Diagram software ranges from free open-source editors to per-seat suites, and the price that matters is the one after export, sign-on and a technical shape library are added.
This guide ranks twelve products on setup effort, real price, how files leave, independence from partners and marketplaces, and which team each one fits.
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In short
What diagramming software does
Diagram software lets people draw flowcharts, network maps, org charts and system diagrams, then share, edit and export them as image, vector or editable files.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each diagramming tool is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Per user per month, published; Plan 2 adds desktop; one-month trial
—
Microsoft 365 organisations needing BPMN, network and floor-plan diagrams in desktop
Small independent teams that want to avoid a Microsoft tenancy
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Apache-licensed diagram editor that saves to storage you already own
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingEurope
draw.io Ltd, registered in England and Wales, publishes the editor under Apache 2.0 and says it cannot access your data. Files from 2005 still open, and export covers SVG, PNG and PDF.
Collaboration uses shared cursors, and integrations reach Google, SharePoint, Confluence, GitHub and VS Code. Nothing is metered, but nothing is hosted for you either, so governance depends on the storage you pick.
What stands out
Open source
Bring your storage
No sign-up
Where it costs you
Storage and access control are your responsibility, because the editor saves into services you choose.
The Confluence and Jira apps are distributed by Seibert Group under a separate end-user licence, not the free terms.
Right for
Teams wanting a free, open-source editor that saves to their own storage
Wrong for
Buyers who want vendor-run workspaces, comments and admin controls
United KingdomFree web and desktop apps; Confluence and Jira apps licensed separately
Privately held Texas vendor with one per-user team plan
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
SmartDraw, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, runs as a web app with Microsoft and Google integrations. Team lists a per-user price with a team folder, admin controls and document retention.
Enterprise adds single sign-on and multiple shared folders. Its site pitches replacing Visio and Lucidchart, but no trial is shown, and the discount applies only to new customers, so budget for the list price at renewal.
What stands out
Privately held
Per user
Enterprise sign-on
Where it costs you
The Team plan has a three-user minimum, so a pair of colleagues cannot buy it.
Both lower tiers show introductory prices for new customers only, so the renewal figure is not on the page.
Right for
Small teams wanting a per-user diagram licence from a privately held vendor
Wrong for
Buyers who need a stated trial or a free plan
United StatesIndividual and per-user Team plans, published; Enterprise on request
Text-to-diagram JavaScript library that renders inside docs and repositories
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingElsewhere
Mermaid is a JavaScript library whose definitions render to SVG, and the repository is MIT-licensed. The Live Editor, a command-line renderer and many community integrations are listed, and GitHub renders Mermaid blocks natively.
That makes diagrams reviewable as diffs and removes any seat cost. There is no vendor to ask about support or uptime, because the project site states no company address or service terms.
What stands out
Open source
Diagrams as code
MIT licence
Where it costs you
Diagrams are written as text, so there is no canvas for placing shapes by hand.
The project's own introduction says work is piling up and calls for more core developers.
Right for
Engineers who want diagrams kept as text beside code in Git
Wrong for
Non-technical teams who expect drag-and-drop shapes and comments
Not stated by the vendorFree MIT-licensed library with no seats or plans
Hand-drawn style canvas, open source, with one paid per-user tier
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingEurope
Drawings save as .excalidraw JSON, an open format, so leaving is a file copy. The free tier keeps a single scene in the browser; Plus moves work to a cloud workspace with access management, presentations, voice and screen sharing, and a 14-day trial.
There is one paid plan and it is charged per user, with roughly 14 per cent off for annual billing. The weak point is self-hosting: the Docker image runs the editor, but the docs say sharing and collaboration are absent from it.
What stands out
MIT licence
Free plan
Hand-drawn look
Where it costs you
The vendor's docs state that a self-hosted instance does not support sharing or collaboration
The free tier holds one scene, stored in the browser instead of the cloud
PDF and PPTX export, comments and read-only links are reserved for Plus
Payment is by credit card only; bank transfer is not supported
Right for
Teams that sketch diagrams together and want an open file format underneath
Wrong for
Organisations that must run live collaboration on their own servers
CzechiaFree plan with one scene; Plus per user per month, published
Nulab diagram tool with unlimited free users and a per-user paid ladder
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
Cacoo is made by Nulab, Inc., which opened its headquarters in Fukuoka in 2004. The free plan includes unlimited users with real-time editing, and every paid plan has a 14-day trial without a credit card.
