head to head · open source
Mermaid vs diagram-design
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. diagram-design has 64,318 stars, 4,247 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 41% (90,981 vs 64,318 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; diagram-design is written in HTML under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, diagram-design 7%. Mermaid was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (diagrams), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | diagram-design | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 64K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 4.2K |
| 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 diagram-design if
- You want the diagram-design feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and diagram-design 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 diagram-design
Diagram Design Editorial diagrams your designer won't hate. New in 2.0 — the Loop: flywheels with a shared memory hub. The dashed lines are the write backs. New in 2.3: semantic system patterns and optional accessible motion, while static output stays the default. New in 2.5.10: ten more layout grammars — Sankey, fishbone, Wardley map, kanban, user journey, deployment, dependency graph, UML class, story map, and database schema. 39 editorial diagram types for Claude Code, Codex, Factory Droid, Pi, and Agent Skills compatible hosts. Self contained HTML + SVG. No shadows. No Mermaid slop. Semantic patterns…
read the full diagram-design overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or diagram-design more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and diagram-design has 64,318. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and diagram-design free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and diagram-design under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and diagram-design?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and diagram-design 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 diagram-design?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose diagram-design if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.