DrawSQL vs. ER/Studio: Limits, Pricing, and Governance

DrawSQL is a well-made browser ERD tool. You don’t need to install anything, and its schema library gives you a working model instead of an empty canvas. Plenty of teams start here and stay happy for a while. But whether it still fits as a team grows comes down to three facts. Tables are capped per diagram below the Large tier. No tier connects the diagram to a live database. The glossary and lineage layer isn’t available at any price.

This comparison covers what DrawSQL costs, where those limits bind, and which ER/Studio edition closes each gap.

要点

• Start with three questions. How far the schema will grow, whether the model has to track a running database, and whether anyone outside engineering needs governed definitions.
• DrawSQL publishes five tiers. Free (15 tables per diagram, public diagrams only), Starter at $19/month, Growth at $59/month, Large at $179/month, and a quoted Enterprise plan.
• The limits are specific. No live database connection at any tier, tables capped per diagram below Large, four supported database engines, and no glossary or lineage layer.
• The ER/Studio edition decides what you get. Reverse engineering and Compare and Merge are in the $2,687 entry edition. The glossary and the governance integrations are Enterprise, quoted separately.
• DrawSQL works well for small, stable schemas with no compliance obligations. Evaluate ER/Studio for schema growth, audit requirements, or cross-team definitions.

What is DrawSQL used for?

DrawSQL is a browser-based entity-relationship diagramming tool for designing and documenting database schemas. You open a URL, create a diagram, and start placing entities on a canvas. You don’t need to install anything or stand up a repository, which removes the setup overhead a full modeling environment carries.

A small product team documents a schema that already exists, or shares a proposed one with two or three colleagues for review. DrawSQL is built for that job, which is why the feature set stays narrow, and sharing means sending a link.

DrawSQL features: Schema builder, templates, and collaboration

The feature set is narrow by design. Four capabilities carry most of the workflow.

• Visual schema builder. You create tables, add fields with data types, and draw relationships between them directly in the canvas. Cardinality is expressed through the connector, so the diagram reads as a standard ERD, and the drag-and-place editing model keeps early design iteration quick.
• Schema template library. DrawSQL publishes more than 200 real-world schemas covering multi-tenant, SaaS billing, CRM, and e-commerce patterns. Adapting a working subscription-billing model is a materially different starting point from an empty canvas.
• Real-time multiplayer collaboration. Several people can open the same diagram and edit it at once, with each participant’s changes appearing live. Multiplayer editing is a canvas-sharing feature, and connecting a diagram to a running database is a different capability. Evaluations routinely conflate the two.
• SQL and DDL import and export. You can generate DDL from a finished diagram to hand to a migration, and import existing SQL to diagram a schema you already have. For teams whose schemas live in one PostgreSQL or MySQL database, that covers the round trip.

Multiplayer editing, private diagrams, version history, teams and permissions, and the AI schema tools are all paid features. The free tier covers public diagrams and solo editing.

What does DrawSQL cost at each pricing tier?

DrawSQL publishes four price points plus a quoted Enterprise plan, starting with a free public-diagram tier. Private diagram count, tables per diagram, and seat count all rise together with the tier. DrawSQL’s published pricing page lists the following, with an annual-billing discount for every paid tier.

Two details matter more than the dollar amounts. The table ceiling lifts only at the Large tier, so a diagram crossing 100 tables forces that jump regardless of how many people are actually editing. SSO/SAML and the audit trail come only through the Enterprise quote, so a team that needs single sign-on to clear a security review cannot buy it self-serve.

DrawSQL limitations that show up as teams scale

Each limit below follows from what DrawSQL was built to be. Each one is paired with the ER/Studio capability that closes it and the edition that capability ships in.

Does DrawSQL connect to a live database?

No. The diagram holds no ongoing connection to a running database. If the database changes and the diagram does not, the diagram documents a past design decision instead of the current schema.

ER/Studio handles this through リバースエンジニアリング そして Compare and Merge. You pull the live schema into a physical model, and when the database drifts, the comparison surfaces every difference and generates an ALTER script that reconciles the change incrementally, leaving existing data in place. Both ship in every paid ER/Studio edition, starting with Data Architect.

How many tables does DrawSQL allow per diagram?

Fifteen on Free, 50 on Starter, and 100 on Growth. The cap applies per diagram, and the Large and Enterprise tiers remove it entirely. A large schema can therefore be split across several diagrams, at the cost of the single-canvas view that made the tool useful in the first place. A mid-market retailer’s order domain runs past 100 tables once you model fulfillment and returns alongside orders.

ER/Studio attaches no table ceiling to any license tier.

Which databases does DrawSQL support?

DrawSQL imports and exports SQL for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and MariaDB. Those four engines are the full supported set, covering most single-database application teams and stopping at the boundary of a mixed estate.