Pro covers one user, Team up to 1,000, and Enterprise adds SAML and provisioning. Visio import and code-to-graph generation are listed, but the pricing page contradicts itself on sheet limits.
What stands out
Free plan
Per user
Visio import
Where it costs you
Free exports are limited to PNG, so vector or PDF output needs a paid plan.
Single sign-on, SCIM and audit logs exist only on Enterprise.
Right for
Teams wanting real-time diagrams with unlimited free users and Visio import
Wrong for
Security-led buyers needing sign-on below an Enterprise contract
JapanFree plan; Pro and Team per user per month, published; Enterprise on request
Diagram canvas now sold inside a multi-product governance suite
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingAsia-Pacific
The Business plan is the interesting one: a single monthly price for unlimited users, with 100 folders, 30 GB and a year of version history, and a seven-day trial. For a department of fifty that arithmetic beats any per-member list here.
Exports cover JPEG, PNG, SVG and PDF. The on-premises edition can run in a private cloud or data centre and supports SAML, LDAP and OpenID Connect, priced by sales. The constraint to check is the item cap per canvas, which applies on every published tier.
What stands out
Free plan
Tiered plans
Enterprise add-ons
Where it costs you
The free plan limits each canvas to 45 items, one folder and two imports
Guest access starts at the Business plan
Every paid tier still has an item ceiling per canvas, up to 3,000 on Business
Right for
Larger departments that prefer one flat fee over counting seats
Wrong for
Teams that build very large single canvases
AustraliaFree plan; Pro and Business tiers; Enterprise on annual agreement
Boards, flowcharts and docs billed per editor, viewers unmetered
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Billing by editor is the fairest model in this list for a team where three people draw and thirty read, because the readers and outside guests cost nothing.
Flowcharts and sequence diagrams export as Mermaid text, which is unusual and useful for engineers, alongside PNG, PDF and SVG; docs export as Markdown or PDF. Annual billing takes 17 per cent off. The free plan is the catch. It limits what you create each month instead of how many boards you keep.
What stands out
Per editor
Free viewers
Watermark on free
Where it costs you
The free plan allows 50 new board objects and 50 doc blocks per month
Free exports carry a 'Made with Whimsical' watermark
Version history on the free plan is seven days
Right for
Product teams with few authors and many readers of flowcharts and boards
Wrong for
Groups wanting a usable free plan for regular workshops
United StatesFree plan; Pro and Business per editor per month, published
Perforce-owned diagram app that lives inside Atlassian Confluence
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Gliffy is owned by Perforce Software of Minneapolis. Free applies to up to 10 users with no time limit, then pricing is per user, billed annually at a discount.
Zero Egress is a cloud variant stating that no diagram data leaves the Atlassian environment. Data Center licences are perpetual with 12 months of maintenance, evaluations last 30 days, and Visio and draw.io files can be imported.
What stands out
Confluence app
Per user
30-day evaluation
Where it costs you
It is sold as a Confluence app, so it needs an Atlassian host product.
Purchases, quotes and renewals are handled only on Atlassian Marketplace.
Right for
Atlassian teams wanting diagrams stored inside their Confluence pages and spaces
Wrong for
Teams outside Atlassian looking for a standalone diagram product
United StatesFree up to 10 users; per-user tiers published, bought via Atlassian
Wondershare diagram suite sold as subscription or one-time licence
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Published pricingAsia-Pacific
EdrawMax is sold under the Wondershare brand by Shenzhen Edraw Software. Buyers choose a semi-annual or annual subscription or a one-time perpetual licence, each with a 30-day money-back promise.
The store lists Windows, Mac, Linux, web, Android and iOS and 1GB of cloud storage. A perpetual licence avoids renewals, but activation ties the install to an account sign-up. Education and team pages carry separate plans that we did not price.
What stands out
Perpetual option
Desktop and web
Many diagram types
Where it costs you
Activation is account-based and needs a sign-up, with offline versions available only on request.
The vendor's data controller sits in China, which some procurement policies will weigh.
Right for
Individuals wanting a one-time perpetual licence across many diagram types
Wrong for
Teams requiring offline installs without contacting support first
ChinaSubscription or one-time perpetual licence, published
Lucid Software's diagram app with a capped free account
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Lucidchart is made by Lucid Software Inc., which also sells whiteboarding, and its site lists over 100 custom-built integrations. A staff answer places the free account at three editable documents, 60 objects each, with lines and text boxes counting.
The pricing page blocked automated reading, so we state no plan prices or per-seat rule. Check the quote, especially add-ons such as Enterprise Shield.
