Lucidchart vs Microsoft Visio

• Allows individuals to further realize engineering issues and collaborate, globally in real time, in order to resolve the issues.
• Allows individuals and teams to define a workflow or process to use for a platform or action. For instance, before selecting an HRIS platform, we used Lucidchart to map out all HRIS processes which made selecting a platform ridiculously simple.
• Lucidchart also allows anyone to easily publish their output so that users, both internally and externally, can view their ideas without needing a license, login or any complicated understanding.
• The mobile aspects of Lucidchart are also fantastic as an individual can create a concept or design and present it to individuals right from their pocket.

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• The templates for basic flowcharting are simple to use and cover most of the basic functions and touch points in a diagram.
• The variety of included icons and connectors means it's very easy to create floor plans and/or network diagrams.
• The ease at which you can customise connectors with different colours/thickness makes it very effective in overall presentation of a diagram.

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• The process for browsing and managing uploaded user images seems a little off. For example, I frequently will use screen captures as graphical elements of a document. While LucidChart fully supports doing so, it might be helpful to have a more powerful interface when reviewing/browsing/selecting files that are serving duty as custom images.
• I create fairly involved sitemaps and love the sitemaps tools which let you type your hierarchy into the diagram in a popup and see that hierarchy anytime you click on a shape. However, the popup is small, and when I click on a shape in my wireframe, the popup doesn't jump to and highlight the item I've selected in the hierarchy. This makes it challenging to find the item I'm trying to work with in the popup hierarchy.
• The cost is a big deal, initially, Lucidchart was freemium and was free for us to use the team license which we made available to our users at the university. Without warning, they changed their license structure and began charging for this. Now if our users want to have the same functionality they have to purchase a license or request for an education discount which is a tedious process. The price is a little on the high side, especially if you want to add more members to your Lucidcart team.
• Sometimes it takes time to load the documents, and depending on the complexity of the document that is being developed, it hangs up (you must have a good internet connection) if you do not have a connection, you can not use this software.
• Sometimes it can be frustrating to format shapes and resize them at times. While the software is fairly user friendly I have definitely gotten frustrated at times trying to resize images and have had issues when I was trying to connect certain processes to another and the program picks the wrong shape to connect to. I also wish it was a bit easier to print out these charts, but I don't think it's very fair to blame the software on that since everyone's charts are going to vary by width/size so it's up to the user to format it for printing.

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• The shapes library can be a little daunting if you're unfamiliar. Unless you know what you're looking for and where to find it, you can spend a lot of time looking for a particular shape or icon. But once you find it, you can add it to your shapes menu for easy access.
• You can also spend a lot of time selecting your defaults for shapes, arrows, font size, etc. But like the shapes library, once you get it down, it's locked in.
• Be prepared to spend a few hours playing with Visio before figuring out all the nuances. But if you're a beginner and need to create a process flow or diagram, you can do it very quickly without a lot of effort or training. The fun stuff takes a little longer to master.

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• We run Lucidchart for a fraction of what it would cost to deploy Visio, allowing us to open up its tools to more employees.
• The low learning curve means less time spent teaching and more time spent recording data.
• Its various functions have made it a mainstay in multiple departments outside of IT.

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• Microsoft Visio helps improve communication which ensures increased alignment. This helps reduce costly rework on projects.
• Microsoft Visio is expensive to license the whole organization, so it takes some time to ensure your diagram is in a good format for publishing and there are only so many people who can edit the Visio files.

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