Our take
Pick Excalidraw if you're an engineer and PMs who will stay on the forever-free OSS editor at $0 (excalidraw.com; no account) while they open a first playground, then Plus at $7/user/month monthly ($6/user/month billed annually) when they need comments, cloud scenes, and presentations — not a $20 chat seat. Pick Mermaid Live Editor if you're an engineer who already write Mermaid in docs. Skip Mermaid Live Editor if
Best for
Excalidraw A whiteboard you start at a public $
Mermaid Live Editor A flowchart from text
Free plan
Excalidraw $0 · , Free forever (priceMonthly / priceAnnually: “Free forever”). Infinite canvas. Full editor. Invite collaborators by link. PNG / SVG / JSON save-to-file. Personal library stored in the browser. Image uploads: compressed. AI requests: 10 a day. Mermaid to Excalidraw: unlimited. No account on excalidraw.com
Mermaid Live Editor $0 · mIT. Self-host the renderer if you want
Lowest paid
Excalidraw Plus $7/user/mo
Mermaid Live Editor Plus $10/mo yearly
Next step up
Excalidraw
Mermaid Live Editor Premium $20/mo yearly
Runs where
Excalidraw
Mermaid Live Editor Hosted
Watch out
Excalidraw Comments, cloud scenes, and presentations print on Plus
Mermaid Live Editor mermaid.ai is a login wall
Last checked
Excalidraw 2026-10-23 · plus.excalidraw.com/pricing
Mermaid Live Editor 2026-10-28 · mermaidchart.com/pricing
engineers and PMs who will stay on the forever-free OSS editor at $0 (excalidraw.com; no account) while they open a first playground, then Plus at $7/user/month monthly ($6/user/month billed annually) when they need comments, cloud scenes, and presentations — not a $20 chat seat.
Read the Excalidraw pageengineers who already write Mermaid in docs.
Read the Mermaid Live Editor page
