ExcaliDash
ExcaliDash adds persistent storage, access control, version history, and real-time collaboration to Excalidraw, transforming ephemeral whiteboarding sessions into a managed drawing library your team can rely on. The Node.js/Express backend with React/TypeScript frontend deploys via Docker Compose on port 6767, using Prisma ORM on SQLite for all drawings, users, and metadata. WebSocket-powered collaboration lets multiple users edit the same canvas simultaneously with live cursor presence. Drawing snapshots preserve every revision with visual preview and one-click restore to any previous state. Three authentication modes handle different deployment needs: local email/password for personal use, hybrid mode mixing native credentials with OIDC for gradual enterprise adoption, and enforced OIDC-only for organizations requiring SSO through providers like Authentik or Keycloak. Scoped sharing controls determine whether drawings stay private, shared internally with team members, or accessible via external links without authentication. Collections organize drawings through drag-and-drop grouping, full-text search locates any diagram instantly, and exports use the non-proprietary .excalidraw format ensuring complete data portability. 1,350+ stars since November 2025. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. AGPL-3.0 licensed.
drawDB
Schema design with no account and a few clicks: drawDB is the browser-based entity-relationship diagram editor and SQL generator - an AGPL-3.0 React project with over 37,000 GitHub stars. Draw tables with columns, data types, defaults, and constraints; connect fields to create foreign-key relationships; group tables into labeled subject areas; and annotate with notes. When the design is ready, one export produces CREATE TABLE DDL - with constraints, indexes, and foreign keys - targeted at MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB, SQL Server, or Oracle. Diagrams can be database-specific, unlocking every native type plus dialect features like PostgreSQL enums and composite custom types, or generic for portability across all supported flavors. The reverse direction works too: paste existing DDL into the import dialog and drawDB renders your live schema as a navigable diagram - the fastest way to document an inherited database. Versioning and migration-script generation track schema evolution, full editor ergonomics (undo/redo, copy/paste, duplicate, themes) keep iteration fast, and diagrams export as PNG, SVG, or shareable JSON. Everything runs client-side against browser storage - no backend database connection needed - so the self-hosted Docker deployment is a featherweight static app that keeps proprietary schema designs entirely on your infrastructure.
ChartDB
Paste one SQL query result into a browser and get an interactive entity-relationship diagram instantly, with no installations, no credentials, and no account required. ChartDB's "Smart Query" runs a single statement in your existing database client that exports table definitions, relationships, indexes, and column types as JSON metadata, meaning the application never touches your database passwords. The canvas renders draggable entities with cardinality markers, collapsible grouping areas, and sticky notes for documentation. AI-powered DDL export generates migration scripts between dialect pairs like PostgreSQL to MySQL or SQLite to CockroachDB, analyzing your schema to produce target-specific DDL with correct type mappings and constraint translations. Import paths cover Smart Query JSON, raw DDL scripts, and DBML files from tools like dbdiagram.io. The AI layer connects to OpenAI or any compatible inference server including local vLLM instances running models like Qwen2.5-32B. Database coverage includes PostgreSQL (with Supabase and Timescale extensions), MySQL, SQL Server, MariaDB, SQLite (with Cloudflare D1), CockroachDB, ClickHouse, and Oracle. Exports to SVG with inline styles or SQL DDL in any target dialect. Ships as a React/Vite frontend behind Nginx in Docker, deployable on RepoCloud with dedicated VPS resources under the AGPL-3.0 license.
Excalidraw
Half the architecture sketches on the internet trace back to Excalidraw - the MIT-licensed virtual whiteboard whose hand-drawn aesthetic made technical diagramming feel approachable, at roughly 85,000 GitHub stars. The infinite canvas offers rectangles, ellipses, diamonds, arrows with smart binding and labels, free-draw, text, images, and an eraser, with full undo/redo, zoom, dark mode, and keyboard-first ergonomics. Community shape libraries add thousands of pre-built elements - AWS architecture icons, flowchart stencils, UI wireframe kits - and everything exports to PNG, SVG, the clipboard, or the open .excalidraw JSON format that keeps drawings diffable and portable. Live collaboration works on a share-a-link model with live cursors and a laser pointer for presenting, and it is end-to-end encrypted by design: the room key travels in the URL hash, which never reaches the server, so the WebSocket relay only ever sees ciphertext. The architecture is remarkably light - the app is a static bundle served by Nginx, drawings persist locally in the browser, and the stateless excalidraw-room relay handles multiplayer - so a self-hosted deployment gives unlimited boards and collaborators with near-zero resource cost, replacing per-editor whiteboard subscriptions.