head to head · open source
Mermaid vs Apache Pinot
Mermaid has 90,293 GitHub stars, 9,266 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Apache Pinot has 6,138 stars, 1,509 forks, 1,403 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mermaid leads on adoption by 1,371% (90,293 vs 6,138 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; Apache Pinot is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Apache Pinot 25%. Apache Pinot 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 | Apache Pinot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Apache Pinot if
- You want the Apache Pinot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Apache Pinot 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 Apache Pinot
Apache Pinot is a real time distributed OLAP datastore built to deliver scalable real time analytics at low latency. It lives in the Java ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and was originally built by engineers at LinkedIn and Uber. The project ingests from batch data sources such as Hadoop HDFS, Amazon S3, Azure ADLS, and Google Cloud Storage, as well as from stream data sources such as Apache Kafka. It is designed to scale up and out with no upper bound, and its performance stays constant based on the size of the cluster and an expected query per second threshold.
read the full Apache Pinot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or Apache Pinot more popular?
Mermaid has 90,293 GitHub stars and Apache Pinot has 6,138. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and Apache Pinot free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and Apache Pinot under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and Apache Pinot?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and Apache Pinot in Java. 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 Apache Pinot?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,293 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Apache Pinot if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.