G2

Subhajit B.

Software Developer

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

9/2/2026

"From college projects to production docs"

5/5

What do you like best about Mermaid?

The fact that I can create complex diagrams just by writing code is what got me hooked in the first place. I started using Mermaid in college when I needed to make class and sequence diagrams and had no idea tools like this existed. Before this I was literally using Paint-like tools to draw boxes and arrows manually.

What I genuinely like is how fast it is to go from an idea to a proper diagram. There's no time wasted on alignment or formatting — you just write the structure and it renders. For software architecture documentation especially, this is a huge productivity boost.

The free version itself is surprisingly capable — most of what I use day to day doesn't require a paid plan at all, which is rare for tools this good.

The AI compatibility is a big plus too. Since LLMs naturally output Mermaid syntax, I can describe a system and have a diagram ready in seconds. It has become a core part of how I document architecture at work.

The integrations are what really make it stick though. GitHub and GitLab render Mermaid natively in markdown files with zero setup. Notion supports it out of the box through code blocks. VS Code renders it in the built-in markdown preview. There's even an official plugin for Confluence. The syntax is completely platform-agnostic, so the same code block works across all your tools without any changes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Mermaid?

The syntax can have a bit of a learning curve initially, especially for non-engineers on the team. Not everyone is comfortable writing code to create a diagram, which can limit adoption beyond the engineering team.

Confluence support still requires a third-party plugin rather than being natively supported, which adds a bit of friction for teams that are heavily Confluence-based.

Also for very large and complex diagrams, the rendering can sometimes feel slow and the auto-layout doesn't always produce the cleanest output — though the visual editor does let you manually reposition nodes which helps. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Mermaid solving and how is that benefiting you?

The core problem it solves for me is the gap between having a system design in your head and getting it into a shareable, readable format quickly. Before Mermaid, documenting architecture was genuinely painful — you'd either spend way too long in a GUI diagramming tool getting the layout right, or just skip the documentation altogether because it wasn't worth the effort.

The onboarding experience was surprisingly smooth for a tool this powerful. The live editor at mermaid.live lets you start creating diagrams immediately without signing up or installing anything — you just open it and start writing. The syntax is intuitive enough that I was producing useful diagrams within the first sitting, which is not something I can say about most diagramming tools.

Mermaid removes that friction entirely. Since it's code-based, it fits naturally into an engineering workflow — I can write a diagram in the same place I write documentation, commit it to the repo, and it renders automatically on GitHub. No exporting, no attaching files, no outdated PNGs sitting in a wiki somewhere.

At work it has made architecture discussions a lot more structured. When proposing a new system or reviewing someone else's design, having a proper sequence or architecture diagram makes the conversation far more productive than explaining things verbally or with rough sketches.

With AI now generating Mermaid syntax, the time from idea to diagram has dropped dramatically. I can describe a flow in plain English, get the Mermaid code, paste it in and it's done. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.