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SmartDraw has become a go-to solution for many users who want to simplify the creation, editing, and sharing of org charts. Frustrated …
Starting at $5.95 per user/per month
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What is SmartDraw?
SmartDraw is a diagramming and flow chart building tool from SmartDraw Software in San Diego, California.
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Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Multiple-Users (for 5+ users)
$5.95
On Premise
per user/per month
Single-User
$9.95
On Premise
per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
SmartDraw Demo
YouTube
Team 6 SmartDraw Demo
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
What is SmartDraw?
SmartDraw Video
While our first impressions of SmartDraw were quite positive, here we dive deeper into how they market their visual design tool, what their pricing plans look like, what users enjoy about SmartDraw, and what issues users have with SmartDraw. The biggest takeaway, is that Smart...
 Show More SmartDraw Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Mac |
| Mobile Application | No |
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(38)
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!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
SmartDraw has become a go-to solution for many users who want to simplify the creation, editing, and sharing of org charts. Frustrated with the cumbersome nature of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, HR teams have turned to SmartDraw to streamline their org charting process. With both desktop and cloud-based versions available, SmartDraw offers an intuitive and user-friendly experience that surpasses other options like Lucidchart. In addition to org charts, users have found SmartDraw useful for discussing application flows, creating high-level designs, creating flowcharts, seating charts, and charts of responsibility. It has proven to be a modern alternative to Microsoft Office tools, offering a time-saving solution for tasks such as designing building floorplans, fire evacuation diagrams, and emergency operations plans. Users also appreciate the software for its capabilities in flow charting, milestone charting, process decomposition/documentation, and creating maps and timelines. With excellent customer service and a wide range of use cases across various departments within organizations, SmartDraw continues to provide an efficient and effective solution for visualizing information.
Clean and professional org charts: Many users have been impressed with SmartDraw's ability to produce clean and professional-looking org charts. They appreciate that the charts can be easily shared or printed in a readable format, making it convenient for presentations or documentation purposes.
Easy import of data for org chart creation: Several reviewers have praised the ease of importing data into SmartDraw for creating org charts. This feature saves them time and effort, allowing them to quickly generate accurate and up-to-date charts.
Wide range of features and templates: SmartDraw offers a wide range of features for various purposes such as flowcharts, structural design, sharing and collaboration, wireframing, and customizable templates. Users find these features to be valuable as they cater to different needs and make diagramming tasks more efficient. Additionally, the provided templates serve as great starting points when users are unsure of how to begin their diagrams.
Cons:
- Lack of customization options: Some users have expressed the need for more customizable functions in the program to achieve better integration, as well as the ability to customize plans and navigation.
- Performance issues: Several users have mentioned that the application is heavy on their system and takes time to load, especially for touch screen interfaces. Additionally, some users find certain tasks like manipulating bubbles in timelines or aligning multiple objects to be difficult and time-consuming.
- Issues with functionality: A number of reviewers have experienced issues with the autosave function not always saving changes, making it unreliable. Users have also found it difficult to link shapes together and desire more customizations and example shapes/objects.
Based on user feedback, here are the most common recommendations for SmartDraw:
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Users suggest exploring the different options available and trying out the software, as it is free and easy to use. They recommend playing around with it for a couple of hours before using it for serious tasks. It is also important to ensure that the software meets all requirements before relying on it.
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SmartDraw is highly recommended by users who work with PowerPoint. It is considered an excellent tool for creating presentations. Additionally, users suggest giving SmartDraw a try for easy drawings, diagrams, and representations. However, for certain types of drawings, some users suggest using Visio instead.
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Users find SmartDraw useful for designing documents such as process flow maps and org charts. It is praised for being easy to use and having useful components for different environments. Taking advantage of any training offered by SmartDraw is also recommended.
In general, users advise trying the trial version of SmartDraw to evaluate if it meets their needs. They find it cost-effective and compatible with other programs like Microsoft Office. Templates are suggested as a way to maximize the value of the software. However, users caution that SmartDraw may not be worth the money and time for certain professional fields, like architect firms. It is important to carefully evaluate use cases before deciding on the software. While generally user-friendly, some users note that support may not be particularly helpful in addressing concerns or issues.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
June 20, 2023
Free trial IS NOT free
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I tried to use the free trial on this software. As soon as I finished the drawing I couldn't export, share or print without purchasing. Furthermore I tried to sign in, figuring I could at least save it online to show my builder the plans and got notified that my trial had now expired and I had to pay if I wanted to access my plans again. So basically if I want to see my plans ever again that I spent the last 2 hours drawing, I have to pay smartdraw, and they only have an option to purchase annually. In my opinion, it's super underhanded and sneaky the way they try to get people to pay for their software, as a result, if ever I need any design software, I will most definitely NOT be using or recommending smartdraw. Thanks for wasting 2 hours of my life smartdraw.
