head to head · open source
Mermaid vs php-spx
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars, 9,444 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped yesterday. php-spx has 2,645 stars, 104 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Mermaid leads on adoption by 3,340% (90,981 vs 2,645 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; php-spx is written in C under GPL-3.0. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, php-spx 4%. 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 | php-spx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.4K | ⑂ 104 |
| 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 php-spx if
- You want the php-spx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and php-spx 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 php-spx
SPX A simple profiler for PHP [![Build Status][:badge ci:]][:link ci:] ![Supported PHP versions: 5.4 .. 8.x][:badge php versions:] ![Supported platforms: GNU/Linux, macOS & FreeBSD][:badge supported platforms:] ![Supported architectures: x86 64 or ARM64][:badge supported arch:] [![License][:badge license:]][:link license:] Click here for a live demo of the analysis screen SPX, which stands for Simple Profiling eXtension , is just another profiling extension for PHP. It differentiates itself from other similar extensions as being: totally free and confined to your infrastructure (i.e. no data leaks to a SaaS)…
read the full php-spx overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or php-spx more popular?
Mermaid has 90,981 GitHub stars and php-spx has 2,645. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and php-spx free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and php-spx under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and php-spx?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and php-spx in C. 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 php-spx?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,981 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose php-spx if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.