head to head · open source
Mermaid vs c3
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. c3 has 9,352 stars, 1,357 forks, 771 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 873% (90,981 vs 9,352 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; c3 is written in JavaScript under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, c3 15%. 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 | c3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 c3 if
- You want the c3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and c3 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 c3
c3 c3 is a D3 based reusable chart library that enables deeper integration of charts into web applications. Follow the link for more information: Documentation + Getting Started + Examples + Full API Reference Additional samples can be found in this repository: + You can run these samples as: Google Group For general C3.js related discussion, please visit our Google Group at Gitter Using the issue queue The issue queue is to be used for reporting defects and problems with C3.js, in addition to feature requests and ideas. It is not a catch all support forum. For general support enquiries, please use the Google…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or c3 more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and c3 has 9,352. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and c3 free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and c3 under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and c3?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and c3 in JavaScript. 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 c3?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose c3 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.