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Mermaid vs Kroki: catalog facts
Mermaid	Kroki
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Free The public kroki.io service and interactive editor are free to use.
Web, Command line	Web, Self-hosted
Diagrams are plain text, so they diff and review like code Rendered natively by GitHub, GitLab and most documentation generators	One API for dozens of text-based diagram languages Live in-browser editor for trying each format
Layout is automatic, so fine control over positioning is limited Complex diagrams become hard to read in source form	Aimed at developers and documentation tooling rather than freehand drawing Each diagram language has its own syntax to learn
Web application, Downloadable app	Web application, Self-hosted, Hosted service
Open source	Closed source
License: MIT	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.