# D2 vs PlantUML (slim)

> PlantUML scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against D2's 65.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Both do diagram as code. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-plantuml.md (~2,050 tokens) · this version ~430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-plantuml.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/d2-vs-plantuml
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

PlantUML scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against D2's 65.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Both do diagram as code.

- D2: B 65.3, rank #295 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/d2.min.md
- PlantUML: B 66.9, rank #251 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plantuml.min.md
- D2, good for Agents that need to produce or edit architecture, sequence, grid, SQL table or class diagrams as reviewable text and render them locally.
- PlantUML, good for Agents that write sequence, class, state, component, deployment, Gantt or C4 diagrams as text and render them locally or in CI. Ahead on Reliability, 83 against 68.

| Category | D2 | PlantUML |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 68 | 83 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 65 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 78 | 78 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 48 | 50 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 74 | 73 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 69 | 73 |

| Fact (where they differ) | D2 | PlantUML |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | D2 project (The Hack Foundation) | PlantUML project (Arnaud Roques) |
| Licence | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Last release | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-05 |
| Popularity | 26k stars, 22k npm/wk | 13k stars, 207 npm/wk |