What stands out
Free plan
100+ integrations
Enterprise add-ons
Where it costs you
The free account caps editable documents at three and objects at 60 per document.
Paid tiers and prices could not be read on the vendor pages, so cost is unverified here.
Right for
Teams that need deep Jira, Confluence and Slack integrations around diagrams
Wrong for
Buyers who want a published price before talking to anyone
Not stated by the vendorFree plan with document and object caps; paid tiers not readable
Whiteboard whose technical shape library only arrives on the Business plan
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Miro's pricing page advertises more than 7,000 templates and over 250 integrations, and docs, tables, slides and kanban formats sit alongside the canvas. The free plan keeps only the three most recent boards editable and has no private boards, so anything sensitive forces the upgrade.
Starter is priced per member with a discount for yearly billing; Business has a 14-day trial. The practical risk is sprawl: a product this broad is easy to adopt and, at per-member prices, expensive to roll out to everyone.
What stands out
Per member
Free plan
Unlimited guests on Business
Where it costs you
Private boards, visitor editing and high-resolution export all start at the paid Starter plan
The guest role with unlimited guests belongs to the Business plan
Enterprise requires at least 30 members and a quote
Right for
Companies that want the largest template library and many integrations in one board
Wrong for
Small teams trying to keep private boards without paying
United StatesFree plan; per member per month, published; Enterprise quoted
Microsoft subscription with a browser plan and a Windows desktop plan
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Diagramming Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Visio is a Microsoft product, sold as Plan 1 at a lower per-user price for web editing and Plan 2 for the desktop app. Plan 2 adds over 250,000 shapes, BPMN 2.0, P&ID, electrical diagrams and two-way data connectivity.
Both plans include 2 GB of OneDrive storage and a one-month trial with a card. A work or school account is required for the trial, and the base Microsoft 365 tier offers only limited templates.
What stands out
Per user
Desktop plan
Microsoft 365
Where it costs you
Plan 1 has no desktop app, so offline work and data linking need Plan 2.
Administrators must choose an annual commitment to purchase online.
Right for
Microsoft 365 organisations needing BPMN, network and floor-plan diagrams in desktop
Wrong for
Small independent teams that want to avoid a Microsoft tenancy
United StatesPer user per month, published; Plan 2 adds desktop; one-month trial
Diagram software lets people draw flowcharts, network maps, org charts and system diagrams, then share, edit and export them as image, vector or editable files. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
12 of the 12 tools here publish what they cost; the other 0 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: draw.io, SmartDraw, Mermaid, Excalidraw, Cacoo, Creately, Whimsical, Gliffy, EdrawMax, Lucidchart, Miro, Microsoft Visio.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 12 vendors are established in 7 countries across 4 regions (North America 5, Asia-Pacific 3, Europe 2, Elsewhere 2). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
03
Consider whether you want the source
3 of these are open source: draw.io, Mermaid, Excalidraw. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
How a diagram tool is actually priced
Diagram software is billed in three ways, and the headline rarely survives a team of ten. Per-member plans such as Miro and per-editor plans such as Whimsical follow headcount. Per-user tiers such as Cacoo and SmartDraw are cheaper per seat but impose minimums or caps. Free tools such as draw.io and Mermaid cost nothing to run, yet shift storage, permissions and review onto you.
Count the people who edit, the people who only read, and whether guests are metered. Then add the single feature your team needs that sits one tier up, such as export formats, single sign-on or a technical shape library. Compare that total, not the entry price, across three vendors, and write down which plan each figure belongs to so the comparison stays honest when a vendor reshuffles its tiers or quotes only an introductory rate for the first year.
Count editors and viewers separately
Find the tier that unlocks export and sign-on
Ask whether the quoted price is introductory
Free tiers and what they cap
Every free plan limits something that a real diagram project hits within weeks. Excalidraw's free plan keeps one scene, Creately caps a diagram at 40 shapes, Lucidchart keeps three editable documents with 60 objects each, and Whimsical meters 50 board objects a month. Cacoo's free plan exports PNG only. Open-source editors such as draw.io and Mermaid avoid metered caps because the source is licensed for anyone to run.
Use a free plan to test your actual diagram, not a demo template, and note which cap you hit first. If the cap arrives before the project ends, price the paid plan from the start instead, and check whether watermarks, version history length or collaborator limits change on that plan too, because those details rarely appear in the headline comparison.
