# AI Diagram Maker MCP vs draw.io + MCP (slim)

> draw.io scores 64.5 (B) to AI Diagram Maker MCP's 43.8 (E) for diagram creation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-diagram-maker-mcp-vs-drawio.md (~5,050 tokens) · this version ~2,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-diagram-maker-mcp-vs-drawio.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-diagram-maker-mcp-vs-drawio
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

draw.io + MCP scores 64.5 (B) on agent readiness against AI Diagram Maker MCP's 43.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AI Diagram Maker MCP leads on agent ergonomics. Both do diagram creation.

- AI Diagram Maker MCP: E 43.8, rank #1225 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ai-diagram-maker-mcp.min.md
- draw.io + MCP: B 64.5, rank #464 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drawio.min.md
- AI Diagram Maker MCP, good for Quick architecture, sequence, ERD and flowchart diagrams from a coding agent, with a link to edit them. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 66 against 59.
- draw.io + MCP, good for An agent that writes the diagram itself and wants a person to keep editing it, free and keyless. Ahead on Reliability, 45 against 30; Schema & documentation, 87 against 75; Security & auth, 55 against 45; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Maintenance & community, 86 against 17; Transparency & trust, 81 against 35. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.

| Category | AI Diagram Maker MCP | draw.io + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 30 | 45 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 75 | 87 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 66 | 59 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 45 | 55 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 17 | 86 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 35 | 81 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AI Diagram Maker MCP | draw.io + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | AI Diagram Maker (Rajasekar Elango) | draw.io |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.aidiagrammaker.com/mcp` | `https://mcp.draw.io/mcp` |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | MIT for the MCP server. The AI Diagram Maker service it calls is closed, under terms last updated 24 September 2025 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 5 | 3 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.erajasekar/ai-diagram-maker-mcp` | `io.draw/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-04-10 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-24 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-24 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 63 npm/wk | 8.5k stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, draw.io + MCP +69: AI Diagram Maker MCP 17 (Last release v3.0.8, published to npm on 10 April 2026, 210 days before this check (0). No release since 8 August (0). Four issues in all. The two open ones, from 4 May (hosted MCP credit usage) and 13 October 2026, show no reply, and one closed issue had a comment (5 of 25). In the official MCP registry under the GitHub-verified namespace io.github.erajasekar, but the entry is 1.0.0 from 19 March 2026 while npm is on 3.0.8 (10 of 15). The only workflow publishes to the registry. No tests or CI, and the MCP SDK floor is ^1.9.0 (2 of 10). 0 + 0 + 5 + 10 + 2 = 17.); draw.io + MCP 86 (The hosted App went to 1.4.7 on 31 October 2026 and was published to the official registry that day, @drawio/mcp went to 1.10.1 on 30 October, and core v32.6.9 was tagged the same day (30). The tool server went from 1.6.3 to 1.10.1 and the App server from 1.0.6 to 1.4.7 in October, and the core repository tagged 20 versions from v31.1.8 (7 August) to v32.6.9 (20). Commits land most days, with weekly triage fixes. The core repo doesn't take pull requests, and we couldn't read issue replies because github.com refuses our requests (15). In the official MCP registry as io.draw/mcp under the draw.io domain namespace, at 1.4.7 with mcp.draw.io as its remote (15). Description-size and tool tests exist, but run only in the manual npm publish workflow, not on every push (6). 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 6 = 86.)
- Transparency & trust, draw.io + MCP +46: AI Diagram Maker MCP 35 (The MCP server is MIT (package.json and LICENSE, added 18 March 2026). The service is closed, under terms last updated 24 September 2025 that name the operator only as AI Diagram Maker (20 of 30). The privacy policy of the same date keeps diagrams, revisions and chat prompts and responses 'as long as necessary', and the terms license user input 'to provide and improve our services', with no retention periods and no word on model training or the AI providers used (8 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No subprocessors or data locations named (0). The MCP server's source sends no telemetry of its own. 20 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 28.); draw.io + MCP 81 (Apache 2.0 (30). The privacy policy, v2.3.1 of 18 October 2026, says diagrams are processed and not kept, sets retention for logs (30 days) and user counts (24 months), and lists where data goes. A separate policy for the hosted MCP server (v1.1, 13 October 2026) says diagrams and requests aren't stored or logged, gives retention per item and names Cloudflare and Google Cloud as sub-processors. The two agree, and the 2023 policy's UK-only statement is gone. Neither policy publishes a DPA or says one is available, so the line sits with pen-dev (24) and pushary (25), whose retention tables and sub-processor lists come with a DPA on request (24, 15 on 1 October). No deprecation policy found, though the core ChangeLog records changes such as the Dropbox removal in 32.5.1 (3). Providers and data locations are listed in both policies, with Cloudflare processing in the data centre nearest the caller, which may be outside the UK. We found no telemetry in the MCP tool definitions (18, 10 on 1 October). 30 + 24 + 3 + 18 = 75.)
