draw.io vs Mermaid in Confluence: Which Fits Your Docs?
draw.io supports Mermaid now — so "does draw.io do Mermaid?" is no longer the question. The question is what the source becomes. In Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence, the Mermaid text stays the diagram: page history shows a text diff, an update is one line, and a Rovo agent can create, read, update or convert diagrams from chat. In draw.io, Mermaid is an import step that turns the diagram into native draw.io shapes, so you get full styling and shape-library freedom but the page holds shape data instead of reviewable text. On the AI side the difference is where the processing happens: Mermaid Plus runs on Atlassian Forge with Atlassian's own Rovo agent, so the diagram and the AI both stay inside the Atlassian trust boundary, covered by your existing Atlassian agreement. Text-first docs → Mermaid Plus. Visual-first, icon-heavy or migration-heavy work → draw.io.
- What changed when draw.io added Mermaid support in 2026
- Where the two tools genuinely differ, and where they do not
- How the AI features compare — canvas generation vs a Rovo agent on the page
- Where the diagram and the AI data live, and why that decides it for enterprise teams
- A decision framework for Confluence and Jira teams
Every Confluence team ends up choosing a diagram tool, and most start by asking the wrong question: does it support Mermaid? These days, two answers exist. Mermaid Plus Diagrams & AI Agent for Confluence is built around Mermaid — all 30 Mermaid v12 diagram types, a code editor with live preview, one-click templates for every type, and a Rovo AI agent that works on the page. draw.io is the most-installed diagramming app on the Atlassian Marketplace, with deep shape libraries, whiteboarding, and a Mermaid importer added to its editor.
Both are good tools. This guide compares how they behave in Confluence specifically — how a diagram is created, what is stored on the page, what happens when you need to change it six months later, and what it costs.