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draw.io

Score7.7 out of 10

192 Reviews and Ratings

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What is draw.io?

draw.io is an online diagramming tool with integrations with Jira, Google, and Confluence available free online or at cost depending on integration chosen.

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using draw.io.
Based on HG Insights installation data
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#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

24.1%

521 installations of 2,166

#2 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

13.2%

286 installations of 2,166

#3 most frequent

Information

12.7%

274 installations of 2,166

Reviews

What users are saying about draw.io.
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A lightweight and easy to use diagramming tool

Incentivized
Pierre-Alexandre GarneauView profile
Business Analyst in Information Technology at Vosker (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use draw.io on occasion as a flowchart tool. It is useful to illustrate processes, workflows, and various pipelines. It's not a tool that we use on a daily basis, but it is useful both for brainstorming flows and to deliver a final cleaned-up version that can then be embedded in presentations or wiki pages.

Pros

  • Drawing flowcharts
  • UML charts
  • Organigrams

Cons

  • The app's look and feel is a bit dated
  • It could be easier to make a beautiful graph
  • The mind mapping graph is pretty poor

Return on Investment

  • Better communication of complex flows.
  • It has helped during brainstorming sessions to illustrate how ideas are linked together.
  • The PC app is free and easy to use, giving it a positive ROI even if it's used occasionally.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Miro and Microsoft Visio

Other Software Used

Miro, Atlassian Jira, Atlassian Confluence

draw.io The Best Free Alternative to Paid Diagram Tools

Incentivized
Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I normally use draw.io to create the architectural diagrams. to-be conceptual diagrams, workflow diagrams, flowcharts, data flows, and entity relationship diagrams—generally, from a business analysis and the project management standpoint, this tool provides the images, logos, and shapes that are required to show the relationships/flows. On top of that, the tool is also quite flexible to embed in the Atlassian Confluence pages to create the documentation for the application as well as structural docs and playbooks, or we can say runbooks, for engineers. You can also import custom images, logos, and PNG files for some applications that are not available in the preset. We also use this under technical aspect for using it as a reference for those teammates who are getting onboarded to our team and having the clear diagrams and figures helps in explaining the working models of processes we follow as a team.

Pros

  • Import the image files of application logos
  • Embeds into Atlassian confluence pages for technical documentation
  • It's a lightweight tool that loads quickly online on the websites
  • Wide coverage of shapes and icons with customization of colors

Cons

  • There are actually multiple options on draw.io for diagrams and images; that feature can be merged into one
  • The user interface is a bit complicated, with toolbars, so adding something like beginner mode could help newbies with the tool
  • I'd love to see more templates in it; currently they're limited to charts and diagrams, but themed templates or perhaps ease of finding them and previews in the interface could be more interactive.

Return on Investment

  • Stakeholders that are visual learners are able to understand the technical information on a high-level diagram due to them loading on time and simplified design features.
  • It's not adding up to the company's opex or capex cost, as the tool comes embedded for free of cost in Confluence pages.
  • The low amount of required training time makes it easy for new employees to learn this quite easily without taking much time.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Miro, Microsoft Visio and Whimsical

Other Software Used

Miro

Honest review from a longtime user

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Engineering (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I mostly use the draw.io to create flow diagrams for the userflows and some architecture diagrams as well.
Draw.io is so much helpful when there are complex flows and can't put in words to explain to team.
I use it so much to share the flows and thoughts of mine with the team or to explain some thing to the team.

Pros

  • Good interface for creating diagrams
  • Easy to share with team mates or just download as image
  • Wide range of shapes to create flow diagrams

Cons

  • Some more icons which helps to create wireframes
  • Templates like browser window or mobile screens or more screen size windows
  • Visualize the flow or auto connect few blocks missing connections
  • Create document with the flow diagram selected or with a prompt with context of diagram created

Return on Investment

  • Limited advanced collaboration features
  • As a free and open-source tool, there’s no dedicated vendor support. Troubleshooting or setup issues depend on internal IT or community resources
  • When diagrams are stored locally or in shared drives, version confusion can occur (multiple people editing outdated copies).

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Miro and SmartDraw

Other Software Used

Miro, Excalidraw+

draw.io the everyday tool

Incentivized
Verified User
Consultant in Engineering (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Draw.io is used to create all of the company's diagrams (architecture diagrams, business process diagrams, inter-application exchange diagrams, etc.).It's a tool used daily, either for saving diagrams or using drafts/whiteboards during meetings to explain concepts. All diagrams are saved to preserve the source code and allow for later modification. The export function is used to integrate the diagrams into meeting minutes or deliverables.

Pros

  • Creating simplified diagrams
  • Exporting as an image
  • Using tabs and layers

Cons

  • Project saving bug. On startup, it reopens the last diagram in "not saved" mode.
  • Layer management is quite difficult to use (it's complicated to know which layer we are currently working on).

Return on Investment

  • Time savings in the creation and maintenance of project diagrams
  • Facilitates understanding during framing workshops
  • A tool for simplifying complex issues through diagrams.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Notion, Microsoft Powerpoint and ARIS

Other Software Used

Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Notepad++, Trello, Google Translate, ChatGPT, Audacity

One of the best, free and easy to use software for creating flowcharts and diagrams.

Incentivized
Sahil KhanView profile
Data Analyst in Product Management at Numerator (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In Numerator we use draw.io to create flowcharts, diagrams and organizational charts. We have been using draw.io to create decision tree and workflow of a certain project. It really helps us to clarify some of the complex and challenging business decisions. It make things very clear when we understand it through a diagram made on draw.io.

Pros

  • The drag and drop of visuals make it easy and fast to create diagrams and flowcharts.
  • It is very convenient and simple to connect the visuals from one point to another from different sides of the visuals.
  • It offers so many different visual, flowcharts and network diagrams. We can explore a whole lot of templates in draw.io as per our requirement.
  • We can connect draw.io with Google Drive and save our work over there.

Cons

  • I think draw.io can improve on importing of some file types.
  • I think draw.io should launch its desktop application for PCs and Mac.
  • There is no proper tutorials and technical support services of draw.io

Most Important Features

  • The templates offered by draw.io is very useful for me and my organization to quickly create any diagram.
  • We can collaborate in real-time with other users with the help of shared cursor.
  • Drag and Drop feature is one of my favorite.

Return on Investment

  • draw.io has surely impacted our organization positively by saving some crucial time.
  • It has not really impacted much monetarily to be honest.
  • The ROI we got from draw.io is that it has made complex things clear for everyone in our organization.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Visio

Other Software Used

Keka HR, Atlassian Confluence, Slack, Jira Software