Best and amazing flowchart software will be discussed in this article. Do your staff members find your lists of strict policies, procedures, and workflows so boring that they turn to Buzzfeed to hunt for cat videos? These elements don’t always have to be dry passages of text. Shapes, colours, animations, and images can be added to flowcharts to make them more appealing and entertaining.
Instead of posting walls of text, you can utilise flowcharts to make entertaining and interesting visual material for your social media accounts and articles.
Although creating them may appear highly complex, there is straightforward flowchart software available. These often include pre-built shapes, drag-and-drop builders, and templates to make things simpler. To make them, you don’t need to be a master designer.
I’ll provide the best flowchart software in this post so you can make stunning flowcharts that your staff and online audience will adore.
What characteristics distinguish the best flowchart software?
There are hundreds of solutions available if you search for flowchart software. However, not all of them possess the crucial components. Here are the most crucial ones that you require.
Beginner-friendly builder: Designers utilise programmes like Photoshop and Illustrator to make original, complex flowcharts. However, flowchart software is typically used by novice designers who want to rapidly and easily build flowcharts. The builder ought to support drag and drop. Additionally, it is advantageous if it supports mobile devices.
Templates: It will be challenging for beginners to produce high-quality flowcharts using a builder alone. However, anyone can rapidly add or edit the text and elements in professionally prepared templates to create a beautiful flowchart in a matter of minutes. It’s also essential that the various templates differ significantly from one another. A benefit is having the opportunity to import templates or hire a competent designer to make templates.
Building blocks: A wide range of components, including forms, arrows, images, pictures, typefaces, illustrations, and charts, help you create distinctive flowcharts. You should be able to change the colours and sizes using the software. Your images, symbols, and branding components like logos must all be able to be uploaded. Some home builders provide a branding kit to make this simple.
Measurement features: To help you easily maintain consistency with the spacing between the items and arrows, the software should provide elements like grids and rulers.
Flowcharts can be used for a variety of purposes, thus you should be able to download them in a variety of formats. It would be wiser to produce a PDF if you were developing a workflow flowchart to describe a procedure to your team, for instance. However, PNG or JPEG would be best if you wanted to publish your flowchart on social media. Animated flowcharts work well when shared online in video and GIF forms.
Integrations: Integrations will streamline and enhance the flowchart creation process. Integrations with Microsoft Word, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack are available in the majority of flowchart software. This makes importing design components and exporting the finished output simple. You can share your flowcharts on social media with some.
These core capabilities should be present in your software. Of course, if you have alternative tools that make up for the shortcomings or if you don’t require them, you can skip some of them.
Top 7 Best Flowchart Software In 2022
Top 7 Best Flowchart Software are explained here.
1. Lucidchart
To create flowcharts that your team will understand, you must solicit their input as you are building them. Lucidchart shines in this area. The ability to edit in real time is one of its strong points. Your flowcharts are editable by your team members, and you can see any changes right away. It is very similar to making flowcharts in Google Docs. For each editor, you may make a profile and change their permissions, responsibilities, and groups.
Other tools that make teamwork easier include collaborative cursors, shape-specific comments, and in-editor chat.
Every other functionality required for making understandable flowcharts is present in Lucidchart. These consist of a simple editor, elements, and more than a thousand templates. With data linkage, measurements can also be overlaid onto already-existing diagrams. To create charts, there are also auto visualisations. Also check mind mapping software
Your designs can be exported in a number of formats, including JPEG, PDF, PNG, and SVG. Additionally, both iOS and Android apps as well as the web version are available.
Numerous well-known third-party applications, including Asana, Google Drive, Slack, Salesforce, AWS, and Quip, are also integrated with Lucidchart. This is another flowchart software alternative.
Additionally, it integrates with rival products like Gliffy, Draw.io, OmniGraffle, and Microsoft Visio. Your flowcharts can be easily imported and exported thanks to this.
Individual and team plans are priced at $7.95 and $6.67 per user per month, respectively (minimum three users). A Free plan and an Enterprise plan are also available.
2. Draw.io
The flowchart software Draw.io is free. To utilise it, you don’t even have to register. This software’s interface’s resemblance to Google Workspace features like Google Docs and Sheets makes it stand out from the crowd. It also functions similarly.
It’s simple to use since each time you visit the website, a new file automatically opens. To make it simple to arrange the different components, there is also a grid in the backdrop. Shapes, text, and arrows are just a few of the many elements that may be customised by changing their size, colour, and shape.
This software makes it simple to download your works or save them to GitHub, GitLab, OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. The formats include HTML, XML, PDF, PNG, and SVG. Similar to sharing a Google Doc or Sheet file, you can share a URL if you save your files to Google Drive or OneDrive.
You may import files from all of the aforementioned programmes into Draw.io. It has many features for a free flowchart programme. Its lack of variety and small number of templates are its only drawbacks. Additionally, the fact that the templates are located under the “Arrange” tab rather than the “Edit” tab and that there are no beginner tutorials may seem contradictory to some users.
3. Microsoft Visio
Microsoft’s Visio is a flowchart for creating flowcharts. Because it makes it simple to import and export data between the tools, it’s a great option for those who use other Microsoft software, such as Microsoft 365. Also check software development companies
One illustration is the capability of Data Visualizer to transform Excel map data into Visio diagrams. Additionally, you may use Word to document your Visio process diagrams and keep the results on Microsoft’s OneDrive. Additionally, the fact that the interface is similar to other Office applications may soothe novice users.
