DB Designer vs ChartDB

DB Designer8.8Visit ChartDB8.5Visit

Higher score DB Designer #6 in Database Design Tools 8.8/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit DB Designer

vs

ChartDB #9 in Database Design Tools 8.5/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 5 of 5 features Visit ChartDB

• DB Designer fits best

  Affordable collaborative web modeling

• ChartDB fits best

  Collaborative teams needing flexible deployment

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Side by side

Feature	DB Designer 8.8/10 Visit ↗	ChartDB 8.5/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.8	8.5
Ranking	#6 in Database Design Tools	#9 in Database Design Tools
Best for	Affordable collaborative web modeling	Collaborative teams needing flexible deployment
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	—	$25/user/mo
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Email, Tickets, Live chat, Phone, Docs	Email, Community, Docs
Compliance	GDPR	SSO/SAML, 2FA
Built for	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features DB Designer 5/5 · ChartDB 5/5
Reverse engineering	✓	✓
Forward engineering	✓	✓
SQL export	✓	✓
Team collaboration	✓	✓
Version history	✓	✓
Specs
Supported databases	MySQL, MS SQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQLite	PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, MariaDB, SQLite, Cloudflare D1, CockroachDB, ClickHouse
Deployment	Web	Web_and_desktop
Our review
Pros	Free plan plus monthly tiers starting at $9 Visual modeling with reverse and forward engineering Collaboration includes roles, comments, chat, and version restore	Imports schemas and creates editable entity-relationship diagrams Supports SQL and DDL export plus synchronization workflows Offers hosted cloud and open-source self-hosted deployment
Cons	Starter limits users to 2 models and 10 tables per model Reverse engineering is documented for only three databases Web-only deployment may not suit desktop-first teams	The Free plan allows up to 10 tables in one database Real-time collaboration and AI Assistant start on the Teams plan SAML SSO and granular permissions require the Custom plan
Our verdict	DB Designer is a browser-based tool for creating, importing, editing, sharing, and exporting database schemas. It is aimed at developers, database administrators, engineers, educators, freelancers, and organizations that need visual… Read the review →	ChartDB is a web-based database diagramming and design tool for developers, analysts, product teams, and engineering organizations. It imports schema metadata or queries, converts database structures into editable entity-relationship… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• DB Designer — where it wins

  • Free plan plus monthly tiers starting at $9
  • Visual modeling with reverse and forward engineering
  • Collaboration includes roles, comments, chat, and version restore

  Where it doesn't

  • Starter limits users to 2 models and 10 tables per model
  • Reverse engineering is documented for only three databases
  • Web-only deployment may not suit desktop-first teams

• ChartDB — where it wins

  • Imports schemas and creates editable entity-relationship diagrams
  • Supports SQL and DDL export plus synchronization workflows
  • Offers hosted cloud and open-source self-hosted deployment

  Where it doesn't

  • The Free plan allows up to 10 tables in one database
  • Real-time collaboration and AI Assistant start on the Teams plan
  • SAML SSO and granular permissions require the Custom plan

• DB Designer8.8/10 · Free plan

  Affordable web-based modeling with collaboration, version history, and SQL workflows.

  Visit DB DesignerFull verdict →
• ChartDB8.5/10 · Free plan

  A flexible database design workspace with import, export, collaboration, and self-hosting.

  Visit ChartDBFull verdict →