# draw.io + MCP vs Mermaid Chart MCP

> draw.io + MCP has a score of 62.4 (B) against Mermaid Chart MCP's 31.7 (F). Both do diagram create. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 50 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mermaid-chart
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mermaid-chart.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mermaid-chart.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drawio-vs-mermaid-chart.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: 2026-10-04

draw.io + MCP has a score of 62.4 (B) against Mermaid Chart MCP's 31.7 (F). Both do diagram create. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 50 points.

- 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
- Mermaid Chart MCP: grade F, 31.7/100, rank #442 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mermaid-chart.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mermaid-chart.json

## Which one, for what

Pick draw.io + MCP for reliability (+35), schema & documentation (+50), agent ergonomics (+15), security & auth (+35), payments & pricing (+15), maintenance & community (+33), transparency & trust (+26).

Pick Mermaid Chart MCP for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | draw.io + MCP | Mermaid Chart MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 15 | draw.io + MCP +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 32 | draw.io + MCP +50 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 49 | 34 | draw.io + MCP +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 20 | draw.io + MCP +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 45 | draw.io + MCP +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 53 | draw.io + MCP +33 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 48 | draw.io + MCP +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.4 · B** | **31.7 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | draw.io + MCP | Mermaid Chart MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | draw.io | Mermaid Chart |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.draw.io/mcp` | `https://mcp.mermaid.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 2 | 25 |
| 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 | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | `io.draw/mcp` | `com.mermaidchart/mermaid-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-17 |
| Popularity | 8.5k stars, 25k npm/wk | 395 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Mermaid Chart MCP.** Validation and rendering work with no account or key. Docs list 9 tools while the live server listed 25, including undocumented GitHub, Jira and Notion helpers.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Mermaid Chart MCP

1. Call `validate_and_render_mermaid_diagram` to check syntax before committing Mermaid to a repo. It needs no token
2. Only add the token if you need to save into Mermaid Chart projects. It reaches every project on the account
3. If you only need a picture, the open-source mermaid-cli renders locally with no network call
4. Use mcp.mermaid.ai. The registry still lists the older mcp.mermaidchart.com host

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