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Nothing
- Everywhere
- Everywhere
- Everywhere
- nothing
- nothing
- nothing
- Wasted my time
- Made me incredibly frustrated
- Felt cheated
This is currently used by the HR dept for organizational charts and flowcharts, although its capabilities are endless if you want to take the time to learn the software. it is much more intuitive than using Excel when creating flowcharts and org charts and can be exported to a PDF or Word document.
- Ability to quickly and efficiently create flowcharts and org charts that are pleasing to the eye.
- Cloud document storage always a plus. Can access work in progress anywhere.
- Ability to export in multiple formats to fit your needs.
- The software seems quite sophisticated. If you are looking to do something a bit more intricate, like a floor plan, you need to do some of their training.
- Training options are a bit rough, they will offer free live training if you have more than 5 people on the training. Doesn't work well for a small company
- Small positive impact on a quicker and more efficient way to update org charts and flow charts!
November 22, 2016
Give Sharepoint a try...but beware
Currently, SmartDraw is used by various members of our organization in order to create dynamic process and organizational charts for both our clients as well as for internal use.
- SmartDraw is great at visualizing process driven charts and models. They are simple, and somewhat understandable.
- SmartDraw can still be a bit slow at times. While the ability to create complex charts and and figures that have multiple connecting (and intersecting) lines has improved, there are still some instances where SmartDraw can improve in (i.e.- sometimes I'm forced to freeze lines that I don't want a newly created line to automatically connect to).
- Restructuring the ribbon to be more user friendly and intuitive could also go a long way. I am not sure why text alignment is all the way to the right of the ribbon on the user interface. It is nearly non-existent when I minimize my window. To me, the functionality in the Design ribbon does not make sense (only because I use PowerPoint and Word on a daily basis). Design is more content creation and editing, sort of like the functionality in the Home ribbon.
- Creating additional right mouse click shortcut options would also save lots of time. I don't want to have to go to the ribbon every time I need to group or ungroup different sets.
- Printing and properly adjusting printing is a nightmare. It is not intuitive, manually adjusting only complicates things, and there aren't enough options that allow for properly adjusting your window for printing. Printing functionality is too complex and a real deterrent when attempting to share content with clients.
- 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.
We haven't selected other tools, SmartDraw was our test product and we are in the middle of determining if we will go with them long term.
November 21, 2016
Simple and Professional Software
We are a commercial general contractor. It gets used mainly by the superintendent for one of our locations where our company maintains all their facilities. Smartdraw is also used by the president of the company to create simple and clean drawings for our customers. It allows these drawings to be cleaner and look way more professional than hand-written. It is not comparable to AutoCAD by any means but it does make drawings look more professional and it is way easier to edit or change a drawing.
- Adjusting size/dimensions for the drawing (up or down depending)
- Simple to function
- Move/Delete/Change drawing
- Exporting to read-able PDF
- Very glitchy. It randomly will move a line in the drawing especially after saving and re-opening.
- Some things don't make any sense the way it is designed.
- The add-on images are weird - Most would like that views are aerial vs. a picsart type image.
- Positive impact - easier to create professional looking drawing and send back and forth to superintendent for editing.
- Easier to e-mail copies or drawing changes to our customers.
November 14, 2016
Smart Design with SmartDraw
We use SmartDraw in my team for flow charting, milestone charting and process decomposition/documentation. Both SmartDraw and Visio are used in my company and within my organization. The problem/need that SmartDraw addresses is we had a need to create process diagrams across a globally distributed development team. We wanted a tool that was easy to use with several output formats for sharing at different levels.
- SmartDraw has a great selection of templates to start from which are great thought starters when you don't know where to begin!
- Often you have data, processes, concepts, flows and interactions to organize, yet you don't always know what will be the best way to put it all together.
- SmartDraw is easy to use, I was productive right away and did not need to reference any help or tutorials in getting started. The UI is very intuitive and I could ramp up quickly.
- I can keep creating and SmartDraw doesn't slow me down. When working with large flows, SmartDraw dynamically extends its display area. I like that when I am creating a flow, I am not constrained to a predefined space. I can keep working and use the zoom in/out as needed to view my diagrams.
- I would like to be able to select multiple objects and right click to align them. So far I have only found one way to get to the alignment and that is on the Design Screen.
- SmartDraw is easy to learn and the impact is that our new team could come up to speed very quickly. Shortened the tool learning curve.
- SmartDraw templates provide uniformity among the documents created by my team which saves time in sharing information and design work.
- The in application file sharing saves time along with the in application save to another format to ship around to others who do not have the tool.
Indigo Studio and Visio were other products used in my department.
We chose SmartDraw over Visio on both features and cost.
We chose SmartDraw over Visio on both features and cost.