- Payments & pricing, draw.io + MCP +40: AI Diagram Maker MCP 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public (Plus $10, Max $20 a month), with credits counted at 1,000 tokens each, so there's no per-diagram price (10 of 20). Basic is free forever with 50 credits a month, but the page doesn't say whether a card is needed or whether API and MCP calls are included (10 of 20, half as with an unstated card rule). A person signs up in the app and creates the key (0). 0 + 10 + 10 + 0 = 20.); draw.io + MCP 60 (Free and Apache 2.0, nothing to buy for the MCP servers or the editor, so the self-hosted rule applies. No payment protocol (0). Nothing to price (20). Free with no account or card (20). Keyless, an agent can connect with no signup (20).)
- Reliability, draw.io + MCP +15: AI Diagram Maker MCP 30 (Hosted lines, because every tool call is generated on the AI Diagram Maker service, through the hosted endpoint or the npx server. No status page found on the site or in the README (0). No readable incident history (5). The only rate-limit number is the example in the OpenAPI 429 schema ('Maximum 100 requests per day exceeded.'), which isn't stated as the limit (5 of 15). The 429 body is specified with limit, remaining, resetAt and retryAfter, while there's no idempotency or retry guidance for calls that spend credits (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Nothing labels the service or server beta (10). 0 + 5 + 5 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 30.); draw.io + MCP 45 (Better Stack status page at status.draw.io with 30, 60 and 90-day bars for app.diagrams.net and the Atlassian apps, but mcp.draw.io isn't one of the monitored components (15). Every bar reads 100 per cent bar one 99.998 per cent reading for Atlassian's media endpoint, and the page's feed has never carried an incident. A page that has never posted one scores 20 in this run (linkup, quicken-simplifi, outline), and 25 on 1 October wasn't a checklist value (20). No rate limits published, and none found in the hosted server's source (0). No 429 or retry guidance (0). No SLA found (0). The hosted MCP App (1.4.7) and @drawio/mcp (1.10.1) are released, not preview (10). 15 + 20 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 45.)
- Schema & documentation, draw.io + MCP +12: AI Diagram Maker MCP 75 (All five tools have zod input schemas in src/tools, and the repository ships an OpenAPI 3 file for POST /api/v2/diagrams/generate (25). No llms.txt (404) and no docs site for agents beyond the README (0). Each description says what the tool does and when to use it, listing trigger phrases and the diagram types, without saying when another tool fits better (16 of 20). `content` has a minimum length and `diagramType` an eight-value enum; the OpenAPI adds `inputType` and `format` enums (13 of 15). Examples in the parameter descriptions and README, and the OpenAPI documents 400, 401, 402, 422 (D2 failed to compile) and 429 with typed error bodies (13 of 15). Git tags from v1.1.1 to v3.0.8 and a /api/v2 path, with no changelog or release notes (8 of 15). 25 + 0 + 16 + 13 + 13 + 8 = 75.); draw.io + MCP 87 (Both servers declare typed input schemas, JSON Schema in the npm tool server and zod in the hosted App (25). www.drawio.com/llms.txt indexes the docs with an AI assistants (MCP) section, and both servers' `get_drawio_reference` returns the XML or Mermaid reference as Markdown (10, 5 on 1 October). Descriptions say when to use and when not to. `create_diagram` tells the model to call `get_drawio_reference` once per format before the first diagram and `search_shapes` first for industry icons, and the npm `open_drawio_xml` says to prefer Mermaid outside stencil-based diagrams (20). Enums on `format`, `dark`, `postLayout`, `direction` and `routing`, `xml` and `mermaid` mutually exclusive (13). Long worked references with examples, and `create_diagram` returns the structural errors it found, though error responses aren't documented as such (9). Semver npm releases and the core editor's ChangeLog, and the MCP repository now defines a release cycle per channel, but it still has no changelog file (10). 25 + 10 + 20 + 13 + 9 + 10 = 87.)
- Security & auth, draw.io + MCP +10: AI Diagram Maker MCP 45 (Several named API keys per account, shown once and deactivated or deleted in Settings with a confirmation step, sent in a header, never a query string. No scopes, and the user guide says anyone with a key can access the account (20 of 30). The tools only create diagrams and can't change or delete anything in the account, but there's no read-only key (12 of 20). Tools return diagrams built from the caller's own input. Image inputs can be any public URL (10 of 15). The privacy policy mentions credit usage history, and no per-call log or audit view is documented (3 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0). 20 + 12 + 10 + 3 + 0 = 45.); draw.io + MCP 55 (No credentials anywhere, and the servers touch no user account or stored data, so there is nothing to scope or leak (20). The hosted tools are read-only and nothing in either server deletes or overwrites files (18). Output is the agent's own diagram plus shape results from draw.io's index and icon service (10). No per-call log for the operator (0). No security.txt (404). The core repository's SECURITY.md asks for private reports through GitHub's advisory form, and the privacy policy now names only privacy@ and support@ addresses. No bug bounty or certification found. npm releases use Trusted Publishing with provenance (7).)