Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review I believe SmartDraw is a great tool for small- to mid-sized organizations for simplifying the production and management of org charts. We've also had the PMO experiment with the use of some of their flow charts as well. If an organization has an HCM with the capability of producing (good!) org charts, that is likely the best option... but many that I have used in my 30-year HR career don't. So there is definitely a need for SmartDraw in the market!
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Provides examples to work off of--these are helpful when you don't know exactly where to start. Provides a number of stylistic options without making things too complex, so you can be creative without getting overwhelmed. Provides a wide variety of templates, meets a wide variety of needs. Read full review Cons There could be more scaffolding to support new users in getting to know how to best use all of the many features and tools it provides. There could be more support for printing. Many of our process flows extend beyond just one page, and OmniGraffle is rather finicky about printing multipage documents. We could use this tool more effectively if there was the ability to have real-time team collaboration. Document handoffs can be a point of missed communication, so it’d be great if we could ever have the option of working together in the same place at the same time. Read full review A month-to-month plan would be ideal for users that don't have a need to create many projects The sidebar navigation can be a little confusing with all of the tools listed. Offering customizable plans with only the feature you need would simplify navigation Read full review Likelihood to Renew Best product for my needs on the market
Read full review Support Rating OmniGraffle is an excellent application for chart and diagrams development. Been using it for a while now and it's a multiple platform application.
Read full review They are always very helpful, we get computers every two years and I have to call them to move the license from one computer to another and they do it with a smile in their voice!
Read full review Alternatives Considered To sum up:
use Omnigraffle for diagraming or for quick wireframe drafting use Sketch for more in-depth wireframing that you can then flesh out into a high fidelity mock-up, export assets for production, and integrate with prototyping tools like Proto.io and UXPin . Read full review We have used Corel Draw and Adobe Acrobat. Both of those tools were good when they came out but the abilities of SmartDraw far outweigh both those tools. Corel Draw was also more complex to operate and do tasks, as was Adobe Acrobat in which some basic tasks took additional steps to complete.
Read full review Return on Investment Instrumental in smoothly transitioning a 3rd party development team from designs to requirements. Across cultures, US, Chinese, and Icelandic, OmniGraffle allowed our teams to speak the same language. The depth of the software make some elements that are useful less accessible than they should be. Read full review SmartDraw has provided good return for our internal purposes. Using it to understand an organization's structure and inner workings has been valuable. On the client side, creating steps and businesses processes has also been a big plus. It has helped decrease confusing reporting structures and has provided a detailed map for individuals to understand where they fit within their organization. Unfortunately, SmartDraw has been somewhat inefficient with some of the more complex projects on our plate and has really deterred certain employees from even wanting to use it. Read full review ScreenShots