Eraser and Archway are in the same neighbourhood: both are AI-first diagramming tools aimed at engineers. Eraser bundles markdown notes alongside diagrams; Archway goes deeper on the architecture side: more icons, more export formats, direct GitHub / Terraform integration, and more AI credits per dollar.
| Feature | Archway | Eraser |
|---|---|---|
| AI diagrams | Yes — core | Yes — core |
| Free tier | 5 AI / month, 3 diagrams | 5 AI / month, 3 files |
| Paid entry (annual) | $12/month Pro (monthly billing) | $15/mo Starter (annual), $20 monthly |
| AI credits at paid entry | 50/month | 40/month |
| Team plan | $35/user/mo — 200 AI/user | $45/mo (annual) / $60/mo — 250 AI shared |
| Cloud architecture icons | 1,900+ (AWS 788, Azure 682, GCP 192, K8s 77) | Curated set + 20-100 custom icons on higher plans |
| Diagram-as-code DSL | Proprietary multi-format DSL | Markdown + diagram syntax |
| Markdown notes attached to diagrams | Yes — collapsible panel beside the canvas, autosaved | Yes — interleaved with the diagram in one document |
| Generate from GitHub repo (C4) | Native — paste URL, get a multi-system C4 diagram with correct system boundaries and container technologies | Via VS Code extension, manual trigger; flat diagram only |
| Generate ERD from a schema file | Yes — Prisma, Drizzle, or SQL DDL parsed deterministically (sub-second, no AI cost) | No |
| Generate from Terraform / Compose | Yes | No |
| Model-aware entity swap | Right-click swap services across providers (RDS → Aurora → Cloud SQL → Azure SQL) | No — diagram and underlying model are not separated |
| Export: PNG / SVG | Yes — 4x scale PNG, SVG with font fallback | Yes |
| Export: Mermaid, PlantUML, D2, draw.io, Terraform, JSON | Yes — all native | Mermaid + markdown |
| SAML SSO | Enterprise | Business ($45/mo) |
Both are honest AI-first tools for engineers, and both attach markdown notes to diagrams. Archway goes deeper on the architecture side: a canonical model that powers C4 reverse-derivation from real repos, a deterministic schema→ERD path with no AI cost, and right-click service swap. Eraser is stronger if you specifically want notes and diagram syntax interleaved in one document.