head to head · open source
Mermaid vs faction
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. faction has 604 stars, 66 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 14,963% (90,981 vs 604 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; faction is written in Java under GPL-2.0. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, faction 11%. 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 | faction | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 604 |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 66 |
| 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 faction if
- You want the faction feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and faction 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 faction
OWASP FACTION PenTesting Report Generation and Collaboration Framework OWASP Faction 2.0 Has been released! 🎉 Faction 2.0 is a major update and will begin replacing this version. You can run it here OWASP Faction 1.X Info Faction is now an OWASP Project! You can find more information here Sponsors Premium Sponsors otto js PCI and Client Side Security Secninjaz Technologies LLP Become a Sponsor ❤️ If you like the project and would like to see it advance then consider being a sponsor. All sponsors get access to the Faction discord server and will have bug reports prioritized. Just click the sponsor links at the…
read the full faction overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or faction more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and faction has 604. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and faction free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and faction under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and faction?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and faction in Java. 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 faction?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose faction if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.