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Gleek vs Mermaid Chart

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Gleek starts at $6.95, Mermaid Chart at $80. Both have a free tier.

GleekType diagrams instead of dragging boxes: a keyboard-first syntax for flowcharts, UML, ERDs and GanttMermaid ChartTurns text, code, or prompts into flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and Gantt charts, from the Mermaid.js team.

Side by side

FactGleekMermaid Chart
CategoryDiagramming & WhiteboardsDiagramming & Whiteboards
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$6.95 month$80 year
Public APINoNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Vscode Ext
CompanyBlocshopMermaid Chart
Launched—2022
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Gleek

If you think in text, Gleek is faster than any drag-and-drop canvas, and at $6.95 a month it undercuts the diagramming tools people usually reach for. The cost of the approach is its own syntax — not Mermaid, not PlantUML — so what you write here stays here.

Pros

  • Its own terse syntax covering flowcharts, UML, ERD, Gantt and user journeys
  • AI chat drafts the syntax when you do not know it
  • Git connection, shareable links and custom themes
  • Usable free tier, and Premium at $6.95/month or $58.40/year

Cons

  • Proprietary syntax rather than Mermaid or PlantUML, so diagrams are not portable
  • Free tier caps you at five files, 40 objects each, and PNG export only
  • No API and no desktop application

Mermaid Chart

Being built by the Mermaid.js maintainers themselves is the real edge here: diagrams-as-code that developers already write in markdown get a proper collaborative editor and AI-assisted generation on top, instead of a third party reverse-engineering the syntax. The free tier's five-diagram cap is tight, and the vendor's recent rebrand from mermaidchart.com to mermaid.ai makes some third-party pricing pages describing it look slightly out of date.

Pros

  • built and maintained by the original Mermaid.js open-source team
  • generates diagrams from plain text or AI prompts, or direct syntax editing
  • real-time multi-user collaboration
  • integrations with VS Code, Confluence, and similar developer tools

Cons

  • free plan is capped at five diagrams
  • recent domain move from mermaidchart.com to mermaid.ai has left some third-party listings referencing the old pricing page
  • per-user annual billing can add up for larger teams versus flat team pricing

Which one fits

Choose Gleek if you need

  • Developers and architects who would rather type than drag
  • Keeping diagrams close to code through the Git connection
  • Teams needing UML, ERD and sequence diagrams on a small budget

Choose Mermaid Chart if you need

  • developers already writing Mermaid syntax who want a hosted editor
  • teams wanting diagrams generated from text or code with light AI assistance

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