A database schema is the blueprints of your database, it represents the description of a database structure, data types, and the constraints on the database. And designing database schemas is one of the very first and important steps to start developing any software/website.

Best SQL Server IDE for Effective Development. DbForge Studio for SQL Server is a powerful IDE for Microsoft SQL Server management, administration, development, data reporting, analysis, and a lot more. SQL developers and DBAs performing complex database tasks can use the GUI tool to speed up almost any database experience, such as designing.

To help you determine the right tool for you to design database schema diagrams, we've curated a list of 5 of the best free online tools to do it.

Universal Database Tool Free multi-platform database tool for developers, database administrators, analysts and all people who need to work with databases. Supports all popular databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, Sybase, MS Access, Teradata, Firebird, Apache Hive, Phoenix, Presto, etc.
The best database diagram tools. Lucidchart is a visual database design tool that allows you to automatically create, edit, and import database diagrams. The software is compatible with databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server. You can select from a library of shapes to build a new database.
SQLDBDiff Shareware version is the unique tool on the market that includes the possibility to compare many databases to the same master database, all in one operation. SQLDBDiff is available in English and French languages and supports SQL Server V2005 to V2019, SQL Azure and SQL on Linux. Microsoft.Net Framework 4.0 or above is required.
DB Solo - The SQL Query Tool. DB Solo - The SQL Query Tool is a powerful yet affordable cross-platform database development and management tool for both developers and DBAs. With its rich feature set, it is comparable to tools that are orders of magnitude more expensive. DB Solo has an intuitive user interface that allows you to explore.

Top 5 Free Database Diagram (ERD) Design Tools

dbdiagram.io

Pricing: Free with unlimited objects and diagrams

dbdiagram.io is a quick and simple database designer to help you draw your database diagrams using their own Domain-specific language (DSL).
They have a simple language to define, you can easily edit/copy without leaving keyboard
They focus exclusively on drawing database relationship diagrams
Allow you to save and share your diagrams online.
Designed for developers, DBA, data analysts
Their UI looks simple and neat, with pretty diagrams.

Draw.io

Pricing: Free for web-based usage, paid for Atlassian (Confluence/JIRA) apps.

Draw.io is a free online diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, etc.
Allows different types of charts like flowcharts, org charts, UML, ER and network diagrams.
Allows saving your diagrams to cloud storage services like GDrive, Dropbox and OneDrive, or to your own computer
Visual interfaces not as nice as lucidchart.

Lucidchart

Pricing: Free with limited objects, $4.95-$20/month

Lucidchart is cloud-based and collaborative diagram software. Lucidchart helps your team create not only database diagram but also flowcharts, process maps, UML models, org charts,.. on any device across the platform you already use.
Free plan comes with a limit of 3 diagrams and 60 objects per diagram
Good experience and collaborative
Integrated with G Suite, Microsoft Office...
Good if you are more of a designer and want drag-and-drop interface

SQLDBM

Pricing: Free (Beta) with unlimited diagrams and objects

SqlDBM offers you an easy, convenient way to design your database absolutely anywhere on any browser, working away without need for any extra database engine or database modelling tools or apps.
They incorporates any needed database rules and objects such as database keys, schemas, indexes, column constraints and relationships
Only support MySQL and MS SQL
Support Forward Engineering and Reverse Engineering
100% drag and drop UI
Support version history

QuickDBD

Pricing: free for 1 public diagram and 10 tables, plans at $14/month for unlimited tables and private diagrams.

QuickDBD helps you quickly draw a diagram using just text input.
It quickly captures ideas, and you can draw schema diagrams using only the keyboard.
Support exporting to SQL, PDF and Word

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In this blog post I will highlight an overlooked feature in my SQL Server Compact Toolbox (Visual Studio add-in or standalone), the ability to create interactive relationship diagrams of SQL Server databases. And in combination with the free, open source DB>Doc for SQL Server, you have a full suite of documentation tools.

In order to create a diagram showing tables, columns and relationships for your SQL Server database, install the Toolbox.

Right click the root node of the Toolbox window, and select “Create SQL Server Database Graph (DGML)”:

Select the database that you want to diagram (the tool needs SELECT permission on the system views in the database)

You can also select to diagram only a subset of the tables in the database:

You will be prompted for a location to save the DGML file, enter this, and click OK, and Visual Studio will show the generated diagram in the DGML viewer, that comes with Visual Studio 2012 Pro or higher:

The viewer is quite advanced, from the Layout menu you can choose between various layouts of the dependency graph, and other advanced features to analyse the graph, for example. From the viewer you can Share as Image or XPS:

Click on a table, and select the down arrow button to expand the table into columns, and refer to the Legend also displayed (via the Legend menu item in the viewer):

More information on working with the graphs is available on MSDN:

To create HTML/XML based documentation of your database columns, you can use the open sourceDB>Doc tool. The main idea [of this tool] is to serve as a complementary tool to database diagrams, focusing on columns in tables and their meaning (common database diagrams focus to entity relationships).

I also use this tool for the documentation feature in the Toolbox for SQL Server Compact database files, which produces output similar to this:

Happy documenting! And feel free to provide feedback athttps://sqlcetoolbox.codeplex.com/WorkItem/Create

Sql Db Diagram Tool

Published at DZone with permission of Erik Ejlskov Jensen, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

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