Lucidchart vs Visio comparison

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Lucid Software Logo
1,313 views|1,099 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
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Read 101 Visio reviews
2,282 views|1,686 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Lucidchart and Visio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Mind Mapping Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Lucidchart vs. Visio Report (Updated: March 2024).
769,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use, and just being able to drag and drop.""Ease of use is especially critical because if I am conducting brainstorming sessions with my team, I have to be able to quickly put things on the monitor so that I don't lose their attention and focus. Ease of use is definitely helpful when I do that... The fact that I don't get lost within the software and am able to quickly generate visuals onscreen, so that it doesn't break the momentum, is a huge win.""It is important that Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users because if you support Mac, that means you also support the mobile applications on the iPad... Some of the other employees have access to an iPad, but not all of them do. When we're trying to talk through a process with them on-the-fly, or at the point of occurrence, it's so much nicer if we can both have it up on the iPad. That's why I would say the Mac support is essential.""The flow chart is most valuable. It is a very user-friendly and simple-to-use product. Quite quickly, I was able to understand how to use it and just get on with my process flow.""I've been using Lucidchart for quite simple things, but it's definitely much easier making process maps using Lucidchart than it is using Google Docs for basically everything. It's much simpler in terms of how easy it is to use Lucidchart. The way that you can get the arrows on the flow charts, based on the process mapping, you can drag the arrows from one box to another and it automatically shows you where you can put it. It makes decisions for you in terms of if you have a decision diamond, then the line is automatically a yes or no. This just makes it so much easier.""Lucidchart is a lovely tool for creating visual representations of any process or organization.""I really like the drag and drop feature because it makes the work easier. It is very easy to use. All the pieces are very good. All the icons and all the fields are available in the left panel. So, I just click, drag, and then edit a piece. When I showed it to my managing director, he was very inspired, and he also got a premium account for himself.""The sticky notes are among the most valuable features. Also, the fact that it has templates so that I don't have to do things myself, starting from scratch, is very helpful. In addition, it's really easy to use. You can add stuff by clicking, without having to go to the options. You just click on something and the options you can use appear."

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"It's a very flexible solution.""I like to use Visio because it gives me a quick view of the things I had to put in a model for a company. I don't use it as an interface, though.""It is very easy for people to start using this tool, and we can import Visio templates that are already published by vendors such as Azure without any issue.""Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and basic illustrations that I can use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients by hand.""The ability to visualize a workflow is certainly an advantage over just tracking a process in something like Excel.""Visio has improved our organization through an essential collaboration with the other Microsoft applications like SharePoint and Excel. So basically in the earlier days, what used to happen, a majority of the organization captured all the as-is process, the time and motion data in the form of Excel and then they used to create process diagrams using other freeware applications. Collaboration allows easy and convenient sharing with other stakeholders, that is really helpful with Visio.""Good interface and good tool configuration.""The most valuable feature is that it is integrated with other tools in the Microsoft Office suite, as well as at the backend with products like SharePoint and Microsoft Teams."

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Cons
"I've had an issue is when you create, let's say, a rectangle box. You can write some text in it and give it a name, and, depending on how you shape the size of the box, the text will rearrange itself to fit. That is, except if your box is very, very narrow, but very long, like a long, narrow rectangle in a vertical position. In this case, the text will always go out of the rectangle.""I would like an on-premises version of the software that I can just download and use. I think that it's easier that way.""The flowcharting feature would be improved if it had some kind of prediction capability that helped to create the diagrams, such as the ability to automatically join components with my database.""There is a premium for the use of certain elements in Lucidchart... It becomes very annoying, especially if you are a first-time user of Lucidchart and you don't have a premium plan. It feels a little too restrictive, in terms of using very basic shapes and icons. It asks you to sign-up for the premium account, which I think shouldn't be the case.""I would really like to be able to set default appearance settings for new documents because I have a set of appearance settings that I always use. I end up setting that manually every time. There may be a way to do that, and maybe I am not able to find it. This is my only major point of feedback for improvement. There are other little nitpicky things, such as being able to lock layers without them looking like a big red line around them would be nice, but every graphic design software does that, so I understand why they have that. All my concerns are nitpicks. They're not big.""Lucidchart subset their older components or something like that had happened. I don't entirely know the totality of it, but we were forced to upgrade to a different integration with Lucid than what we had. I've had a lot of frustrations with that because I've lost a lot of diagrams. I can't get them back and I'm getting pop-ups that are showing me that our data will be loading and I can't run four or five years of my engineering diagrams""In terms of improvement, they should make it very clear, whether it's a single A4 page or two A4 pages, it should be mapped out. Either I don't know how to use it, or it's not there, but having to stick to margins so I can see what's going to be on different pages when I print it or move it to a PDF has been my only challenge so far.""I don't know if I will be able to add some animations if I want to. I believe the problem may be the program's process flows but if I want to transfer it into a PPP or any other document, I can only do image transfer."

