tbls fits your workflow better
About NocoDB
NocoDB is the fastest and easiest way to build databases online. Website • Discord • Community • Twitter • Reddit • Documentation See other languages » Join Our Community Installation Docker with SQLite Docker with PG Auto upstall Auto upstall is a single command that sets up NocoDB on a server for production usage. Behind the scenes it auto generates docker compose for you. bash bash install.nocodb.com/noco.sh script can be found here in our github Other Methods Binaries are only for quick testing locally. When running locally access nocodb by visiting: For more installation methods, please refer to our docs…
read the full NocoDB overview →
About tbls
tbls (pronounced /ˈteɪbl̩z/) is a CI Friendly tool to document a database, written in Go. Key features of tbls are: Document a database automatically in GFM format. Output database schema in many formats. Single binary = CI Friendly. Support many databases. Work as linter for database Table of Contents Quick Start Install Getting Started Document a database Diff database and (document or database) Lint a database Measure document coverage Continuous Integration Configuration Name Description Labels DSN Support Datasource Document path Document format ER diagram Filter tables Lint Comments Relations Viewpoints…
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Frequently asked questions
Is NocoDB or tbls more popular?
NocoDB has 65,408 GitHub stars and tbls has 4,372. NocoDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are NocoDB and tbls free?
Both are open source. NocoDB has no licence declared in this registry, and tbls is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between NocoDB and tbls?
NocoDB is written in TypeScript and tbls 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, NocoDB or tbls?
Choose NocoDB if you want the larger community (65,408 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose tbls if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.