draw.io is an online diagramming tool with integrations with Jira, Google, and Confluence available free online or at cost depending on integration chosen.
$5
per month
Xmind
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Hong Kong based Xmind offers their diagramming tool featuring a range of templates, alternate brainstorming and presentation modes, a clip art library, and export to a wide variety of file types (e.g. PDF, JPG, Word or Excel, etc.).
I find Draw.io to be a happy medium between the options available. It doesn't quite offer the flexibility and power of Xmind or Visio, but it lives in the cloud and doesn't require software installations or similar hassles. The main contenders in my mind ended up being Lucidchar…
It's very easy to collaborate on the same file with team members and create simple concepts and flowcharts that you can use in the development process. It is also very handy for creating graphs and tables for presentations. Since this is a web application, we can use it anywhere, anytime and on any device; which provides great flexibility and accessibility. It also offers the functionality to save your work as you develop it, which is very helpful.
Writing longer paragraphs in the note field is very limited.
Integration with GitHub.
Integration with Confluence.
XMind uses a proprietary document format which is not indexed by search programs on a PC or a Mac. This means that one cannot search in the content of the XMind documents.
Draw.io offers a lot of shapes and customizability of how the diagrams are laid out. We've been able to create a lot of different things with it, and have barely scratched the surface of the sorts of things that we could do.
Draw.io is fairly intuitive in the way that you draw shapes and connect shapes together, I was able to figure it out without a tutorial.
Draw.io is fast and performant for me compared with some of the alternatives.
One element that was hard to use was converting pre-existing drawings and workflows from Gliffy to Draw.io once our company made the change. While we were able to complete the migration, when going back we noticed, oftentimes, some formatting and dependencies did not make it or were not compatible.
While the template repository is vast, it has a heavy focus on network style maps. It would be ideal for added diversity in the templates with a focus on workflows just as much.
While the integrations are strong, the cloud collaborative environment could still use some work. While you can save and edit in the cloud. Group editing and live dynamic sharing/editing similar to Microsoft office are still missing.
Draw.io could add some version control functionality for ease of rollback, auditing, & comparison.
The support for draw.io is pretty decent, considering it is a free website. I had a question one time when I was trying to do something, so I sent an email to their support email and got a response fairly quickly with an answer to my question. They also have some excellent support tools on their support website for helping you get more familiar with their program, and I found that very helpful.
The support around a bug in the tool which prevented the correct printing of diagrams. Support came back after a few days, and there was no workaround. Eventually, the bug was fixed in a future release. The company does not pay much attention to user forums. With better support and plugin mechanism for user contributions, the product would be more convincing.
Draw.io is totally free and it has most of the features a commercial product like Visio would have, so I think it is a go-to. It has good integration with Google Drive and it can export to a variety of files. You are not constrained by some commercial proprietary file format. It can be used in a browser on any device or downloaded as a desktop app.
It has a different form. Trello is good for task management. Xmind will give an overall connection between different tasks and how all the tasks interconnect to each other. The reminder function in Trello is good to keep track. However, a bird's eye view in Xmind will put conversations into context, and ease the navigation of any discussions.
