Introduction
When it comes to creating diagrams, draw.io (now diagrams.net) is an excellent free diagramming tool, but it may not be the best fit for every use case. In this article we explore alternatives with more specialized features, better collaboration with an enhanced user experience, here are 20 options to consider.
About draw.io
Draw.io (similarly called diagrams.net) is a free graph drawing software created in 2000. Its interface can be used to create diagrams such as flowcharts, wireframes, UML diagrams, organizational charts, and network diagrams. It was the go-to tool for system engineering because of its perfect timing.
But now, with everything we can do with one tool, it’s not my first go-to tool I for my cloud architecture diagrams, documentation, and any other maintainability actions I will assess, especially when building collaboratively with my team.
So, I wandered into the Cloud Computing industry’s best tooling for cloud diagramming.
The sole purpose: see clearly what tool differentiated itself from the pack, regardless of each marketing’s message.
Here are 20 free alternatives to Draw.io I tried for the past 9 months:
Tools to design infrastructure
1. Brainboard
Brainboard is a collaborative solution built specifically to visually design and manage cloud architectures. It’s an excellent choice for Cloud Architects, DevOps and platform engineers who need to have a precise code for their cloud infrastructure diagram and vice-versa.
Brainboard is the only draw.io alternative that allows you to design cloud architectures that actually translates to real use cases. Each cloud resource you drag & drop is an actionable cloud resource that translates itself into a terraform code. This terraform code is built according to best practices and used to terraform deploy your infrastructure from the same solution.
To know
Until now, it’s the only solution that allows us to visually design, deploy and manage cloud infrastructures in a collaborative way from end to end.
💰 Price: Brainboard’s free version includes unlimited design and auto-generation of code. The paid version includes deployments and management. A 21-day trial is available.
2. Lucidchart
Lucidscale, part of the parent company Lucidchart, is a great cloud visualization solution that helps organizations see and understand their cloud environment. Lucidscale is highly popular draw.io alternative, Lucidchart, offers a wealth of templates and intuitive design features making it a go-to for many professionals seeking a draw io alternative.
To know
Lucidscale is limited to importing cloud environments, and no further actions are enabled and allowed yet. It’s a static picture of the infrastructure.
💰 Price: Lucidscale starts with a 14-day free trial then yearly licenses are available.
3. IcePanel
IcePanel is a great IDE for cloud architectures and design systems for C4 modeling.
To know
IcePanel is not the perfect design tool for cloud architectures per se. Many custom components are not present as well as basic editing toolings. Also, it is limited to documenting, not deployments.
💰 Price: IcePanel is free to design but limited in terms of capabilities of versioning, support, and security. Paid plans are available to support more functionalities.
4. Terrastruct
Terrastruct defends itself to be the general-purpose diagramming tool that handles complexity and is specialized for software engineering.
To know
Text-to-diagram inability with very limited cloud implementations.
💰 Price: There is no free version. Advanced features include security, management and insights.
5. Fugue (acquired by Snyk)
Fugue is part of Snyk now. Fugue is a great interactive tool that allows users to export maps and understand resource relationships, show compliance violations, and reveal misconfiguration risks.
To know
Fugue is a great tool for identifying security issues. I also liked the grouping aspect but disliked the zooming aspect of each group spec.
Fugue is not a diagram editing tool.
💰 Price: Fugue’s plans are various and private to work email input.
6. Cloudmaker.ai
Cloudmaker allows Azure users to design, deploy and manage Azure cloud architectures. The deployment is based on a hidden language (couldn’t understand if it’s json or Bicep).
To know
Cloudmaker is limited to Azure.
💰 Price: Free version exists but multiple plans include CICD deployment, AI helper, code export, security, and various support possibilities.
7. Cloudcraft (acquired by DataDog)
Cloudcraft allows AWS users to design, deploy and manage AWS cloud architectures. Something cool but not relevant is that the diagram is in 3D. They recently added Azure but not all resources icons are available.
To know
Cloudcraft is limited to AWS.
💰 Price: Cloudcraft is free to design, export, document, and estimate cost. The paid plan includes collaboration, multi-credentials, and user and support capabilities.