Rebuild one real diagram on the free tier
Note which limit breaks first
Check watermarks and export formats on free
Where the data lives and how it leaves
A diagram is only as portable as its file. draw.io writes files to storage you choose and opens files created in 2005, while Mermaid keeps diagrams as plain text that Git versions. Microsoft Visio saves .vsdx by default, and Gliffy states it imports Visio and draw.io files. Cacoo lists Visio import too. Cloud suites such as Creately and Lucidchart hold diagrams in their own workspace, so test an export before committing.
Look for SVG or PDF output on the plan you will actually buy, because free tiers often restrict it. Keep one exported copy of every important diagram outside the vendor, in a format another tool can open, so that a price rise, an acquisition or a plan change never turns a routine renewal into a rebuild of your documentation.
Export one diagram in SVG before buying
Test importing your existing Visio files
Confirm export is on the plan you will buy
Matching the tool to who edits
Engineers writing documentation are best served by Mermaid, whose diagrams render in GitHub, or by draw.io inside Confluence or VS Code. Atlassian shops can compare Gliffy, sold only through Atlassian Marketplace. Microsoft-heavy organisations that need BPMN or floor plans should price Microsoft Visio Plan 2, since Plan 1 is web-only.
Workshops with many reviewers suit Whimsical, where viewers cost nothing, or Miro, whose technical shapes sit on Business. Teams buying a perpetual licence outside the subscription model can look at EdrawMax. Decide the editors first, then shortlist, because switching after hundreds of diagrams is the expensive step, and pilot the finalists with the real documents the team already maintains before signing any annual agreement.
Name the three people who edit most
Check the integrations your documents use
Confirm desktop or browser-only needs
What goes wrong most often when buying diagramming software
Comparing entry prices without checking which plan unlocks export, single sign-on and the technical shape library.
Treating a free plan as a trial when its cap, such as 40 shapes or three documents, ends the project early.
Buying a Confluence or Microsoft-bound product before confirming the team uses that host platform.
Skipping a test export, then finding that a diagram cannot leave in SVG, PDF or an editable file.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best diagramming software in 2026?
draw.io leads our ranking of 12. draw.io Ltd is registered in England and Wales and releases the editor source under Apache 2.0. The apps cost nothing, need no account, and write files to Google Drive, OneDrive, GitHub or your disk, so leaving means opening the file elsewhere.
Storage and permissions are yours to arrange, the vendor says it has no enterprise tier, and the Atlassian apps come under a separate licence.
Which diagramming tools publish their pricing?
12 of the 12, with the pricing model each one publishes:
draw.io: Free web and desktop apps; Confluence and Jira apps licensed separately.
SmartDraw: Individual and per-user Team plans, published; Enterprise on request.
Mermaid: Free MIT-licensed library with no seats or plans.
Excalidraw: Free plan with one scene; Plus per user per month, published.
Cacoo: Free plan; Pro and Team per user per month, published; Enterprise on request.
Creately: Free plan; Pro and Business tiers; Enterprise on annual agreement.
Whimsical: Free plan; Pro and Business per editor per month, published.
Gliffy: Free up to 10 users; per-user tiers published, bought via Atlassian.
EdrawMax: Subscription or one-time perpetual licence, published.
Lucidchart: Free plan with document and object caps; paid tiers not readable.
Miro: Free plan; per member per month, published; Enterprise quoted.
Microsoft Visio: Per user per month, published; Plan 2 adds desktop; one-month trial.
The other 0 quote per organisation.
Is there a free diagramming tool?
draw.io, Mermaid, Excalidraw, Cacoo, Creately, Whimsical, Gliffy, Lucidchart, Miro offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these diagramming software vendors established?
In 7 countries across 4 regions: North America 5, Asia-Pacific 3, Europe 2, Elsewhere 2.
draw.io: United Kingdom.
SmartDraw: United States.
Mermaid: Not stated by the vendor.
Excalidraw: Czechia.
Cacoo: Japan.
Creately: Australia.
Whimsical: United States.
Gliffy: United States.
EdrawMax: China.
Lucidchart: Not stated by the vendor.
Miro: United States.
Microsoft Visio: United States.
Which diagramming tools are open source?
draw.io, Mermaid, Excalidraw.
What should you use instead of draw.io?
SmartDraw and Mermaid are the next two on this page. SmartDraw is for small teams wanting a per-user diagram licence from a privately held vendor; Mermaid is for Engineers who want diagrams kept as text beside code in Git.
Who should not buy draw.io?
Buyers who want vendor-run workspaces, comments and admin controls. Storage and access control are your responsibility, because the editor saves into services you choose..
If your diagramming software product belongs among these 12, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
