Pele vs Excalidraw
Excalidraw is a whiteboard: you draw and arrange shapes by hand, in a sketchy style. Pele turns text into a diagram automatically. They solve different problems, and many teams use both.
Side by side
| Question | Pele | Excalidraw |
|---|---|---|
| You make a diagram by | Writing Mermaid text | Drawing and dragging shapes |
| Saved as | Text, easy to review in git | A JSON scene file |
| Layout | Automatic | Wherever you put things |
| Look | Clean, follows your CSS | Hand-drawn |
| AI can write it | Yes, models write Mermaid well | Harder: positions and shapes |
| Best for | Docs, apps, generated diagrams | Brainstorming, sketches, explaining live |
Choose Excalidraw when
you're thinking out loud, in a meeting or on your own, and want to place every box yourself.
Choose Pele when
the diagram should live next to code or notes, change with them, be reviewed in a pull request, or be generated. Excalidraw can import some Mermaid diagrams too, which makes a nice path: start in text with Pele, move to the whiteboard when you need to sketch around it.
Learn more at excalidraw.com.