Excalidraw+ vs. Gliffy

I use Excalidraw when I want to do some rough sketches of a user flow or a product experience. Or build simple diagrams I can share with my team and key stakeholders. It is where I often start my thinking because, unlike Miro, where you can use Post-its and boxes, this feels more like a drawing tool.

Incentivized

Gliffy is user-friendly, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create clear and visually appealing diagrams without steep learning curves. It’s perfect for creating straightforward, quick wireframes. Gliffy lacks features for detailed UI/UX wireframing and prototyping compared to specialized tools like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD.

• Sketches
• Diagrams
• Fun displays of information.

Incentivized

• First it's important to point out that Gliffy has priced itself incredibly well for small to medium sized businesses. Most other similar solutions are so expensive that organizations will avoid getting workflow software overall. Gliffy can take pride in knowing they're helping small business operate better.
• Gliffy is incredibly easy to use for a first time user. I rarely have to train someone on how to use it. It's a lot of fun to see people get excited about systems and processes when using Gliffy. If you need to get up and running quickly I can't think of a better solution for workflow visualization.
• I also like using Gliffy for mindmapping. I'm sure some mindmapping experts can tell me how I'm doing that incorrectly, but it just works for me. This points to the ease with which Gliffy allows you to get your thoughts down quickly and easily.

Incentivized

• Board management, it's not always easy to navigate.
• Limited tools.

Incentivized

• Gliffy does need to improve its pricing model. I believe they were early to market with their product and offerings, however, with the increased competitors they are falling behind in keeping their prices competitive.
• Gliffy does need to increase its export conversion migration tools. I can understand why they would not want to port items uses by their products to another product but we are in a world where products need to play nice with others in good faith. It can be done, but you do need to check over what you port either incoming or outgoing.
• Would like to see Gliffy allow us to build templates and import them into the repository and have increased the ability to archive those, share and have owners.

Incentivized

Because of its great versatility and ease of use. From diagramming to roadmpas and even user interface wireframes. Once a draft or first version is done we like to use the Confluence integration so we can collaborate and have one single source of truth

Incentivized

Excalidraw+ is very simple to use, navigate, and collaborate. You can quickly generate objects, text, lines, arrows, etc. to clearly explain an idea without spending too much time making it look pretty. It's great for initial ideation without getting bogged down in details. A quick user interface can be sketched in 30 seconds rather than spending time generating near-complete mockups that could be rejected

Incentivized

I based my assessment on aggregated user feedback and reviews from platforms like G2 and Software Advice. Many users highlight the simplicity and versatility of Gliffy’s interface, which makes it accessible for both beginners and professionals. Features like drag-and-drop functionality, a variety of templates, and integration options (e.g., Atlassian tools) contribute to its high rating.However, it doesn’t score a perfect 10 because some users report performance issues with complex diagrams, limited advanced features compared to competitors, and occasional difficulties with collaboration features. Balancing these strengths and weaknesses lands Gliffy in the 8-9 range for usability

Incentivized

Infinite canvas feature stands out in Excalidraw+, tools to create flowdiagrams, wireframes or simple mindmaps. Also, while using Excalidraw+, it felt so natural to create diagrams or use it for those, whereas in other competitors we needed to have prior knowledge of the platform or have some setup required to be done before starting it.

Incentivized

Gliffy is easier to use together with Confluence since it provides an integration where you can edit an image directly on the page. Visio and PowerPoint is better drawing tools but we have moved away from them since there isn’t a good way to keep track of the original file of the vector/bitmap included in the Confluence page.

Incentivized

• For the price it's really worth for the tools it's providing and feature with Excalidraw+
• This is good but we still had to buy competitors like miro at organization level to support multiple collaborations and users at large scale
• Tools provided for the price are good but expected a little more set of tools to create mindmaps, wireframes

Incentivized

• Hard to quantify actual $ROI (always is!), though qualitatively I've receive consistent feedback that live modeling with Gliffy is highly valuable for both our customers and internal team:
• a) For customers, it's live feedback to demonstrate we are listening and an opportunity to comment / add feedback to ensure we are hitting on key points
• b) For internal teams, it's a great reference to track key points on calls and ensure alignment going into the next call
• This is particularly important when discussions stall for months. Having Gliffy as a visual has helped us to win business because of the speed with which we could return to "the arena" and keep the ball moving forward.

Incentivized