Azimutt vs DbSketch

Azimutt is a database exploration and documentation tool for understanding and managing databases. Its ERDs let users choose which tables, columns, relations, and ordering to show, while data exploration follows relations and can access real data on demand. For schema design, it provides AML, a minimal domain-specific language. Documentation includes table and column notes, layout memos, and visual indications; schema analysis can point out inconsistencies and possible improvements. Listed connectors cover PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, Couchbase, BigQuery, and Snowflake. Other schemas can be imported in JSON format, and the CLI includes JSON schema inference. The maker says schema parsing happens in the browser, projects can remain local, and Azimutt can be self-hosted. The free plan has no long-term save and allows a maximum of one user. Solo costs €7.00 per month billed annually; Team costs €35.00 per month billed annually per user. The site says Azimutt is made and hosted in the EU, while its privacy policy says personal data is hosted on DigitalOcean servers in the United States.

DbSketch is a command-line generator for turning live relational database schemas into version-controlled documentation. It reads tables, columns, primary keys, and foreign keys from SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQLite. Output choices are Graphviz DOT, Mermaid ER, or Markdown files with diagram text in a fenced code block. A YAML configuration holds one database connection and can define named diagram targets, allowing one setup to produce multiple focused diagrams with separate output and renderer settings. DbSketch can include native database comments where supported and apply YAML comment overrides. Its DOT renderer preserves foreign-key relationships down to the connected columns. The maker describes it as useful for repository documentation, CI, and compact schema snapshots for people and AI coding assistants. It is distributed as the.NET tool DimonSmart.DbSketch, which installs the dbsketch command; the getting-started guide requires the.NET 10 SDK. The software is MIT-licensed and costs nothing. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is self-hosted.