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"Searching for specific templates within the program can be difficult. For example, if I need a template for an electrical diagram with certain symbols, it can be challenging to find it.""The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated.""Layout configuration is sometimes a little difficult to use.""An area for improvement in Visio is pricing. It's a costly tool for my company because it only uses Visio occasionally.""It should natively enable importing diagrams or reference architectures from any of the vendors whose solutions are used by the customer or proposed by solution providers such as DXC""Its integration with other vendors can be better and support for other formats. For example, when we import a JPEG, we cannot customize it. Similarly, we can't utilize the BPML kind of diagrams.""It requires a lot of skill to get into it.""Microsoft should include Visio as part of their Office 365 offering."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Pricing comes in at about $100 for a year's subscription, which is very reasonable if this is a tool that you will use more than once."
  • "The pricing and licensing are fine, though I wish they didn't require you to buy the licenses in batches of five."
  • "The pricing and licensing are fine. It has a lot of features that I prefer over some of the other programs, which is good. Being that it is web-based, I feel that it is acceptable that it's on a monthly pay basis. However, I think I pay on an annual basis, which is fine with me."
  • "I'm happy with the pricing of Lucidchart but I can't say I'm completely happy with it. It could be cheaper for what it offers, about $5 cheaper, or Lucid could charge $5 more and add more features, like automation. Right now, it's $15 per user per month... On the other hand, they have made their billing super-easy for users, such as for people who have to do expense reports. It is probably the easiest platform I'm using when it comes to billing for software as a service."
  • "We chose Lucid based on the price comparison between it and draw.io... Lucidchart was about 15 percent cheaper per user... I was surprised to learn that it came with a separate subscription model and was not included in my existing Lucidchart subscription."
  • "The pricing is very reasonable, and they have a free trial available that you can play with."
  • "Pricing-wise, it is pretty fair. I don't really know what group pricing looks like, but right now, I pay $10 a month for my Lucid subscription. One thing I would say is that I do worry about my bosses being okay with paying $10 a month for every single employee because we would have around 20 people. It makes me a little nervous about whether they are going to pay $200 a month for people to be able to use this software. At the same time, from where I'm sitting, it's totally worth it. We save a thousand dollars from using this software. It's still a no-brainer."
  • "I have a subscription as an individual user for one year, and it is not expensive."
  • More Lucidchart Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It has a lower price point than the competition."
  • "The cost of the software is reasonably priced."
  • "The price is reasonable for individual use but for an organization, the costs is high."
  • "Our license for Visio is including with the Office 365 subscription."
  • "Visio is about a $180 dollars to purchase. It is a one-time licensing fee."
  • "The yearly cost is approximately $400 CAD ($300 USD)."
  • "There are some cheaper as well as free solutions."
  • "I don't have any issue with the pricing. It has a subscription-based model, and the subscription is done on a yearly basis. Of course, we need internal approvals in place."
  • More Visio Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Hi @Krista Thompson ​ - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating… more »
    Top Answer:I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the market. Out of all the solutions I have tried, it is by far the best for… more »
    Top Answer:I love the fact that you can just integrate a drawing into Google Slides. I build a lot of visuals in Lucidchart, and then, rather than sharing them directly from Lucidchart, I just build Google… more »
    Top Answer:I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load… more »
    Top Answer:The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.
    Ranking
    2nd
    Views
    1,313
    Comparisons
    1,099
    Reviews
    3
    Average Words per Review
    963
    Rating
    10.0
    1st
    Views
    2,282
    Comparisons
    1,686
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    417
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Bizagi logo
    Compared 11% of the time.
    Visual Paradigm logo
    Compared 10% of the time.
    IBM Blueworks Live logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    draw.io logo
    Compared 6% of the time.
    Also Known As
    Microsoft Visio
    Learn More
    Overview

