Top Free Database Design Tools

Last updated on September 5th, 2024 at 06:30 am

Database design tools make it easy to design database schema, define table structure, specify relationships and constraints. They also provide a graphical view of your database to allow you to easily understand your data. Here are the top free database design tools that you can try for database development.

Top Free Database Design Tools

Here are the top free database design tools to help you with website/database development.

1. DbSchema

DbSchema is a popular free database diagram designer that allows you to not only create database schema diagrams, UML, entity-relationships and network diagrams.

It provides a drag & drop interface that allows you to quickly create database schema using pre-built blocks.

DBSchema supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQL Lite. It allows you to design databases with up to 10,000 tables. It allows you to save schema diagrams as XML that can be used from other workstations, or as GIT files that others can modify and commit back in GIT.

It even generates migration scripts to help you compare databases and make changes quickly.

2. DB Designer

DB Designer is a free database schema designer and modeling tool that allows you to visually design your database, tables, and columns, and automatically generates SQL queries that you can run to actually create/modify your database.

DB Designer supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, SQL Lite. You can create a UML diagram from scratch, or import your database. It even allows you to collaborate with multiple team members.

DB Designer provides various types of layouts, and customizations to help you design database schema diagram as per your requirement. It also allows you to export database schema as PNG, PDF, JPG and XML.

3. SQL Database Modeler

SQL Database Modeler is a feature-rich database schema designer and modeler that allows you to easily design database schema using a web browser.

It provides a drag & drop UI to help you create tables, columns, constraints, relationships, database keys, and indexes.

SQL Database Modeler allows you to import existing database and create schema, or build one from scratch. However, it supports only MySQL and MS SQL at this point.

One good thing about SQL database modeler is that it supports version history, allowing you to track changes and revert mistakes easily.

4. Draw.io

Draw.io is a useful diagramming tool that allows you to easily design database schema diagrams, process flows, UML, entity-relationship diagrams, network diagrams, and even organization chart using drag & drop interface.

You can easily store these diagrams in cloud storage services such as Dropbox, GDrive and One Drive. It is an easy to use and free diagramming tool.

However, it will not automatically create SQL statements based on your database schema diagram. As a result, it is quite light-weight, easy to install and use.

5. Creately

Creately is also a feature-rich diagram tool that allows you to easily create various types of diagrams such as flowcharts, process diagrams, network diagrams, as well as database schema designs.

It has a template library that allows you to easily design different types of diagrams as per your requirement.

Like draw.io, creately also does not support automated SQL generation.

6. LucidChart

LucidChart is a popular online diagramming tool that allows you to create many kinds of diagrams such as workflows, process charts, database design, UML schemas and wireframes. It comes with a vast library of pre-built templates to help you quickly get started.

It provides a visual drag & drop user interface that allows you to easily design databases and ER (Entity Relationship) diagrams as per your requirements. Lucidchart allows you to draw, iterate, modify, and share charts & diagrams. It also allows you to visually collaborate with others. It is a robust and mature applications being developed since 2008.

It is free to use for up to 3 documents. Thereafter, you need to pay $7.95 for individuals and $9 for teams.

7. MySQL Workbench Community Edition

MySQL Workbench Community Edition is a powerful and popular database diagramming software. It not only allows you to design databases but also monitor their performance and run SQL queries.

Please note, that it works with only MySQL community edition. It provides a visual drag & drop interface, as well as a schema coding interface.

It is perhaps the most robust and mature database designing and management tool out there. If you are using MySQL database, then we strongly recommend that you try MySQL Workbench. You don’t really need anything else apart from this.

8. SQLDbm

SQLDbm is a database diagramming tool that allows you to design databases without much coding. It offers a free trial that has enough features to help you design complex databases without creating any account or making payment.

It also provides a drag & drop interface with many schema creation and exploration features. You can test it by connecting it to live database or sample data.

If you want to use it for a long time, or with premium features, then you can go for its $25/month paid plan. It is a very useful tool that helps you design databases without any coding.

9. Dbdiagram.io

Dbdiagram.io is another free database designer tool that allows you to visually design database schemas without any coding. Once you have generated the schema, it allows you to create SQL queries from it.

You can share database schemas with others, or integrate it with web development frameworks such as Ruby On Rails, or Django.

It even allows you to generate database schemas from existing SQL databases.

It allows you to export database schemas as PDFs, Images and other formats. You can use it to forward engineer as well as reverse engineer databases.

10. SlickPlan

Slickplan is a an easy to use diagram maker that allows you to design variety of diagrams such as flowchart, process flows, database schemas and organization charts. It comes with a wide range of templates that you can use to quickly create diagrams.

It supports both simple as well as complex diagrams. It provides a visual drag & drop interface to quickly diagrams for your requirement.

Slickplan is not just great for database diagramming but also for designing other parts of your work such as business diagrams, ER diagrams, sitemaps, process flows, etc.

Conclusion

All the above tools make it easy to design database schema using drag & drop interface. However, if you also want to automatically generate SQL statements to execute your schema, go for DB designer or DB Schema. If you only want to create database diagrams and nothing else, then try draw.io, creately or lucidchart.

Ubiq makes it easy to visualize data, and monitor them in real-time dashboards. Try Ubiq for free.