9 Best ER Diagram Tools in 2023 (Free/Paid)

Popular ER Diagram tools often lack proper integrations with 3rd party tools/services. Most ER Diagram Tools only offer a few prebuilt templates that need to be revised for users. Besides, they may need more customer support to handle all the customer queries. 

That’s why you need to choose from the best ER Diagram Tools with valuable features, customer support, and good tools to support your work. We have carefully evaluated over 25 tools to shortlist the 9 best ER Diagram tools for all your user needs and use cases.

Best Free ER Diagram Tools

1) Moqups – Best for collaborating in real-time

Moqups is one of the best ER Diagram tools that provides you with proper wireframes and detailed mockups that help to visualize, test, and validate your ideas. Its highly optimized tools ensure that you can edit objects quickly and reliably. You can use it to perform non-destructive cropping, creating multiple versions of the same image.

It provides grids, rulers, custom guides, snap-to-grid, and quick alignment that allow you to make exact modifications to your ER diagrams. You can enjoy its time-saving features, like Master Pages, that will enable you to implement changes automatically to all related pages.

Features:

• Get collaborators onboard quickly with a single, intuitive interface.
• It works inside a single creative environment to keep your team’s concentration and momentum.
• Allows you to upload completed designs and instantly create interactive prototypes from them.
• Pages panel helps you to search and navigate through complex folders easily.
• Provides a single intuitive interface that allows to get collaborators on board quickly.
• It helps you to curate design tools to give your team all the relevant capabilities and rights.
• Allows you to upload ready-made designs and quickly convert them into interactive prototypes..
• Effortlessly integrates with services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Slack, etc.
• Online customer support is available through their website.

2) drawSQL – Best for exporting database schema

drawSQL is one of the best ER diagram tools that allows you to automatically generate an ER diagram by directly uploading SQL scripts. It is designed to be easy to use while having tools for advanced use cases.

You can add the copied diagrams to any of your current charts, including one created by another team. drawSQL integrates with popular services like Django, Google Drive, Slack, and more. It works perfectly on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Features:

• Allows you to share diagrams with others by sending a shareable link.
• Provides full support for all three major DBMSes MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server.
• Presentation mode lets you view a read-only version of your database diagram in full-screen with maximum screen real-estate.
• It offers more than 200 professionally designed pre-built templates.

3) Creately – Best for brainstorming and planning projects

Creately offers more than 1000 pre-defined templates that allow you to quickly get started with any diagram and minimize your efforts. Moreover, it will enable you to arrange, group, and move items from multiple platforms to create custom workflows.

Creately has one of the most generous lifetime free basic plans, which makes it an excellent choice for everyone. It offers multiple tools that can be very useful for collaborations and working on multiuser projects. You can extend your core platforms by adding additional metadata, notes, and information that the host platform won’t let you.

Features:

• You can effortlessly model the most flexible workflows appropriate for your environment.
• Allows you to display the save an object on Creately as a sticky note, a process step, a stick person, and many more.
• It automatically Laravel migrations from your diagrams.
• It allows you to add multiple task roles, build a workflow with various members and assign clear responsibilities.
• Creately offers robust tools and valuable images for a detailed workflow or idea representation.
• Google Drive, Google Workspace, Confluence, and more can be effortlessly integrated.
• Online customer service through their website.

4) DBSchema – Best for designing and documenting databases

DBSchema’s Relational Data Editor allows you to visually explore data from multiple tables and cascade it into different tables via foreign keys or virtual foreign keys. The SQL editor has options for saving results as CSV or XLSX files, query and script execution, syntax highlighting, and graphical query explanation plans
.
DbSchema model contains its image of the schema independent from the database. Its HTML5 documentation allows you to add comments to tables, columns, and foreign keys and generate interactive documentation. It is ideal for various use cases and allows effortless documentation/designing of professional-looking diagrams.

Features:

• Allows you to create new diagrams by reverse-engineering the schema from the database.
• You can create multiple layouts focused on a specific part of the schema, with the same or different tables, to understand a schema better.
• It lets you schedule database monitoring scripts or end-user reports for periodic execution.
• You can build SQL Queries visually without writing any line of code.
• Effortlessly integrates with MongoDB, Microsoft Azure, etc.
• You can get customer support through their website.

5) Dbdiagram.io – Best to create graphical models of RDBMS schemas

Dbdiagram.io allows you to create relationships by typing the code and dragging from field to field. The Open-source DSL language will enable you to easily define and document database schemas and structures for various use cases.

Dbdiagram.io allows you to easily upload your schema or model file for popular frameworks like Rails, Django, etc. It has various tools that enable you to easily manage your diagrams, import, export, log in, and share with others. This tool has the broadest range of device support among all the tools.

Features:

• Allows you to create database tables by directly generating SQL queries.
• Ability to make stunning PDF copies of ER diagrams to distribute internally.
• Allows you to create diagrams from SQL dump files quickly.
• Provides integrations with Rails, Django, etc.
• Over 100 pre-built templates for getting started with diagrams.

