head to head · open source
Mermaid vs Evidence
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Evidence has 7,082 stars, 437 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 1,185% (90,981 vs 7,082 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; Evidence is written in TypeScript under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Evidence 6%. 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 | Evidence | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 7.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 437 |
| 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 Evidence if
- You want the Evidence feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Evidence 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 Evidence
Evidence is an agent ready tool for creating reports using your data Docs Slack How It Works Evidence is an open source, code based alternative to drag and drop business intelligence tools. Create reports in code using SQL and markdown Develop using Evidence's Agent, or on your local machine with Claude Code / Cursor etc Self host or publish on Evidence Studio Install macOS / Linux Windows Create a Project Publish Publish your project on Evidence Studio for hosted reports, or self host the generated static site on your own infrastructure. See the publishing docs for options. Join the Evidence Community Join our…
read the full Evidence overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or Evidence more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and Evidence has 7,082. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and Evidence free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and Evidence under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and Evidence?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and Evidence in TypeScript. 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 Evidence?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Evidence if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.