A model built from your systems
Eraser builds the model from your code, cloud accounts, CMDB and EA tools, and a rescan brings in what changed. In IcePanel, the model is drawn by hand or imported from YAML and JSON.
The AI-native IcePanel alternative
C4 models built from your code, cloud and CMDB, explored as live maps anyone can open, from system context down to code.
Eraser vs IcePanel
How Eraser compares to IcePanel
IcePanel is a model-based C4 tool done well: one model sits behind every diagram, flows walk through a design, drafts hold future states, and share links embed in Confluence and SharePoint. Eraser builds that model from your code, cloud accounts and CMDB instead of by hand, turns boxes into records that carry their data, and keeps C4 next to every other diagram type and your docs.
| Compare | Eraser | IcePanel  |
|---|---|---|
| AI diagramming | Supported: Yes Powered by frontier models: architecture, network, cloud, process and more | Not supported: No In-app AI writes descriptions and insights; diagrams come only from external agents |
| Edit with AI | Supported: Yes Describe the change; the diagram updates | Not supported: No Only through an external agent over MCP |
| AI follows your standards | Supported: Yes Presets of rules, templates, reference architectures and brand styles | Not supported: No No rules or templates for the AI |
| MCP server for AI agents | Supported: Yes AI assistants and coding agents, like Claude, Copilot and others, can create, read and update diagrams | Supported: Yes Reads and writes objects, connections and diagrams |
| Generate diagrams from live cloud environments |
| Not supported: No Diagrams are drawn by hand or imported |
| Generate diagrams from CMDBs and EA tools |
| Not supported: No |
| Generate diagrams from codebases |
| Not supported: No Repo linking was removed; code becomes a model only through an external agent |
| Expandable views | Supported: Yes Click into any box to open its own view, then move from a system overview down through layers of detail | Supported: Yes Zoom from system context into containers and components |
| Animations | Supported: Yes Animated flows show how a request or data moves step by step, so processes are easier to follow | Supported: Yes Flows step through a diagram, with alternate and parallel paths |
| Real-time collaboration | Supported: Yes In the browser, with comments and guests | Supported: Yes Live updates, with comments from editors and viewers |
| Deployment options |
|
|
| One model, many views | Supported: Yes Boxes stand for model records, reused across views | Supported: Yes Every diagram draws on one model, and edits sync across them |
The difference
Why teams choose Eraser over IcePanel
Boxes that carry live data
Each box stands for a record with fields from its source, like owner, version and cost, and views filter by them. IcePanel objects carry the descriptions, tags and links you add.
C4 and every other diagram in one tool
Cloud, sequence, ERD and BPMN diagrams and your docs sit in the same workspace as your C4 maps. IcePanel is built for C4 alone.
Frequently asked questions
-
Does Eraser support the C4 model?
Yes. Eraser draws the C4 model as maps: system context, container, component and code views you click down through, with flows that walk a request across them. Explore a food-delivery platform, the four levels or a monolith carved into services, or see how Eraser compares with other C4 model tools.
-
How do Eraser’s C4 maps stay up to date?
A map is a set of views over a model. When you rescan a data source, such as an AWS account or a ServiceNow instance, its model takes the changes and every map built on it shows them. Eraserbot also watches your GitHub and GitLab repositories and updates diagrams drawn from code as it changes.
-
Can people without an Eraser account view a map?
Yes. Export a map to HTML and you get an interactive page, with its views, drill-down and flows, that anyone can open in a browser. It travels as a file, so it can sit in a SharePoint library or on a Confluence page. Maps also export as images and PDFs.
-
Can Eraser generate diagrams with AI?
Yes. Eraser AI runs on frontier models. Describe a system, paste code or upload a file, and it drafts an architecture diagram, flowchart, ERD, sequence diagram, BPMN process or almost any other diagram, and you can keep editing it by prompt, as code or on the canvas.
-
Can Eraser draw diagrams from my live infrastructure?
Yes. Connect AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, a CMDB such as ServiceNow, VMware, Cisco networks, a Git repository and other data sources, and Eraser draws architecture diagrams from what you actually run.
-
Does Eraser provide an MCP server?
Yes. The Eraser MCP server lets an agent create, search, read, update and export diagrams from clients like Claude, Cursor, VS Code and ChatGPT. It is free to use, subject to the AI credit limits of your plan. See the MCP client catalog for setup instructions.
-
Can I trust my data with Eraser?
Eraser is committed to enterprise-grade security. We are SOC II type 2 certified and annually penetration tested. Security documentation is available on our trust portal, or reach out to hello@eraser.io. Additionally Eraser will never use user data for training models. Nor will our LLM API providers.
Diagram in seconds with Eraser
Stop modeling by hand. Map your architecture from the systems you already run, or generate your first diagram for free.