Draw.io vs Lucidchart: Comparing Top Online Diagram Makers

Lucidchart is renowned as one of the top alternatives to Microsoft Visio. Its intuitive interface allows you to effortlessly create professional diagrams. Additionally, its extensive collection of templates and shapes caters to system designers. Draw.io, another popular online tool, offers a similar interface, design, and an impressive template library. In this post, we will compare these two diagramming tools, starting with their shared features and then discussing their unique attributes.

Common Features

When comparing diagramming tools, one of the primary factors to consider is templates. Lucidchart excels in this area, providing a wide range of templates suitable for both beginners and professionals.

Lucidchart offers a vast collection of pre-made templates, including traditional diagramming stencils such as UMLs, ERDs, flowcharts, and network drawings. In addition, it offers a variety of other diagrams such as smartphone mockups and website wireframes. The template library is diverse and extensive.

Moreover, Lucidchart allows you to incorporate fun elements like banners or family trees into your diagrams. This feature is particularly useful if you don’t have a specific company template in mind, as it provides a solid foundation for your work.

In summary, Lucidchart’s template selection is robust and caters to a wide range of needs.

Draw.io offers a selection of professional templates, although not as extensive as Lucidchart’s. It provides all the necessary tools and templates for business professionals and students, including engineering drawings and floor plans. Additionally, Draw.io stands out with its inclusion of great infographics, such as mind-maps and banners for school or college projects. These templates add a fun element to the diagrams.

2. Visio Imports and Other Data Import

Lucidchart is a Visio alternative that allows you to import Microsoft Visio files, including .vdx, .vsd, and .vsdx formats. Simply drag and drop the documents into the Import dialogue box. Additionally, Lucidchart supports import from popular diagramming tools like Gliffy, Draw.io, and Omnigraffle.

Draw.io allows you to import your drawings from platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox, Trello, and GitHub. As of last year, Draw.io supports importing Gliffy, .vsd, and .vsdx formats.

3. Interface

Being two popular diagramming tools, both Lucidchart and Draw.io have a straightforward interface. Depending on the template you choose, the shapes and symbols will change. Draw.io has formatting options on the right side, while Lucidchart has them on the top bar.

Lucidchart reveals component coordinates as you move them, which is cool. It also displays minor yet important details, such as the distance between components and from the margins. This feature is especially helpful for creating balance and symmetry in your work.

Lucidchart provides basic editing options, such as shapes import, text & object alignment, and object size adjustment. It follows the drag and drop method to add new shapes to the canvas.

Draw.io lacks features like displaying coordinates or distance. Instead, it offers a click-and-get feature. When you click or tap on the desired shapes, they appear on the canvas. This is helpful when starting with a blank canvas and knowing exactly what elements you need for your drawing.

Moving a collection of selected groups of objects is a common feature in both tools. However, I found Lucidchart’s method to be seamless. Even a slight movement can alter the image’s symmetry or overall uniformity.

4. Collaboration

Both Lucidchart and Draw.io allow collaboration with team members or remote counterparts, but in different ways. Lucidchart supports real-time collaboration with group chat and version tracking (only in the paid version). Like Google Docs, you can share a link to the document or enter email IDs for access control.

Draw.io’s collaboration is less intuitive. It requires connecting to your Google Drive account to share content, but it then benefits from Google Drive’s revision methods.

Uncommon Features

Draw.io provides a wide range of options in the shapes library. However, to avoid constantly going back and forth to the sidebar, it is important to make all the necessary selections at the beginning of your projects. This becomes especially crucial when working on large and intricate drawings where the lack of a contextual toolbar is sorely felt.

There is an option to clone but it only duplicates a selected object.

Lucidchart has a toolbar that sets it apart from Draw.io. Each object on the canvas has a red dot. Clicking on the dot attaches it to a connector. After placing the connector, you can select your shape by clicking on the canvas.

6. Keyboard Shortcuts

Thankfully, both apps support cool keyboard shortcuts. You can use them in various ways, from handling the text editor to layering objects on the canvas. Of course, you must remember and practice them to master most.

Lucidchart allows you to press F1 to view supported shortcuts. Draw.io supports a larger variety of keyboard shortcuts, but you need to be proficient in using them.

Now that we have discussed the differences and similarities between the two tools, let’s look at the pricing.

Lucidchart has three versions: Basic, Pro, and Team. The Basic version starts at $5/month, but it limits the workspace to just 100MB. The Pro version costs $10/month and allows you to import and export in Visio formats. The Team version, which costs $27/month, offers additional features like third-party integration and team management.

The free version of Draw.io provides only 25MB space and three active documents, with a limit of 60 objects per document. In contrast, the free version of Draw.io allows unlimited drawing and does not have any document restrictions. In terms of team projects, pricing starts at $10 per year for a 10-member team and goes up to $795 for 100 users.

If you’re planning to make simple drawings, Draw.io is the best tool for you. All you need is a Google account to upload and save your documents. However, if you can abide by the three documents and sixty objects rule of Lucidchart, you should give it a try. The intuitive interface may make you fall in love with it.

You might be skeptical about online tools that claim to provide free service but ask for frequent upgrades. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Draw.io, which is one of its most significant strengths.

If you prefer to use a paid service, I recommend trying the trial version first. This way, you can gain some experience and decide if it’s worth the cost for your diagramming needs.