head to head · open source
Mermaid vs charts.css
Mermaid has 90,299 GitHub stars, 9,266 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. charts.css has 6,584 stars, 178 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 1,271% (90,299 vs 6,584 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; charts.css is written in HTML under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, charts.css 3%. 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 | charts.css | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-04-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 178 |
| 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 charts.css if
- You want the charts.css feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and charts.css 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 charts.css
Charts.css is an MIT licensed open source CSS framework that turns semantic HTML data tables into charts and graphs using nothing but CSS classes, aimed at frontend developers who want visualization without a JavaScript charting dependency.
read the full charts.css overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or charts.css more popular?
Mermaid has 90,299 GitHub stars and charts.css has 6,584. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and charts.css free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and charts.css under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and charts.css?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and charts.css in HTML. 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 charts.css?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,299 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose charts.css if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.