TALA
Ranked 10 of 11 diagram tools by recommenders
Recommended as a free auto-layout engine that often produces cleaner diagrams than Mermaid and ELK, and works with D2. Known limitation: weaker than Dagre or ELK on DAG layouts.
Recommended as a free auto-layout engine that often produces cleaner diagrams than Mermaid and ELK, and works with D2. Known limitation: weaker than Dagre or ELK on DAG layouts.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 11 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better automatic layouts than alternatives
“In my own testing, TALA tends to produce much better layouts than Mermaid”
Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things” “when I tried TALA it was sometimes a big improvement over ELK”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “TALA Is Open-Source” Fills a shortage of layout algorithms
“This is great! There's a real shortage of good layout algorithms.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “TALA Is Open-Source” “we desperately need better auto layout”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “TALA Is Open-Source” Praised as excellent and great-looking
“this engine is indeed excellent”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “TALA Is Open-Source” “This actually looks great.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “TALA Is Open-Source”
Other diagram tools people recommend
The four most recommended other diagram tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mermaid | 93 | 46 | 67% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Reladraw | 28 | 7 | 80% | 1 | — | — |
| SQL to ER diagram tool | 27 | 1 | 96% | 2 | — | — |
| D2 diagram language | 21 | 6 | 78% | 6 | — | Approved |
| TALAThis page | 11 | 1 | 92% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“For the diagrams I usually want to create, that's still not enough control to create what I envision.”
“In my own testing, TALA tends to produce much better layouts than Mermaid”
“This actually looks great.”
“it doesn’t do DAG as well as Dagre or Elk, so, known and honestly stated limitation”
“Looks like really great tool to generate some graphs and diagrams for static file blogs.”
“this engine is indeed excellent”
“It should choose an aspect ratio based on the direction, but instead it is trying to make the diagram as square as possible.”
“This is great! There's a real shortage of good layout algorithms.”
“we desperately need better auto layout”
“when I tried TALA it was sometimes a big improvement over ELK”
“The Go queue one is objectively worse - the other versions keep services and users grouped together”
“awesome to see that TALA will be released”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.