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Gliffy

Gliffy

Overview

What is Gliffy?

Gliffy is an online diagramming tool with collaboration features from the San Francisco company of the same name, offering standalone versions of Gliffy and integrated versions for Jira and Confluence.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Gliffy has proven to be a versatile tool with a wide range of use cases across different teams and departments. Users have found it …
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Pricing

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Professional

$6

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://gliffy.com/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $6 per month
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Product Details

What is Gliffy?

Gliffy's diagramming applications enables users to communicate and collaborate at the speed of ideas. Whether Gliffy is being used in Confluence and Jira, or as a standalone diagramming tool, Gliffy Online, Gliffy is designed to provide an intuitive way to draw diagrams. Drag-and-drop for professional-looking flowcharts, UML diagrams, entity-relationship diagrams, in just a few clicks. Use a template to make a mind map or concept map while brainstorming. Embed an org chart in the tools a team already uses. Visualize cloud architecture or IT networks and add them to a team's documentation. For planning, project managing, or dreaming up, Gliffy can help bring it to life. The vendor states Gliffy is the most popular diagramming app in the Atlassian Ecosystem, with over 16 million users diagramming in Confluence alone. Gliffy is used by teams of all sizes and averages over 700 users per install as an enterprise diagramming solution. Gliffy is available for a trial via the Atlassian Marketplace or by signing up for a two-week free trial of Gliffy Online on gliffy.com.

Gliffy Video

This basic UML class diagram tutorial will teach you how to make a class diagram in UML using Gliffy. We’ll walk you through a basic example of a library system to show how classes and subclasses work together and how to capture all the details you want to build into the syste...
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Gliffy Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Gliffy is an online diagramming tool with collaboration features from the San Francisco company of the same name, offering standalone versions of Gliffy and integrated versions for Jira and Confluence.

Gliffy starts at $6.

SmartDraw and Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite are common alternatives for Gliffy.

The most common users of Gliffy are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(16)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Gliffy has proven to be a versatile tool with a wide range of use cases across different teams and departments. Users have found it valuable for visualizing organization charts, adding colors and emphasis to aid in decision-making. The operations team has relied on Gliffy to quickly create workflows for various systems and processes. Meanwhile, the solutions engineering and best practices teams have used Gliffy extensively to model user interfaces, process, and data in order to understand customer challenges and brainstorm improvements. Gliffy diagrams have served as a useful reference post-call and in subsequent discussions. Development teams have also used Gliffy to create network architecture and software architecture diagrams for customer-facing and onboarding documents.

In addition, Gliffy has been praised for its ability to easily create diagrams and process flows that help others understand complex processes like the enhancement submission process. Users appreciate the convenience of being able to create diagrams without the need to open an account, providing flexibility in sharing their work. Gliffy has also been utilized as an add-on in Google Doc templates in G-Suite, offering a low-cost solution for flowcharts and similar applications.

Furthermore, Gliffy has been instrumental in enhancing collaboration and productivity within organizations. Teams of IT members have embedded workflows, diagrams, and work breakdown structures within company-wide Confluence pages using Gliffy. Users have found it helpful in ironing out multi-step processes and sketching out automated marketing workflows before building them. The integration with Confluence allows for easy editing and version management of architecture and design solutions.

Overall, Gliffy's versatility as a tool for user interface modeling, process modeling, data modeling, collaborative diagramming, and problem-solving through visual planning has made it an invaluable asset for many users across different departments within organizations. Its ease of use, customization options, and ability to seamlessly integrate with other tools contribute to its positive reputation among users as a reliable diagramming solution.

Affordable Pricing: Several users have praised Gliffy for its affordable pricing, making it accessible and cost-effective for small to medium-sized businesses.

Intuitive and User-friendly: Many reviewers have highlighted the intuitive nature of Gliffy, stating that they rarely had to provide extensive training on how to use the software. This ease of use has made working with Gliffy enjoyable and allowed users to quickly translate their thoughts into visual diagrams.

Drag-and-Drop Interface: The drag-and-drop interface in Gliffy has been mentioned by numerous users as a key feature that enables rapid idea generation. Users appreciate how this feature facilitates live model discussions and allows them to accurately represent processes, data architectures, and organizational priorities with speed and efficiency.

Integration: Some users have expressed the need for better integration capabilities in Gliffy, allowing for automatic updates of org charts. This has been mentioned by multiple reviewers as a valuable addition to the software.

Saving Complex Diagrams: Several reviewers have encountered difficulties when saving complex diagrams in Gliffy. They mention that on some occasions, diagrams are unable to save properly, leading to separate diagrams or problems with loading recent changes. This has created concerns about the full saving and recoverability of diagrams.

Collaboration Challenges: Multiple users have pointed out challenges when collaborating in Gliffy, particularly regarding different users using different icons or colors. The limited color customization options and bugs in viewing diagrams via web browsers like Google Chrome have impacted collaboration efforts according to these reviewers.

