# SQL to ER diagram tool

27 Hacker News commenters recommended SQL to ER diagram tool and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Browser-based tool that turns a pasted SQL schema into an interactive ER diagram, with nothing uploaded or stored. Some dispute whether SQL can yield a true ER diagram.

## Why people recommend it

- Clean, polished, well-crafted interface (5 comments): "what is here now is so well crafted that it feels uncomfortable asking for features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526746)) "It’s responsive, clean and “onboarding” experience without signup walls is great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525333)) "just got reminded of that project after looking at this great implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525478))
- Useful for visualizing database schemas (4 comments): "that's the kind of boring tool I bookmark and come back to on every migration" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505528)) "I was really in need of something like this to visualise my schemas" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526421)) "This is cool! People actually need sthng like this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48526473))
- No signup, uploads, or storage (3 comments): "It’s responsive, clean and “onboarding” experience without signup walls is great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525333)) "this seems like a worthwhile tradeoff for not having to store anything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525685)) "No backend, no accounts, no data leaving your machine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524416))
- Solves an old problem well (2 comments): "Such an old problem solved very elegantly. Congrats." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48525642)) "Author(s) did the homework." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48524830))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Mermaid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mermaid.md): 93 recommend
- [Reladraw](https://hackerapproved.com/p/reladraw.md): 28 recommend
- [D2 diagram language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/d2.md): 21 recommend
- [PlantUML](https://hackerapproved.com/p/plantuml.md): 16 recommend
- [Graphviz](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graphviz.md): 13 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SQL to ER diagram tool", https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-sql-to-er-diagram-tool/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).