ConceptDraw DIAGRAM is an on-premise diagramming tool that, according to the vendor, allows users to create designs of any
complexity level either on Macintosh or Windows, regardless of the platform being used. Users can install the same license of ConceptDraw DIAGRAM on multiple computers. The vendor also offers a number of add-ons, called "solutions". The product comes with a number of built-in stencils and templates that cover different areas and fields such…
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OmniGraffle
Score 9.2 out of 10
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OmniGraffle is a wireframing tool for Mac users.
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Pricing
ConceptDraw DIAGRAM
OmniGraffle
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConceptDraw DIAGRAM
OmniGraffle
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Price varies for Individual, Commercial, Academic, Nonprofit and Government
Great for anything that you would use Microsoft Visio for. It is a great software and has a great team behind it. At the end of the day, it will do everything that you need it to and it looks like they are always expanding. I have been surprised by their product and plan to continue to use it in my nonprofit role. If you are hesitant, don't be, it is everything Visio is plus more.
Omnigraffle is great for documentation, mapping, flowcharting, and other technical diagramming scenarios. It's simple enough to bang out a quick illustration and powerful enough to build complex blueprints for complicated technical systems. If you need cross-platform compatibility, though, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. If you want complex integration with data sources (ala Visio's SQL Server integration for shape metadata), OmniGraffle also falls short — but those scenarios are few and far between in my experience.
OmniGraffle is fairly simple to use, but the one thing I think it does best is working with curved lines, particularly if you are using some of the available arc templates. Drop an arc onto your page, then tell it the dimensions it needs to be, and viola! Done. Manipulating the arcs is as simple as clicking and dragging offset points.
OmniGraffle has also done an excellent job in stirring up the creative minds of many people who create templates and tools to work with OmniGraffle (not that Microsoft hasn't done so either), and managed to get the bulk of those into well organized repositories.
What it all boils down to for me is: it just works. One doesn't need to have a computer science degree to work with it either. It is as simple or complex as you want it to be.
I'd love to be able to keep more than one of the different tool tabs open at a time.
The stencils are amazing. Would be great if a whole lot more of the free ones came standard as opposed to having to download them from Graffletopia or other sites.
I've never had any major problems with the ConceptDraw team. Actually, they update their software frequently. It's always small updates, but they're necessary to make sure it will work properly. I had a question one time and decided to send to them. The problem was solved in less than three hours, which I believe is a really good point to consider.
Cheaper, lower learning curve. Looked for something that would meet our needs and allow us to quickly diagram a database and process maps. I have been using this in place of Visio and the one-time purchase is much better than a Microsoft sub. Looking forward to using this software in the future and hoping to get a copy for college classes as well in Database Design.
While these other tools are great for what they are, OmniGraffle’s solid focus on and support for diagramming makes it our tool of choice for communicating workflows and concept relationships, creating documentation, and creating other diagrams. Its libraries allow us to create designs quickly, and its ease of use enables us to use the tool widely across the company without much time or effort spent on onboarding.
Omnigraffle isn't an expensive software tool, so there isn't really any negative from the perspective of raw cost. Thinking in terms of time spent using it on a project - what you create in omnigraffle will inevitably lead to a dead end. It's useful only as documentation. There are other tools like Sketch that integrate into prototyping software and can create useable visual assets for applications in addition to being able to create wireframes.