Special flowchart apps empower users to create professional diagrams no matter how keen they are on the design. If you need to design a sitemap, user flow, user persona, customer journey map, or any other process diagram, apps with examples and templates come in handy. We have compared more than 20 specialized services for doing that and chosen the top six tools.
 

While creating this list of the best flowchart tools, we considered must-have criteria. These are convenient and intuitive UI, high level of usability, full-fledged functionality (including templates and availability of collaboration), and also accessibility of pricing plans. Let’s discover what tools can be called the right choice in 2022!

‍#1 FlowMapp

This app has caused quite a stir among users, quickly gaining popularity and overcoming competitors. It suits both professionals and amateurs. Passing a long way from a flowchart design software to a full-fledged UX development platform led the app to what it is now:

• You can start creating flowcharts in a couple of minutes, as you don’t need to fill in long sign up questionnaires. It is free!
• As for the main functionality, you can design not only beautiful flowcharts but also can use integrated solutions — Sitemap, User Personas, Customer Journey Map.
• When you’re on a dashboard, you need only to choose what you need and may start working with ready-made templates.

• An intuitive drag & drop interface, the opportunity to import/export and format files, charts, images, as well as collaboration make it easy to use even for newbies.
• All this functionality is completely free for personal use. Expert features such as more cloud space, several projects, unlimited pages and access for more team members, and integration with Slack are included in affordable pro packages. Check out the plans and discounts for annual subscriptions here.
• FlowMapp works in a cloud, so you can access it via any browser from any platform, be it a phone or a Mac.

To learn more details about FlowMapp, watch this informative video:

People and Companies Trust FlowMapp

• Noteworthy, users highly value the app and share honest reviews on feedback platforms. Check out the latest ones on G2Crowd. The FlowMapp app for creating sitemaps and its User flow feature was presented on the popular startup platform ProductHunt where they received prize places in categories Product of the Day and Product of the Week. Also, people evaluated by upvotes the Customer Journey Map and User Personas features on the same platform.
• Top design and product teams from these companies prefer the modern FlowMapp solution to classic and sometimes outdated apps: Gallup, InVision, SalesForce, Intel, IBM, Unicef, Pega, McCann, RBC, Isobar, Accenture, Danfoss, FastSpring, and so on.
• The app is extremely popular among educational institutions and is used in hundreds of universities and academic design & UX platforms. MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), UAL (University of the Arts London), Harvard University, uOttawa, RMIT University, Western Washington University, and many others.

#2 Cacoo

This app gets the second rate in the list thanks to its functionality for teamwork and affordable price.

• This is an online service and popular browsers even have separate Cacoo extensions.
• Cacoo provides new users with a 14-day trial and then charges $6 per user (or $5 after a 2-month trial if you choose an annual subscription). So, the monthly payment for the app depends on the size of your team.
• The software can be connected to popular apps — Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, Confluence, TypeTalk, and others. It gives a chance for everyone to keep on track.
• There is a quite rich range of templates, which enables newbies to create good-looking flowcharts and diagrams. They come in handy for business administrators, project managers, software engineers, and system designers.

The main disadvantage of this app is the fact that everything you’ve done during the trial period won’t be saved if you don’t pay for a subscription in time. Also, some users report poor export quality of PNG images, slow support in live chat, and a bit glitchy performance on mobile devices.

#3 Lucidchart

The next exponent on our rating is well-known among everyone who has been dealing with flowcharts for a while. Let’s see what this popular software offers.

• Lucidchart is an online app that works on every platform from any browser.
• It can be integrated with other services — JIRA, Confluence, Google Drive, Microsoft Visio, and Slack.
• Pricing plans vary based on users’ needs. A free version is limited to 60 objects in a flowchart and a shortened functionality. Next-level plans start at $4.95 per one Individual user and go up to $8.95 per Pro user. Teams pay around $20 per month. Note, they offer only an annual subscription, not monthly!
• For team and enterprise users, the app offers import and export features, dynamic linking to data, and others.
• As for common conveniences, the app has a drag & drop interface, the opportunity of collaboration, and a list of ready-made templates for newbies.

Among the disadvantages of Lucidchart, users highlight too complex interface for amateurs and a too limited free version.

‍#4 Creately

The next app might be already familiar to those who are keen on designing flowcharts. Let’s see what it offers to users:

• The app has both online and desktop (macOS, MS Windows, and Linux) versions.
• Their pricing is flexible. Online use requires an active subscription, and there are four plans — free and limited public one, Personal that costs $4.95, Team (for three users) at $18, and a custom Enterprise subscription. As in the previous case, all these plans are billed annually.
• Professional features such as 5+ collaborations, additional documents and folders, hi-res exports, and real-time calls are available only on paid plans.
• As for the functionality, Creately allows users to design flowcharts, organizational charts, infographics, and mindmaps, for which it offers a great variety of templates. Product, marketing, engineering and operations teams can benefit from using this app. Also, they offer templates for educational institutions.

As for the cons, those who have tried premium versions of the app, complain about its slow work with large amounts of data, bugs with disappearing lines and images, and glitches with missing functionality.

‍#5 Edraw Max

Another multiplatform and powerful solution is Edraw. What features will come in handy for users?

• They offer both online and native solutions for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• The subscription plans vary only by the period, not functionality. And the prices are not so affordable as in other online apps. For one month you’ll need to pay $14.95. If you decide to get a half-yearly plan, the price of one month of use will be $12.95. In case you choose an annual subscription, you’ll have to pay $9.95 per month.
• Edraw Max offers 280 templates for personal and business use that include diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, infographics, and so on. Still, some users find all this variety a bit daunting at first — especially this is true with newbies to flowchart design.
• Still, having an active subscription gives you an opportunity to use every feature of the app, be it import & export, access to ready-made materials, access to all the diagram types.

So, the main disadvantage of the app is you have to spend some time learning how to work with it, which makes it a good choice only for professionals. Also, subscribers report such issues as complete incompatibility with formats of other programs and occasional inability to re-open files created in the app itself.
 

#6 Draw.io

Since having evolved from being an extra plugin for JIRA and confluence, the app is now a standalone service for creating diagrams and flowcharts.

• Its main advantage is full compatibility with Atlassian products. Engineering and product teams can benefit if they do everything within one ecosystem. Also, it is integrated with OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other popular cloud services.
• The app is free to use personally, you will have to pay only for integrating Draw.io with Confluence, which starts at $5. The price depends on the size of your team.
• An intuitive drag & drop interface with a grid layout and standard icons make it possible to design flowcharts even if you don’t have any previous experience of designing them.
• Still, its functionality is not so diverse as in all the previous points. Also, there are no ready-made templates that simplify the process for newbies. You can only import projects from the cloud or your computer.

As you can see, the main disadvantage of the app is its super simplicity. There are not enough icons, grouping options, and common features for designing flowcharts and diagrams. Also, the design of those icons looks outdated.

What Will You Choose? :)

We have compared the best flowchart tools people use in 2022. Almost all of them have free pricing plans so you can try them right away and decide what suits you better.

Anyway, we recommend you to sign up on FlowMapp for free and experience the power of progressive user interface, efficient templates and super fast support in case you need someone to point you in the right direction. Your productivity and high business results are our number one priority!