6) Lucidchart – Best for creating flowchart diagrams

Lucidchart is one of the best ER Diagram tools that allow you to optimize business processes and visualize complex technical systems effortlessly. The robust collaboration tools will enable you to collaborate with remote teams effortlessly. Its performance-oriented tools allow you to plan and deploy new features faster.

Lucidchart’s innovative line feature allows the creation of intelligent connections by dropping a line directly to the edge of the following shape. Using the notes feature, you can add permanent feedback to a particular shape. It provides templates even for not-so-known types of diagrams, such as the C4 diagram.

Features:

• You can use the commenting feature to collaborate and gain feedback from others.
• Container or swim lanes allow you to manage complex diagrams easily.
• Its cloud-based platform and intuitive interface make it simple to start making diagrams.
• It can be used as a document repository to increase account security through centralized account management, document retention, etc.
• Lucidchart’s presentation mode breaks your diagram up into a polished slide presentation.
• Integrations with AWG, G Suite, GitHub, etc.
• Customer Support is available through the website.
• More than 100 professionally built templates are available. 

7) Diagrams.net – Best for drawing multiple diagrams

Diagrams.net is an excellent tool for drawing and downloading/exporting diagrams in various formats. It is ideal for collaborating on projects with Notion, Github, and other 3rd party tools. It allows you to construct multiple schemes and includes pre-made design sets.

Diagrams.net supports different themes & plugin support such as Atlas, Dark, Sketch, Ex, props, tree, etc. It contains a vast collection of object elements that can be used to make mock diagrams or flowcharts.

Features:

• Allows you to export your progress as an image or save it as a draft.
• It lets you create flowcharts and ER Diagrams online without installing any software.
• You can save diagrams anywhere and share them with anyone with a couple of clicks.
• Proper integrations with GitHub, OneDrive, Gitlab, etc.
• Provides customer support via their Website.
• Over 100+ templates are available.

8) Db Forge Studio – Best for managing MySQL databases

Db Forge Studio is one of the best tools to build ER Diagrams that allows you to use SQL databases to resolve conflicts, link databases to the most popular source control systems, and many more. It provides an elaborate SQL table designer that allows editing of a script, previewing changes, and many more.

A unique collection of visual database tools that enable code-free creation, editing, and visualization of SQL Server databases. It comes bundled with several cutting-edge features. You may identify bottlenecks and speed up slow query execution.

Features:

• Its index manager allows you to rapidly gather index fragmentation statistics and identify databases that need maintenance.
• Easily large volumes of meaningful test data for SQL Server database tables.
• Advanced security protocols ensure that your data is secured against piracy.
• It supports 10+ widely used data formats, advanced options, and templates for recurring scenarios.
• Provides perpetual license that can be bought once and used lifelong.
• Devart ODBC Drivers, Maria DB, and many more can be easily integrated with Db Force Studio.

9) DBVisualizer – Best for Database visualizations and sharing

DBVisualizer offers straightforward data visualizations, query tools, inline data editing, and robust exporting, which lets you handle data with total control. It lets you connect to the most popular data sources and directly work with their custom object types.

DBVisualizer offers default driver jars for most operating systems and arranges a variety of connections and database types in a tidy tree. It supports encrypting all data that goes to and from the application and sets user permissions to avoid alteration of sensitive data.

Features:

• You can select data in the result set and have DbVis perform simple math such as total and average.
• Easy to navigate through data entities (tables) and display a graphic representation of the relations.
• Integrates effortlessly with Microsoft Azure, Oracle, Salesforce, etc.

FAQs

What is an ER Diagram?

An ER Diagram or an Entity Relation Diagram visually represents relationships between multiple entities. It is used to present complicated relations in an easy-to-understand manner. The ER Diagrams find their usage in research, education, engineering, etc.

What are the best ER Diagram tools?

The best ER Diagram tools are:

1. Moqups
2. drawSQL
3. Creately
4. DBSchema
5. Dbdiagram.io

How to Make an ER Diagram?

You can build an ER Diagram by following the below-mentioned steps:

• Identify and define the various entities
• Choose an ER diagram tool that meets all your needs.
• Create all entities and create relevant attributes, 
• Build relations as needed

Which factors should you consider while choosing an ER Diagram tool?

Here are some crucial factors that must be considered while buying an ER Diagram Tool:

• Supported File Formats: The best ER Diagram tools should support exporting your diagrams in all file formats required in your daily use cases.
• Integrations: Your ER Diagram tools should have sufficient integrations to work effectively with your existing tools and workflow
• Pricing: Based on your usage, you should choose an ER diagram tool that offers pricing plans best suited to your budget and needs

#ERDiagram #ERDiagramTools #BestERDiagramTools

Last Seen: Feb 2, 2023 @ 12:10pm 12FebUTC

Aditya Agarwal

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Blame, resentment, whining, and complaining are excuses we make when were not living the life we came here to live. ?? Live Optimistic...

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