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Add to SafariWhen comparing SchemaSpy vs Schemaball, the Slant community recommends SchemaSpy for most people. In the question“What are the best database design programs?” SchemaSpy is ranked 7th while Schemaball is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose SchemaSpy is:
SchemaSpy can analyze database metadata in order to reverse engineer ER (Entity Relationship) diagrams for any JDBC-compliant database which includes Oracle, MySQL, Sql-Server and Postgres among others.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Entity Relationship Digramming for nearly any JDBC-compliant database
SchemaSpy can analyze database metadata in order to reverse engineer ER (Entity Relationship) diagrams for any JDBC-compliant database which includes Oracle, MySQL, Sql-Server and Postgres among others.
Pro Has a GUI option available
SchemaSpy is a CLI tool. For people who prefer GUI-based tools there's one available from a different maintainer which stands on top of the CLI version.
Pro Supports reading schemas from multiple sources
Schemaball can read schemas from multiple sources such as SQL schema dumps, flat files or live databases.
Pro Interesting twist on visual interface
Gives a quick way to grasp an overview on the past/present complexity of the database (or group of tables) undergoing inspection.
Cons
Con Does not work with schema dumpfiles
SchemaSpy has no methods for dealing with when you only have a schema generated via something like (mysqldump --no-data [options] >schema-only_dump.sql) , and do not currently have access to a live database to connect with.
Con GUI option is a separate download by a different maintainer
Since the GUI version is from a different maintainer, it may be abandoned and eventually break if SchemaSpy development continues beyond that. Or it may implement new features much later than the CLI version.
Con Project may be dead or dying
The codebase on sourceforge hasn't seen an update since 2010.
Con Visualizations may be hard to get used to
Since schemas are visualized by using stylized "schema balls" it may be hard getting used to them since they are so different from the other, more straightforward options.
