What is the best alternative to Microsoft Visio?
Pro Multi-platform
Runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. There also is a Web application.
Pro Automatic Layout
With automatic layout you get great looking diagrams with very little effort. yEd has the most versatile and most complete collection of automatic layout algorithms.
Con Not free-as-in-freedom
Not released under an open-source license.
Pro Supports Markdown (their own variant)
Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can optionally be converted to HTML using a tool by the same name.
Pro Collaborative
Coggle allows inviting friends and colleagues to work collaboratively on notes and diagrams in real-time.
Pro Pretty diagrams
No effort to create beautiful diagrams.
Con Tree relations only; no non-parent links
Coggle's model allows a node to have multiple children, but only one parent, and no other connections of any sort.
Con Unconventional note taking style
Coggle is a mind mapping application, not a traditional text based note storage platform.
Pro Integrates with a variety of services
Lucidchart has Google Drive, Google Apps, JIRA, Confluence, Jive, and Box integration.
Pro Tutorials
A selection of tutorials are available.
Pro Integrates with multiple cloud storage services
Draw.io offers saving files directly to services such as Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox along with saving to to computer.
Con Import from Visio .vsd is useless
I opened a simple diagram and it's all scattered.
Pro Free and open source
XMind, except for Plus and Pro features, is open source with code available on GitHub.
Pro Clean, easy to use UI
XMind's interface is uncluttered and easy to overview. It allows for quick, intuitive navigation and use. For example, Enter adds more items to a node, Tab adds a child node, all commonly used shortcuts works as expected, etc.
Pro Extremely flexible
XMind is capable of displaying information in a multitude of ways (classic mindmaps, charts, timelines, decision trees, etc), it can add labels, clip-art, notes, files, audio recordings, it can then take the project and export it in a variety of ways including an synced gantt chart.
Con Newer versions become heavyweight and bloated
Even though there are more features, starting with version 8 application is very unstable. A lot of users still prefer version 7.5 or 6.5.
Con No mobile support
No specific app but the online free XMind cloud works perfectly on all mobile web browsers.
Pro Tons of icon sets
Has flowcharts, uml, chemical engineering, electronics, and dozens of other complete sets, built in.
Con Unmaintained
Dia has not been updated since 2009. It's already a very complete piece of software, but still sad.
Con UX is a joke
UX is not good enough. For example, to edit element text you must double-click it, then click text box, and then you can start typing text.
Pro Free and open source
Inkscape is GPL-licensed and maintains public repositories.
Pro Cross-platform
Pre-built binaries are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Inkscape can be built from source on additional platforms.
Pro Opens lots of file types
Inkscape supports many common formats for import (including SVG, Photoshop and Illustrator) and its plugin architecture allows more to be added.
Con Unstable
Sometimes it just crashes without any reason, so it's not really usable as professional application.
Con Uses its own SVG-format by default
Inkscape might use SVG as its default format, however this SVG's contains some additional SodiPodi/Inkscape additions that can be troublesome if you want to import the SVG into some other application.
Pro Professionally designed templates
The templates are well thought-out and actually helps you get started. Not like many other sites where the details are already filled in.
Pro SVG import and export
Creately supports SVG (Scalar Vector Graphics) import and export to make your diagrams more attractive. It allows you to re-size your diagram as much as you want without getting it messed up.
Pro Intuitive UI
Easy to use drag and drop interface and a contextual toolbar that shows you all the important actions when you select an object. The automatic creation and connecting of next object alone saves tons of time.
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