ER/Studio supports every major relational, NoSQL, and cloud platform. IDERA’s 技術仕様 name more than 30, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Azure Synapse, Redshift, Teradata, Db2 for z/OS, and MongoDB. A single project can span SQL Server, Snowflake, and Oracle at once, which is the typical shape of an estate assembled through acquisition. Both published editions include multi-platform capability.

Does DrawSQL include SSO, SAML, or an audit trail?

Not at any published tier. All three require the custom Enterprise quote, so change history starts with a sales conversation.

ER/Studio attaches change metadata to every model comparison, recording who changed what and when. Compare and Merge carries that in every paid edition, and Team Server adds change management and role-based access control at the Enterprise tier.

Does DrawSQL offer a business glossary or data lineage?

No. DrawSQL has no glossary, lineage tracking, or ontology management at any tier. Those layers make a definition governable.

ER/Studio’s Team Server provides an enterprise glossary where authoritative business definitions attach directly to model objects and submodels, arranged into ontologies and taxonomies for non-technical users. Bi-directional sync with Purview and Collibra keeps definitions and model structures aligned in both directions, making data cataloging and data modeling one governed workflow instead of two systems that drift apart. Team Server, the glossary, and both governance integrations ship in ER/Studio Enterprise, and Team Server Core is licensed separately from the modeling seats.

How DrawSQL compares to ER/Studio

DrawSQL prices its scope transparently, and the Large tier lifts both the table and seat ceilings. No DrawSQL tier adds a live database connection or a governed definition layer, and none supports more than four database engines. Those are the rows where the two tools stop overlapping.

The edition column is the part most DrawSQL comparisons skip

ER/Studio’s edition comparison puts reverse engineering, Compare and Merge, and multi-platform modeling in the entry edition. The governance layer requires Enterprise. A team pricing ER/Studio against DrawSQL’s $179/month Large tier on the strength of the glossary is comparing against a quoted Enterprise license, not against either published price.

How long each capability takes to pay off

The two capabilities that close DrawSQL’s largest gaps land on different schedules, which matters when the budget request has to name a date.

Reverse engineering pays back in weeks

It also ships in the entry edition. Entrust faced thousands of interrelated tables across multiple legacy systems, many of which lacked even basic documentation, and work that previously took six months came down to about a week.

Governance takes six to eighteen months

ER/Studio reports 70% fewer data errors and 45% faster model updates once definitions are governed in one place, and none of that lands in the first month. A governance baseline covering a glossary plus lineage typically takes six to eighteen months depending on organizational scope and stakeholder engagement. Reverse engineering a legacy database produces the physical model in one to three weeks, and the logical model that gives it business meaning takes another four to eight.

What does ER/Studio add at the governance and cataloging layer?

で ER/スタジオ・エンタープライズ, modeling and cataloging become one workflow. Glossary terms attach to the specific entities and attributes that implement them, so a business definition of “net revenue” resolves to the tables and columns where it is calculated, and the sync keeps that resolution current in Purview or Collibra as both change.

Whether that matters depends on who audits you. GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX audits turn on where specific data elements sit and how they move between systems, which is a column-level question. Documented lineage answers it at that level, while system-level lineage showing that one platform feeds another stops short. A diagram shows the columns but doesn’t record where the values came from.

Is DrawSQL right for your team?

Map your situation to the four cases below.

• Small, stable schema, no live-sync need, no compliance obligation. DrawSQL is the right call, and paying for more buys capability you will not use. A 40-table application schema maintained by three engineers is exactly the profile the Growth tier serves.
• Schema approaching or past a table cap. If you are near 100 tables on Growth, price the Large tier against what you actually need, because that jump buys table headroom and seats alone.
• SSO, SAML, or audit trail required. On DrawSQL, these require the custom Enterprise quote, so a security review requirement puts you in a sales conversation either way, and comparing scopes then is worth the time. ER/Studio publishes Data Architect at $2,687 per user annually and Data Architect Pro at $3,693, which adds the centralized repository for version control and universal mappings.
• Glossary, lineage, or cross-team definitions required. That is the moment to evaluate ER/Studio Enterprise, because those are the layers a diagramming tool was never built to address. Budget for a quoted license, not the published per-seat price.

Plenty of teams use both across their maturity curve. Early sketching belongs in DrawSQL while the design is still moving daily. ER/Studio takes over the first time someone outside engineering needs a definition they can trust.

Next steps for evaluating your data modeling needs

Start by identifying where your current data modeling process creates the most friction. Are large models becoming difficult to manage? Are production databases drifting from their models? Are business definitions difficult for other teams to find and understand? Knowing the problem you need to solve will help you focus your evaluation on the capabilities that matter most.

では test ER/Studio using your own environment. Reverse engineer an existing database to see how ER/Studio turns your schema into a detailed physical model, or evaluate the modeling, collaboration, governance, and automation capabilities most relevant to your team.

ER/Studio’s edition comparison shows which capabilities are included with each edition, helping you determine the right fit before or after starting your free trial.

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