Gramit vs Mermaid
Mermaid solved a real problem: a diagram that lives in your repository, reviewed like code. It has one structural limit, and everyone who uses it long enough meets it. When the automatic layout puts a box in the wrong place, there is nothing you can do about it, because there is no canvas to drag it on.
Side by side
Rows are ordered by where the two tools differ most, and the rows Mermaid wins are in here too.
| Feature | Gramit | Mermaid |
|---|---|---|
| Nested diagrams | Any node opens into its own board | Subgraphs group nodes on the same flat picture |
| Fix the layout by hand | Yes, drag anything | No, layout is automatic |
| Text stays in sync after visual edits | The board writes YAML back out | One direction only, text to picture |
| Images, icons and code blocks as nodes | Yes | No |
| Crowded diagrams | Depth, so no single picture has to hold everything | Complex diagrams can overlap at render time |
| Getting nodes to line up | Drag them into line | Layout is approximate, nodes cannot be pinned |
| Authoring from text | Yes, Gramit YAML | Yes |
| An assistant can write it | Yes, from the public language spec | Yes |
| Renders inside a README | No, but any board embeds as an iframe | Yes |
GramitWhy people move over
You keep the text, you gain the canvas
Generate a board from YAML, then move the two nodes the layout got wrong, then read the YAML back out. Neither half is thrown away.
Real depth instead of subgraphs
A subgraph is still drawn on the same flat picture, and a large one is unreadable. A nested board is a level you walk into.
Nodes that are more than boxes and labels
Icons, images and syntax highlighted code can all sit inside the diagram, which matters when the diagram is documentation.
Questions people ask
- Can Gramit import Mermaid syntax?
- Not directly. Gramit has its own YAML language, and an assistant can convert a Mermaid diagram into it, but there is no built in importer.
- Should I stop using Mermaid?
- Probably not entirely. Mermaid is hard to beat for a small diagram that has to render in a README. Gramit is for the ones that outgrew that, where layout and depth start to matter.
- Is Gramit really free?
- Yes. You can open the editor and build a board without paying and without creating an account. Boards live in your browser until you decide to save them to an account.
- Do I need an account?
- No. An account only buys you sync across devices, publishing to the public gallery, and boards that follow you to another browser. Everything else works signed out.
- What happens to my boards if I never sign up?
- They stay in your browser, in local storage and IndexedDB, and they keep working offline. Clearing your browser data clears them too, so export anything you cannot lose.
The quickest way to compare is to draw something
The editor opens on an empty board with nothing in the way. Or start from a board somebody already published.