head to head · open source
orm vs drawDB
orm has 47,614 GitHub stars, 2,537 forks, 2,627 open issues and last shipped yesterday. drawDB has 39,572 stars, 3,248 forks, 241 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. orm leads on adoption by 20% (47,614 vs 39,572 stars). orm is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; drawDB is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. orm has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, drawDB 8%. orm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, mariadb), 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
| orm | drawDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick orm if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick drawDB if
- You want the drawDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and drawDB fits your workflow better
About orm
Prisma ORM is a next generation TypeScript ORM for Node.js and TypeScript applications, supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, SQLite, MongoDB, and CockroachDB, and it is aimed at developers and teams building data backed applications in that ecosystem.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is orm or drawDB more popular?
orm has 47,614 GitHub stars and drawDB has 39,572. orm has the larger community by that measure.
Are orm and drawDB free?
Both are open source. orm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and drawDB under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between orm and drawDB?
orm is written in TypeScript and drawDB 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, orm or drawDB?
Choose orm if you want the larger community (47,614 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose drawDB if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.