8. Cloudokit
Cloudokit is perfect for documentation and analyzing cloud diagrams. It integrates well with Microsoft Visio. But shapes stay shapes.
To know
Clouddokit is limited to the cloud diagram and documentation.
💰 Price: No free versions. Paid plans scale according to users and yearly choices.
9. Miro
Miro is a great complete tool. The free plan is restricted to 3 pages but multiple spaces are allowed. That’s not great if you are testing Miro in teams. Also, the app is quite heavy so working with low-intensity internet won’t work well.
Tools for flowcharts
1. FigJam by Figma
I love Figma but FigJam is a particularly simple and easy-to-use tool.
FigJam is the best tool for simple flowcharts and wireframes. Combined with Figma, it’s my Go-to-solution for anything design related.
2. Visual Paradigm
Visual Paradigm is a great design tool for literally everything. It is not used much in the cloud computing industry but manages to bring great results for system engineering.
To know
Old-fashioned, am I right?
3. Cacoo (part of Nulab)
Cacoo is a visual collaboration solution for diagrams, wireframes, and flowcharts.
It integrates well with Google Meet, the template gallery is sufficient to get started.
To know
- Cocoo is not ideal for big teams. I also tested the AWS integration and that feature lack continuity.
- All the resources are present but not actionable as previously marketed.
4. Klaxoon
Klaxoon is the European version of Miro that seems good but never stood out from the crowd.
5. Gliffy (Perforce)
Gliffy is a great tool destined for cloud architects but didn’t succeed. Although the interface is smooth and the graphics are complete, the missing actionable aspect of each cloud resource brings a lack to be ever used to Cloud Architect. It does not integrate with anything major other than Altassian. Although Perforce was supposed to bring that DevOps aspect…
6. Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Visio is THE OLD FASHIONED tool you will ever see. You can do everything but Microsoft style. Big complicated interface with tons of functionalities that you don’t use and a few that aren’t available yet. I guess, great for enterprises that love Azure, Azure DevOps, and Teams…
7. Moqups
Moqups is a great tool that looked similar to Bubble, for nocode mobile apps.
I saw great potential in using it daily for my personal use of designing mobile apps but the no-free zone cut me right here. The solo plan starts at $13 per month versus Figma, zero.
8. GitMind
GitMind is a mind mapping and brainstorming tool. It’s great for initial thought thinking but limited in its capabilities. The Connect & Flow seems great for big-scale projects.
Record, foster, and co-create every small idea. Get your team’s creative juices flowing. Accelerate individual progress and drive business growth.
9. Creately
Creately is Notion + Miro complexified. It’s meant to be great but simplifies too many aspects of the iterating and keeping versions alive in the back-end.
10. Zen Flowchart
Zen Flowchart is the most famous of it all because it’s used by most of the big tech names. It’s indeed a great flowchart tool but limited to simple ones.
11. Edrawsoft (Wandershare)
Edraw is a great tool only if you use all their ecosystem of tools.
As a loner, I don’t recommend Edraw for flowcharts.
12. Excalidraw
Excalidraw is an open source and free design tool that can be used to quickly sketch something and is perfect to combine notes with a diagram. But it’s not well suited for cloud infrastructure design as it is too generic with a lack of cloud providers icons.
Summary
Exploring a draw.io (draw io) alternative opens up a realm of possibilities for cloud architecture professionals. With the 21 tools listed above, finding a suitable draw.io alternative that caters to your specific needs is now a breeze. Dive into these draw io alternative platforms and enhance your diagramming experience.
Which one is the best draw.io alternative then?
To end this debate:
You have tools that answer most problems. The most important is to choose a tool that:
- Solves the right problem in your organization
- Integrates well into your tech stack
- Fast enough and scalable as you grow
- Build specifically for the cloud infrastructure
- Collaborative
To answer this question frankly:
Brainboard
The best draw io alternative is Brainboard as it is a solution to visualize your cloud infrastructure, deploy your Terraform and manage any projects, environments, and architectures.
I’ve tested the new Import from Azure capabilities and it went smoothly.