Users recommend Gliffy as a quick, easy, and versatile tool for creating diagrams. They suggest exploring GitHub for third-party shapes and customization ideas. Gliffy is considered a good value for the money and is recommended for creating various types of diagrams. The collaborative features, version control, and support for UML and BPMN process models are highly recommended by users. Overall, users suggest trying Gliffy as it is a popular tool for online diagrams.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-11 of 11)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Integration with Confluence.
  • Simple UML diagrams.
  • No need to install desktop software on each client.
  • It’s missing good auto layout functionality.
  • It would be good if it’s was easier to export a bitmap or vector image.
  • Resizing UML symbols make them look a bit strange, especially component object.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Ease of use
  • Templates make getting started fast and simple
  • Intuitive Flash interface makes it easy learn for beginners
  • The limitation on the color customization of the diagrams.
  • There are bugs in the view via web browsers like Google Chrome
  • Should provide an ability to download diagrams in various available formats
Sarah Whiteford | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Low-cost quick solutions
  • Basic, professional looking flowcharts & org charts
  • Great integration into Google Docs & G-Suite
  • The shapes library isn't as large as some competitors
  • Not ideal for finely-detailed work (I switch to other products when laying out circuits/schematics etc)
March 14, 2019

Idea to Model - Fast

Peter Rifken | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The drag & drop interface enables ideas to take shape very quickly. I can ease model discussions live as they are happening and our customers are often impressed with how fast we can accurately represent their processes, data architectures, and organizational priorities
  • Once diagrams are complete, it's fairly easy to share via export to JPG or creation of a share link. As I mentioned in the introduction, I will create share links for all of my diagrams and share them with customers and internal sales teams as an ongoing reference. I have also recently started using the comments to gather feedback from view-only roles on models created, which is nice
  • The pre-made templates provide a great starting point for visualizing common business discussions. I use 5-10 diagram objects frequently and having them pop up as "most used" makes creating fast. I'm also keen on making the diagram look good, so I'm thankful Gliffy has implemented a grid and alignment tools to make layout of objects straight forward.
  • I have had some trouble saving complex diagrams and viewing them on the fly. On a handful of occasions, diagrams are unable to save, which means I either need to try to "save as" a separate diagram, or I am perpetually stuck trying to "load" recent changes. Overall, this means I always have a slight lingering fear that my diagrams aren't fully saved or recoverable. Support has been pretty responsive helping me to reload corrupted diagrams.
  • Adding Text, Notes, and Images can be a challenge. While laying out objects with simple text is a strength, adding formatted text and commentary can be a challenge. I often find my objects ghost-moving all over the screen and lost. I'd love a drag-and-drop way to load images in to diagrams. The process is a bit cumbersome with the file upload wizard.
  • Template environments - I struggled a bit to try to create a default starting point for my diagrams. I've tried to load common libraries and ignore others, those settings are often ignore upon reload. I'd love to use the same 10 objects and ignore the rest, I am not able (yet) to create this scenario, though there may be more to learn.
  • Searching, Indexing, Retrieving my diagrams. As part of an enterprise plan, I find there are too many clicks required to a) find/search for my diagrams and b) save diagrams into my Gliffy folder. In our implementation I can see all folders for all of my colleagues, and need to drill down a bit before I get to my folder, where I can actually search my documents in a list. I'd prefer a more intuitive way to land on my diagrams and to organize them (e.g., by customer) so that I can access them more quickly.
Jesse Bickel, MS - PMP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Gliffy makes use of its templates and tutorials very very well. Out of the box, it is easy to use and does not require stopping your production workflow to get your staff up to speed. The support on their side and videos make this easy to use and produce buy-in from team members.
  • Gliffy's plug into confluence is very strong. It feels as if its part of the product itself and not even a plugin. The fact it does not pull the workflow down locally to edit it and keeping it within the page during editing really helps limit version issues.
  • 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.
February 01, 2019

Gliffy is Spiffy!

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Many templates to utilize as a quick start.
  • Embedded inside of Confluence pages.
  • Clean visual interface and objects.
  • It is not as robust as higher end tools in regards to object options and breadth of visualization options.
  • Some versions of Gliffy were buggy and work was lost.
  • Always felt like the properties box should be persistent, not a selection each time you needed it displayed.
Chris Widner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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.
  • I would love to see Gliffy have some kind of integration that allows us to automatically update our org chart. I can see why that would be difficult, but if they could do that I'd be having Gliffy tattoos and name my dog Gliffy.
  • Offline usage, of course, isn't really there. Minor for a world always connected, but that would be a nice to have.
  • Honestly there isn't really anything major to knock Gliffy for. It's a great solution overall.
February 01, 2019

Creates Competent Content

Michael Slavin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Robust asset libraries to match legacy Visio documents or use familiar iconography from vendor documents/diagrams.
  • Integrates with Confluence to make diagramming within our internal wiki simple.
  • Decent fine-tuning of illustrations to match size/style constraints of documents (curve radius, text size, etc.)
  • Some simple tasks like creating basic elements can involve more work than you'd expect. There are no immediately apparent or customizable shortcuts or hotkeys for some common tasks.
  • Needs to have ways to limit the styling of a document. It can be tough to collaborate when someone else will, for example, use a different Firewall icon than the one you've been using.
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