Why I Built nuzur

I am a very visual person, so whether I was building a system that required a database or not, I would usually end up using MySQL Workbench or something like LucidChart to model my entities and relationships; this is also the best way to share with others.

The Breaking Point

Don't get me wrong — both of these tools are great, and I still use them, but both of them lack functionality. To make the story short, the day I decided to build nuzur was when I upgraded my computer and MySQL Workbench completely broke. It didn't even open, and this lasted for weeks. I remember finding a large thread on their community page of people complaining just like me.

The Search for Alternatives

In the meantime, I started looking around for other options, and there are many of them. I downloaded all the apps I could find, free and paid, and none of them really gave me what I needed. Another common thing I noticed is most of these apps (that specialize in databases) are old-fashioned apps that you need to install on your machine and update regularly.

The Vision

Then it all came together. I wanted something that:

• Allowed me to model visually my domain
• Was web-based and accessible anywhere
• Was always up-to-date
• Anybody could use on any machine

I remember saying: "If MySQL Workbench and Figma had a baby, that is what I want" — and that is what I started to build right after I quit my job in May 2024.

Built for Everyone

I built this app for myself to use it on my upcoming projects, and I want to share it with others, making it useful, trying to automate processes, and allowing nontechnical folks to access the design and the data. I believe that understanding the data structure of a system is something that everybody involved in a project should be aware of.