# Cloudviz API vs draw.io + MCP

> draw.io + MCP has a score of 62.4 (B) against Cloudviz API's 37.9 (F). Both do diagram create. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 81 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudviz-vs-drawio
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudviz-vs-drawio.md (~1,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudviz-vs-drawio.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudviz-vs-drawio.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

draw.io + MCP has a score of 62.4 (B) against Cloudviz API's 37.9 (F). Both do diagram create. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 81 points.

- Cloudviz API: grade F, 37.9/100, rank #432 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudviz.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudviz.json
- draw.io + MCP: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #219 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drawio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/drawio.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cloudviz API for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick draw.io + MCP for reliability (+30), schema & documentation (+24), payments & pricing (+40), maintenance & community (+81), transparency & trust (+27).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cloudviz API | draw.io + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 20 | 50 | draw.io + MCP +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 82 | draw.io + MCP +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 49 | Cloudviz API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 55 | draw.io + MCP +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | draw.io + MCP +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 5 | 86 | draw.io + MCP +81 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 74 | draw.io + MCP +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **37.9 · F** | **62.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cloudviz API | draw.io + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Cloudviz | draw.io |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudviz.io` | `https://mcp.draw.io/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 2 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.draw/mcp` |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | none | 8.5k stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Cloudviz API.** Diagrams come from the live AWS account through a read-only cross-account role with a per-customer external ID. AWS only, and API access starts at the $49 a month Team plan.

**draw.io + MCP.** Free, keyless and Apache 2.0, with a Docker image for self-hosting. Tool descriptions embed a 34.5 KB XML reference and a 14 KB Mermaid reference, roughly 13,000 tokens.

## Before you call either

### Cloudviz API

1. Call `GET /aws/accounts/` first to get the Cloudviz account ID, then request `/aws/accounts/{account-id}/{region}/{format}`
2. On a 202, wait and repeat the same GET until the diagram is ready
3. Ask for `jsonSnapshot` or `jsonDiagram` (there is no plain `json` format) when the agent has to reason over resources
4. Use a read-only key unless the agent has to add, change or delete AWS accounts

### draw.io + MCP

1. Pass `mermaid` to `create_diagram` for any type on its Mermaid list. Use `xml` only for icons, mockups or hand-placed layouts
2. Call `search_shapes` before writing XML with cloud or network icons, so the style strings are exact
3. Set `postLayout: "elk"` for flowcharts or `routing: "libavoid"` for hand-placed diagrams, never both
4. Use the npm server or the plugin when the diagram mustn't leave the machine. The hosted App sends it to draw.io's server
5. Expect the tool list to cost about 13,000 tokens before the first call

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