head to head · open source
Mermaid vs lets-plot
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lets-plot has 1,784 stars, 62 forks, 145 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 5,000% (90,981 vs 1,784 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; lets-plot is written in Kotlin under MIT. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, lets-plot 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 | lets-plot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 62 |
| 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 lets-plot if
- You want the lets-plot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and lets-plot 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 lets-plot
Lets Plot Lets Plot is a multiplatform plotting library built on the principles of the Grammar of Graphics. The library design is heavily influenced by Leland Wilkinson's work The Grammar of Graphics describing the deep features that underlie all statistical graphics. This grammar [...] is made up of a set of independent components that can be composed in many different ways. This makes [it] very powerful because you are not limited to a set of pre specified graphics, but you can create new graphics that are precisely tailored for your problem. Hadley Wickham, "ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis"…
read the full lets-plot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or lets-plot more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and lets-plot has 1,784. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and lets-plot free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and lets-plot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and lets-plot?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and lets-plot in Kotlin. 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 lets-plot?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lets-plot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.