head to head · open source
Mermaid vs G6
Mermaid has 90,309 GitHub stars, 9,270 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. G6 has 12,300 stars, 1,646 forks, 333 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 634% (90,309 vs 12,300 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; G6 is written in TypeScript under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, G6 13%. Mermaid was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Mermaid | G6 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mermaid if
- You weight community size — 90K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick G6 if
- You want the G6 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and G6 fits your workflow better
About Mermaid
Mermaid is a JavaScript based diagramming tool that renders diagrams from Markdown like text definitions. It lives in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem and operates both in the browser and in Node.js environments. The project’s core purpose is to eliminate the gap between software development and documentation by letting developers write diagrams alongside code, avoiding the rot and overhead of manual diagram maintenance.
read the full Mermaid overview →
About G6
G6 is a TypeScript graph visualization engine, published as @antv/g6 under the MIT licence, that provides the drawing, layout, analysis, interaction, animation, theme and plugin primitives developers need to build their own graph visualization and analysis applications.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or G6 more popular?
Mermaid has 90,309 GitHub stars and G6 has 12,300. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and G6 free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and G6 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and G6?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and G6 in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mermaid or G6?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,309 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose G6 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.