Other graphics, like org charts, floor plans, and network diagrams, can be made using Visio’s builder. The creation of these images is made simple by the availability of numerous templates, beginning diagrams, and stencils. This is another flowchart software alternative.
Visio users have the option of using the desktop (Windows) or web versions to work together and create in real-time. You may neatly and reliably lay connections and shapes by using features like autospace and autoalign. In addition, there are grids, rulers, and layers.
The absence of Macbook and Android versions is the sole disadvantage. On these devices, you must use the web version. However, there is an iOS version available for the iPhone and iPad.
Pricing: The Visio Plans 1 and 2 include monthly user fees of $5 and $15, respectively. You could also buy something just once. Visio Standard and Professional are priced at $250 and $530, respectively.
4. SmartDraw
This is another flowchart software alternative. An AI-powered flowchart tool is SmartDraw. Intelligent formatting is one of its distinguishing qualities. When you move, add, or remove shapes from your diagram, it will automatically adjust and preserve the layout. The AI makes sure that everything is joined together and realigned with the appropriate spacing.
Additionally, the UI is simple to use. To create flowcharts quickly, utilise the builder and keyboard shortcuts.
With SmartDraw, you can make 70 more kinds of visualisations in addition to flowcharts. These consist of planograms, organisational charts, decision trees, mind maps, and infographics. To make these diagrams fast and easily, there are over 4,500 templates and 34,000 symbols available. Additionally, technical and architectural diagrams can be created and printed.
It also has a number of integrated extensions. Among the products that integrate with it are Google Workspace, Jira, Excel, Powerpoint, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Trello. Lucidchart imports are supported, as are Visio imports and exports.
It’s simple to collaborate using this software. There are Mac and online versions available. Users can also share diagrams and comment on them.
Pricing: The Single User & Multiple User plans have a seven-day free trial period and monthly fees of $9.95 and $5.95, respectively, for customers with five or more.
5. Miro
A whiteboard tool with an endless canvas is called Miro. You and your team can operate together to develop flowcharts from scratch or using pre-built templates. You can construct a flowchart that is as lengthy as you like thanks to the unlimited canvas. Your creation can be saved as a PDF or a picture.
Miro also allows for freehand drawing. Your doodles are transformed into rigid shapes in the Smart Drawing mode. This is another flowchart software alternative.
Even strong collaboration tools like Screen Sharing are included. You can use it to describe your flowchart to team members and stream your creation. You can monitor other collaborators’ cursors to observe how they interact with your diagrams and the modifications they make, which is another noteworthy feature.
Miro is available as an app and a website. It has applications for Android, iPhone, Windows, and Mac. In contrast to other flowchart generators, it has several tool and app integrations. These include Product Hunt, Livestorm, Unsplash, Hubspot, Typeform, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
The monthly fees for the Team and Business programmes are $8 and $16, respectively. Additionally, there are Free and Enterprise programmes.
6. Venngage
This is another flowchart software alternative. Venngage’s main function is infographic creation. Its templates and components can be used to make interesting flowcharts. Start with the flowchart templates or the infographic and other content-specific templates. Afterward, include icons, images, and other components from its library or upload your own.
Utilizing the graph templates from Venngage, you can easily include graphs in your flowcharts. A graph will be created automatically if you manually write your data, upload an Excel file, or paste the link to your Google Sheet.
Additionally, Venngage offers a brand kit that makes it simple to include brand guidelines, logos, and typefaces in your fresh flowcharts.
You can produce various types of material besides flowcharts and infographics, like ebooks, roadmaps, timelines, newsletters, and flyers.
When you’re happy with your work, you can save it as an image or a PDF and save it to your computer or share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.
The only issue is that in order to remove the Venngage branding, you must upgrade to the business plan ($49 per month/user).
Price: The monthly fees for the Premium and Business plans are $19 and $49, respectively. A free version and an Enterprise plan are also available.
7. Cacoo
With over 2.5 million users, Cacoo is a well-known flowchart creator. It includes excellent features for collaboration. Team members have the option of making their own adjustments or making comments on the schematics. Changes can be seen in the revision history. The team can also provide comments and debate ideas using the in-app video and chat features. This is another flowchart software alternative.
The fact that so many of these features are included in the free plan itself is impressive. The free edition also allows for an infinite number of users. Also check remote desktop software
You may produce more visualisations with Cacoo for things like project management, design, and marketing. It includes templates for personas, Gantt charts, site maps, empathy maps, and wireframes.
Your diagrams are available for download or sharing via a link. Additionally, you can embed them on websites. Popular tools like AWS, Google Drive, Typetalk, Microsoft Teams, and Box are all integrated with it.
The multiple significant drawback is that there aren’t many flowchart templates available.
Pricing: The Pro and Team subscriptions have monthly fees of $6 and $6 per user, respectively. A Free plan and an Enterprise package are also available.
What is your preferred flowchart programme?
Any of the flowchart software options on our list is a sure thing. The one you choose should be determined by your needs, your budget, and the number of users.
Draw.io is the ideal choice if you have a limited budget and intend to use it by yourself. Lucidchart, however, will be superior if you operate with a big team. If you want to create more interesting flowcharts to post on social media, Venngage is a better choice.
Make a list of all your requirements, test the software that meets them, and then choose the best option.
