WHAT IS IT?
drawDB is an entity-relationship diagram (ERD) editor running entirely in the browser. You sketch your schema visually, and the tool generates matching SQL for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB or MSSQL. No account required, everything runs client-side.
WHY IS IT INTERESTING?
- No account, no mandatory cloud: Open drawdb.app, model, export. No data leaves your machine unless you opt in to the sharing feature.
- Multi-dialect SQL generation: The same diagram exports to MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB or MSSQL. Handy when prototyping before committing to a specific engine.
- Reverse import from SQL: Paste an existing dump or DDL script and drawDB reconstructs the diagram. Useful when documenting a legacy database nobody ever charted.
- Self-hostable via Docker: Official image, builds in a couple of commands. Drop it on an internal server and the whole team gets a schema editor without depending on a SaaS.
- Genuinely interactive editor: Tables, relations, foreign keys, types, indexes, notes. Snappy UI, with clean PNG/JPEG/SVG exports for technical docs.
- Plain web stack: JavaScript/Vite, AGPL-3.0. Readable if you want to patch a custom type or add an SQL dialect.
USE CASES
- Model a schema before writing the migrations
- Reverse-engineer an existing database from its DDL to document it
- Plan a target schema during a cross-engine migration
- Share a clear view of the data model in a review or an ADR