ERDCloud is the ERD tool you'll hear about most often from Korean developers. Sign up, and you're drawing diagrams in the browser — including real-time co-editing with teammates, at no cost. That combination made it the default for student team projects and early-stage design work across Korea, and there's nothing Korea-specific about using it — a language switcher sits in the footer.
This is a getting-started guide: how to begin, how the screen is laid out, what the export dialog offers, a few habits worth forming — and at the end, the situations where it's worth looking at other tools alongside it.
Getting started
Sign up free at erdcloud.com and you're in — no install, no card. The new-document icon (note_add) in the top bar creates a fresh ERD.
The official intro sums the service up in four sentences: "ERDCloud is a DB modeling tool. Draw ERDs together with your team. The drawing screen is shared in real time. And it's free." Collaboration and free — those two words are most of the story.
If you're new, browsing other people's diagrams is a genuinely good first step. The Library menu collects public ERDs, several with view counts in the hundreds of thousands: the schema of the Korean developer community OKKY, the GNUBOARD5 open-source forum schema, marketplace-clone designs for coursework. Skimming how others structured a forum or a commerce service is free study material.
If you're designing a forum for an assignment right now, open two or three public diagrams on the same theme and compare. You'll see which tables everyone has and which ones vary by designer — noticing that difference is where design intuition starts. And if the drawing process itself is new to you, How to Draw an ERD covers it from the beginning.
The screen at a glance
The editor puts the canvas in the middle with panels around it.
- Top bar: new document, duplicate, the public/private toggle (lock icon), settings, search.
- Left panel: table list, snapshots (camera icon), full-screen toggle.
- Right panel: drawing tools.
- Bottom panel: Domain, Import, Export, and sharing.
The ones you'll reach for most: Import/Export at the bottom, and the public/private toggle at the top. Let's take them in turn.
Export: more formats than you'd expect
The Export button at the bottom opens a dialog with a solid set of options.
- DBMS selection: MySQL by default, with other systems selectable.
- Constraint options: PK constraints, FK constraints, non-identifying constraints, and DROP statements, each a checkbox.
- Output formats: SQL preview/download, plus PNG image, EXCEL, TypeScript preview, and snapshot download.
One term worth unpacking: "non-identifying constraints." ERD relationships come in two kinds — identifying, where the child table uses the parent's key as part of its own primary key (solid line), and non-identifying, where it's referenced as a regular column (dashed line). That checkbox decides whether FK constraints for dashed-line relationships are included in the DDL. If you drew a dashed relationship and its FK is missing from the export, this is the box to check. Solid and dashed lines, along with the rest of the notation, are covered in the ERD notation guide.
Each output format has its own job:
- SQL: creating the actual database, or moving to another tool.
- PNG: pasting into meeting docs and wikis.
- EXCEL: submitting the table list as a spreadsheet.
- TypeScript: receiving your tables as type definitions for frontend code. A nice perk on TypeScript projects.
The "selected entities only" option exports just part of the diagram — handy for pulling SQL for only the tables changing in this sprint.
Import sits right next to Export, so the reverse direction works too: load existing SQL and get a diagram. Starting from your real database's DDL instead of a blank canvas saves a lot of time.
Working as a team: real-time collaboration
Collaboration is why ERDCloud is loved. Several people open the same diagram, everyone draws, and each edit appears on everyone's screen as it happens. Getting this without payment is what made it the default choice for student teams and study groups.
It proves itself in design meetings. Instead of one person sharing a screen and drawing, each member draws the tables of their own domain simultaneously and wires them together with FKs on the spot. When the meeting ends, the diagram is the meeting minutes.
Three habits worth forming
Check public/private first. The lock icon in the top bar is the diagram's visibility. Public diagrams are browsable by anyone through the library. For practice work or a portfolio that's a feature — for a company schema it's a leak, since table names alone sketch your service. Keep work private.
Leave snapshots. The camera icon in the left panel stores the diagram at a point in time. Snapshot before and after design reviews and you'll thank yourself the day someone asks what the structure looked like last month.
Use domains to cut repetition. The Domain feature registers reusable column type definitions. Combinations like created_at DATETIME NOT NULL stop being retyped per table, and teammates stop choosing slightly different types for the same kind of column. Public diagrams with dozens of registered domains are worth a look to get the idea.
What's new: editing with AI (MCP)
As of ERDCloud's 2026 announcement, you can connect AI tools like Claude Code and Codex over MCP (Model Context Protocol) and build or edit diagrams through conversation, starting from the AI connection button in the editor.
Schema drafting with AI has clearly become a shared direction for ERD tools in general. The tool-agnostic version of that workflow — prompting for DDL and verifying the result — is covered in Drawing ERDs with AI.
When to look at other tools alongside it
ERDCloud covers a lot of ground, but some situations shift the requirements.
When you round-trip PostgreSQL, Oracle or SQL Server DDL precisely. If reading production dumps as-is and exporting back in exact per-DBMS grammar is your daily routine, a tool with dedicated parsers per DBMS spares you friction. WorksCove ERD imports and exports DDL for MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle and SQL Server, including conversion between them.
When you owe someone a table specification document. If reviews or deliveries require column-definition documents, a tool that generates the spec straight from the schema saves the retyping.
When you want schema history as versions. Same story if your workflow needs per-release schema versions you can compare.
Moving over: five minutes, in order
If you do decide to move, the process is short:
- In ERDCloud's export dialog, confirm the DBMS and click SQL download. Make sure the PK and FK constraint checkboxes are on — DDL without FKs becomes a diagram without relationship lines.
- Open SQL import in the new tool and paste the file, matching the DBMS type to what you exported.
- Compare table, column and FK counts against the original. Layout doesn't travel in DDL, so re-arrange with auto-layout.
The screens for this are the same as the walkthrough in SQL to ERD. DDL is the common language between tools — learn the route once and it works between any pair.
For a full comparison of five free tools, see 5 Free Online ERD Tools Compared. In the end, the surest way is to try a tool yourself and pick what fits your work. ERDCloud earns its place on that shortlist with free collaboration as its clear strength — and if the situations above describe you, check the other candidates alongside it.
FAQ
Is ERDCloud really free?
Its official tagline literally ends with "and it's free", and real-time team co-editing is included without payment. Details can change, so for an important decision it's worth a quick check on the official site.
Is it safe to put a company schema on it?
Check the diagram's public/private setting first. Public diagrams can be browsed by anyone through the library, and table and column names alone reveal how a service works. Keep work schemas private and be careful with account sharing.
How do I move from ERDCloud to another tool?
Download SQL from the export dialog, then paste it into the other tool's SQL import. DDL is the common language between these tools, so tables, columns and FKs move over intact. Layout isn't part of DDL, so re-arrange with auto-layout on the other side.
What is the AI (MCP) connection?
A feature ERDCloud announced in 2026: connect AI coding tools like Claude Code or Codex over MCP and build or edit diagrams through conversation. Per the announcement, it starts from the AI connection button in the ERD editor.