100M+
Active users
vendor-reported
Report
Should I Use draw.io (diagrams.net)?
Free, open source diagramming application with 100M+ users. Store your data wherever you want—we can't access it.
Worth it
Worth itUse it if you want free diagramming with your data kept local—engineers, small teams, and Atlassian users get the most.
Free, private, good-enough diagramming for engineers and small teams. Skip if you need enterprise modeling or vendor SLAs.
Confidence: Medium
7.4/10
TrustRadius rating
195 reviews
Yes
Free tier
Web, desktop, open source
$0
Web app price
Atlassian app paid separately
Value for money
5
Free, open source, no price tag
Ease of use
4
Praised as intuitive; 7.4/10 TrustRadius
Feature depth
3
Deep shape library; weak metadata modeling
Security posture
4
Local-first design; XSS CVEs patched
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
Best for
- Engineers drawing UML and flowcharts
- Privacy-sensitive orgs (data stays local)
- Confluence/Jira teams
- Zero-budget teams
Not for
- Enterprise architects needing object metadata and model governance
- Teams wanting AI-assisted whiteboarding
- Data-modeling teams needing deep ER tooling
- Buyers requiring vendor support SLAs—none documented
Pricing
Web / Desktop
Free
- Full diagramming app
- Store data locally or in your cloud
- Open source
Atlassian app (Confluence/Jira)
Paid via Atlassian Marketplace
- Diagrams stored inside Confluence/Jira
- Cloud Fortified certified
- Check marketplace for current prices
Security
Security-first: data stays local or in your Atlassian instance; two XSS CVEs documented, latest patched in v29.7.12.
What users say
Users call it a free, easy Visio alternative; complaints focus on business-use limits and thin metadata support.
“It is a very good alternative to Visio that allows you to create basic diagrams with no cost and very easily.”
“draw.io is nice for creating diagrams, but for me the value is more in maintaining the metadata of the objects being modelled, and so tools like”
“Draw.io is a useful, free diagramming service with strong collaboration features via Google.”
Alternatives
Compare draw.io (diagrams.net) with each alternative.
Lucidchart
Polished paid diagramming with stronger real-time collaboration.
draw.io (diagrams.net) vs LucidchartMiro
Whiteboard-first visual collaboration for whole teams.
Microsoft Visio
Enterprise standard if your org already runs Microsoft.
draw.io (diagrams.net) vs Microsoft VisioBrainboard
Cloud-architecture diagramming tied to real infrastructure.
draw.io (diagrams.net) vs BrainboardFull analysis
Based on ~20 public sources; vendor pages dominate and independent review depth is limited.
Sources
official
- Pricing - draw.iodrawio-app.comofficial
- draw.io Reviews from Real Users - TrustRadiustrustradius.comreview
- Draw.io Reviews - G2g2.comreview
- Draw.io Review - PCMagpcmag.comreview
- Using draw.io, thoughts? - Redditreddit.comreview
- CVE-2026-46642 Detail - NVDnvd.nist.govsecurity
- CVE-2026-46642: draw.io XSS Vulnerability - SentinelOnesentinelone.comsecurity
- CVE-2022-1575 Stored XSS - GitHubgithub.comsecurity
- draw.io or diagrams.net? - GitHub issuegithub.comreview
review
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