head to head · open source
Mermaid vs rill
Mermaid has 90,293 GitHub stars, 9,266 forks, 1,781 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rill has 2,893 stars, 201 forks, 211 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mermaid leads on adoption by 3,021% (90,293 vs 2,893 stars). Mermaid is written in TypeScript under MIT; rill is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Mermaid has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, rill 7%. rill 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Mermaid | rill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 201 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mermaid if
- You weight community size — 90K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick rill if
- You want the rill feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and rill fits your workflow better
About Mermaid
Mermaid is a JavaScript based diagramming tool that renders diagrams from Markdown like text definitions. It lives in the JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem and operates both in the browser and in Node.js environments. The project’s core purpose is to eliminate the gap between software development and documentation by letting developers write diagrams alongside code, avoiding the rot and overhead of manual diagram maintenance.
read the full Mermaid overview →
About rill
Rill is a Go business intelligence tool in the Data & Analytics / Business Intelligence & Reporting ecosystem, released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is agent first and human friendly, and it is powered by OLAP engines such as ClickHouse and DuckDB.
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Business Intelligence & Reporting projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Business Intelligence & Reporting field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mermaid or rill more popular?
Mermaid has 90,293 GitHub stars and rill has 2,893. Mermaid has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mermaid and rill free?
Both are open source. Mermaid is licensed under MIT and rill under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mermaid and rill?
Mermaid is written in TypeScript and rill in Go. 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 rill?
Choose Mermaid if you want the larger community (90,293 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose rill if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.