head to head · open source
Mermaid vs ara
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ara has 2,024 stars, 181 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 4,395% (90,981 vs 2,024 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; ara is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ara 9%. 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 | ara | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 181 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mermaid if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ara if
- You want the ara feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ara fits your workflow better
About Mermaid
Mermaid Generate diagrams from Markdown like text. Live Editor! 📖 Documentation 🚀 Getting Started 🌐 CDN 🙌 Join Us 简体中文 Try Live Editor previews of future releases: Develop Next :trophy: Mermaid was nominated and won the JS Open Source Awards (2019) in the category "The most exciting use of technology"!!! Thanks to all involved, people committing pull requests, people answering questions! 🙏 Table of content Expand contents About Examples Release Related projects Contributors Security and safe diagrams Reporting vulnerabilities Appreciation About Mermaid is a JavaScript based diagramming and charting tool…
read the full Mermaid overview →
About ara
ARA Records Ansible ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot. It is another recursive acronym with a focus on simplicity. About ara ara provides Ansible reporting by recording ansible and ansible playbook commands regardless of how and where they run: from most Linux distributions and even on Mac OS (as long as python = 3.10 is available) from tools that run Ansible like ansible (pull test runner navigator), AWX & Automation Controller (Tower), Molecule and Semaphore from a terminal, a script or by hand from a laptop, desktop, server, virtual machine, container or execution…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or ara more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and ara has 2,024. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and ara free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and ara under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and ara?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and ara in Python. 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 ara?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ara if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.