For those not in the know, Visio is a structured drawing application, originally acquired by Microsoft in 2000, that subsequently became part of the Office family of products. The app looks nearly identical to both Visio and OpenOffice Draw, meaning anyone can jump in and, within a few minutes, be working away inside Draw. Still, it’s a good free alternative to Visio, and considering the lack of progress on any new OpenOffice updates, it …

The app comes with a full selection of shape packages depending on what you need in an application, including defaults for flowcharts, network diagrams, circuit diagrams, and more, making this just as much a technical tool as a creative one.

Called Draw, any ex-Visio user will find themselves right at home with Apache’s software.Draw is a tool that allows you to create and sketch plans, diagrams, and flowcharts to display internally or within a presentation. You can wire shapes and create flowcharts using the multitude of tools at your disposal.But that’s not all: Pencil Project also helps you map out the user interface for your products and applications, complete with a full library of iOS and Android stencils, shapes, and status bars, allowing you to design your interface in an environment that feels non-committal. This does not effect our editorial in any way.Stay tuned with our weekly recap of what’s hot & cool. Robert is a freelance editor and writer living in Colorado. Visio is terrific for creating organization charts, workflow charts, and many other kinds of graphics. Draw.io doesn’t feature the same amount of complexity or depth as a dedicated application like Visio, but it does feature full cloud support, with the option to sync into Google Drive, Dropbox, and even Github. Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan, and gives you the means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. A Powerful idea processor.It's Open Source and Freeware.

I do agree Lucidchart is great!I’d like to know the answer to this question as well.Hi there, I work at Ardoq. The Entity diagram is actually better than Visio’s latest, which doesn’t allow you to save the tables and field lists.Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. You can delete documents as you finish and export your final projects, or simply wait a full month, where LucidChart will add another document onto your account for free.It’s also worth noting the limits on the number of items displayed on a single flowchart, and premium members gain access to a presentation mode built into LucidChart. No more time spent making careful, tedious manual adjustments to ensure the objects in your diagrams are visually lined up. And even though the platform has had difficulty attracting developers to the software, OpenOffice remains undoubtedly popular under Apache, averaging over 100,000 downloads per day. yEd offers an automatic layout too, so if your flowchart contains a massive amount of data, you can control the branch directions automatically from within your settings panel.Once you’ve used the automatic layout options from yWorks, yEd also contains a huge number of export options, including the ability to save your content as a PDF, JPEG, GIF, or HTML image map with full support for embedded URLS. Very easy to use. Please feel free to remove us from this list so readers are not misinformed.

Anyone looking for a downloadable application for your diagrams and design will want to check this one out.Google seems to have an answer for most of Microsoft’s Office suite of applications, and Visio is no exception.

Several types of diagrams supported. Still, it’s a good free alternative to Visio, and considering the lack of progress on any new OpenOffice updates, it might just be the better of the two.Silly name aside, Gliffy is a solid little diagramming tool. It’s not the cheapest Visio alternative, but it does a lot really well. LucidChart. You can import Visio documents if you were once a user, or choose from a number of good-looking templates to start your diagram off on the right foot. Unlike OpenOffice and LibreOffice, the app works fully in your browser, using HTML5 to render and create a beautiful, functional diagram suitable for both mobile and desktop platforms. Despite Dia’s dated appearance, the app is still a competent replacement for Visio, especially if you’re looking for a completely free download instead of a tiered web application.Dia is fairly easy to navigate, and its focus on diagramming and diagramming alone make it a powerful tool in your productivity arsenal. Pencil Project still sees semi-regular updates, its most recent having occurred in October of 2019, and there’s a huge crowd of support and documentation behind the tool. I’m sorry to say that we have recently switched from offering a free plan to a 30-day trial. To make a curved connector with an arrow, select the arrow from the collection and double-click on it to create extra pivot points. The app lets users quickly create complex and professional-looking flowcharts, and integrates smoothly into PowerPoint or other Office documents for easy sharing. This collaborative workflow is what helped skyrocket Google Docs to the popularity it sees today, and it’s easy to see Google Drawings having a similar effect on professional consumers looking for a Visio alternative. As Visio is Microsoft's commercial solution for professional diagramming and workflow drafting, it has many alternatives just like other parts of the Draw.io is free, open source, and cloud-based diagram software for making flowcharts, diagrams, organizational charts, and process models.

With a maximum page size of 300cm by 300cm, Draw is a an excellent package for producing technical drawings, general posters, and much else.

Though this leaves Chrome OS users in the cold, Apache has clients for Mac, Windows, and Linux, making it easy for most users to find their favorite version online.LibreOffice has a similar history to Apache OpenOffice, in that both applications spawned from the original OpenOffice.org.

Gliffy does a really great job at making your work look both clean, professional, and fun, without ever appearing overly boring or ugly.