Visio vs Lucidchart: Which One Wins in Productivity?
We’ve all been there: Staring blankly at a whiteboard, trying to conceptualize our thoughts into a flowchart, diagram or chart that we can share with our team or clients. And then there are plenty of times when we wish to collaborate with our teams in real-time to see the changes and ideas together. Fortunately, two of the best productivity software programs, Visio and Lucidchart, exist to make this task a lot easier.
Let's dive into the comparison of both software products to understand what the fuss is all about.
What is Visio?
Visio is an industry-leading productivity software by Microsoft designed for creating diagrams, flowcharts, and layouts. It has been around since 1992, initially designed as a drawing tool but later included features to build diagrams of various complexities. It provides a wide range of templates, shapes, and tools that are easy-to-use, allowing users to create any kind of diagram using the application.
What is Lucidchart?
Lucidchart, on the other hand, is a cloud-based software that offers many of the same functionalities as Visio, with some added advantages. It makes creating and sharing diagrams, charts, and wireframes comfortable and user-friendly. It went live in 2010 as Visio's cloud-based competitor and has expanded into team collaboration, rich integrations, and a simple rendering engine for diagramming.
Comparison
Pricing
Visio's pricing range starts from $5/month to $28/month with its Standard and Professional editions. The price depends on the number of users, the number of available features, and the cloud space. Visio is available only as a desktop application with no free plan.
Lucidchart offers subscriptions from $7.95/user/month to $27.95/user/month with features such as integrations, data linking, and support. The free version offers limited storage and limited features. The Business plan offers features such as custom branding, smart shapes, and templates.
Lucidchart offers the freemium version while Visio doesn't have any such option. Lucidchart's freemium service brings a 5-document limit with limited features, while Visio offers a free trial for only 30-days.
Features
Both Visio and Lucidchart come with similar tools, templates, and features to help create diagrams, charts, and wireframes. Visio offers advanced features such as data linking, UML (Unified Modelling Language), integration with Microsoft products, and network diagrams. Lucidchart offers smart shapes, team management, real-time collaboration, and over 900 awesome templates.
Lucidchart offers integrations with other productivity tools like GSuite, Salesforce, Office 365, and AWS CloudAdoption. While Visio offers some integrations, such as Office 365, G-suite, Dropbox, and more, it doesn't support Salesforce or AWS CloudAdoption.
Usability
Visio is known for its user-friendly interface, which is easy to use even for a beginner. Its dashboard is well-organized and presents available templates, newly designed documents, and easy-to-access support.
Lucidchart offers an intuitive user interface to create diagrams easily. It also comes with a user-friendly dashboard with templates, documents, and options for import and export of files.
Which One Wins in Productivity?
While both software products have their unique offering, it's difficult to determine one as a clear winner because the choice depends on the user's needs and preferences. Since Visio is efficient and reliable for creating complex diagrams and network architecture, it is used more in technical expertise work. Lucidchart, on the other hand, is more sought-after for its cloud-based features, easy-to-use interface, and real-time collaboration. And, it fosters creativity and collaboration within teams as well, while Visio cannot.
So, choosing one between the two would depend on the kind of task, the type of diagram, and team requirements.
Conclusion
Visio and Lucidchart are both powerful productivity software that offers similar features and tools to create diagrams, charts, wireframes, and other visual content. Choosing one above the other will solely depend upon the preferences, users' requirements, and budgets. So, choose 'wisely' and get more 'draw' out of your diagrams!