    Our online diagram application makes it easy to sketch and share professional flowchart diagrams.  From brainstorming to project management, we support all of your communication needs. That’s why millions of users choose Lucidchart.

    Visio is an innovative collaborative solution that enables users to quickly visualize data-connected business process flows with a host of integrated intuitive features that bring the power of Microsoft 365 to Visio. Visio allows users to easily create professional diagrams, graphs, and other visual data, easily anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Users are able to confidently and easily transform data into creative powerful visuals. Visio provides dozens of easy-to-use templates along with thousands of customizable colorful shapes that bring a user's best ideas to life. Visio is available for all Microsoft 365 commercial users and is available on desktop and Web applications.

    Visio Features

    Visio can easily create visual data for today’s business needs. Some of its most useful visual data include:

    • Flowcharts: Users can easily bring business concepts to fruition with Visio’s robust flowchart features. Visio provides a huge library of shapes, stencils, and templates to transform numbers and data into impactful, easy-to-understand business stories.
    • Organizational charts: Visio makes it easy to design articulate org charts to better visualize team, reporting, and hierarchy structures. Users are then able to seamlessly share the charts with stakeholders, teams, and employees.
    • Network diagrams: Users are able to creatively display how a system design processes function and visually illustrate how devices and networks interact with each other using a variety of network shapes, templates, and connector tools.
    • Brainstorming: Visio makes brainstorming simple and actionable with a wide range of templates designed specifically for interpreting problems and mapping out solutions, including fishbone and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) diagrams.
    • Floor plans: Users can design ergonomic workspaces, retail store layouts, new homes, and more with accurate, scalable templates and tools to help them better visualize function, flow, and overall aesthetic appeal.
    • Accessible: Visio is able to integrate with a wide variety of accessibility tools, such as Narrator, Accessibility Checker, and high-contrast support, to ensure Visio diagrams are available to your entire team.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and essential illustrations to use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients manually.” - Michael B., Principal Consultant at Lexington Consulting

    “I use it for diagramming networks, racks, data centers, data flow applications, etc. It is a useful tool to map data flows, network objects, and computer science technology and to show to clients. It does what I need it to do. It's a tool I've used the longest, so I know it the best, and that's probably the claim to fame.” - Greg S., Director of Solution Architecture at Winslow Technology Group

    “We use Visio for architecture modeling. We also use it to facilitate communication with other people. The feature I like most about Visio is that it acts as a facilitator of communication, as it displays information in a way that's easier to understand.” - Guy M., IT/Business Architect at a financial services firm

    Sample Customers
    Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks
    Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Wellness & Fitness Company8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Insurance Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Government12%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise34%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise67%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise52%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise71%
    Buyer's Guide
    Lucidchart vs. Visio
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Lucidchart vs. Visio and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    769,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Lucidchart is ranked 2nd in Mind Mapping Software with 54 reviews while Visio is ranked 1st in Mind Mapping Software with 101 reviews. Lucidchart is rated 8.6, while Visio is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Lucidchart writes "Good brainstorming features, facilitates collaboration, and keeps us focused on our work". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Visio writes "A software for drawing a variety of diagrams which include flowcharts, org charts, building plans, floor plans, data flow diagrams". Lucidchart is most compared with Lucidspark, Figma, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Visual Paradigm and erwin Data Modeler by Quest, whereas Visio is most compared with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Bizagi, Visual Paradigm, IBM Blueworks Live and draw.io. See our Lucidchart vs. Visio report.

    See our list of best Mind Mapping Software vendors.

    We monitor all Mind Mapping Software reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.