Gliffy - Review 2022 - Hicks Buntind

When you lot need to create a simple diagram, such as a floor plan or a flowchart, in a pinch, Gliffy gets the job done pretty well. This Web app for creating and editing diagrams has a express free version as well as a low-cost paid version that comes with more features. Gliffy is a bit too lightweight for highly technical diagrams, especially those that require collaboration to draft, just it offers enough for more simple uses, similar Venn diagrams and org charts.

Gliffy isn't as impressive equally Lucidchart or SmartDraw Deject, the Editors' Choices in this category, so stick with either of those apps if you're in the market place for a more robust tool that you intend to use oftentimes.

Pricing and Plans

Gliffy has a free option and paid subscription plans, only the complimentary option has strict limitations and therefore is suitable only in sure circumstances. With a free business relationship, you can merely brand a full of five diagrams using Gliffy, and all the diagrams y'all brand are public. That means if you need to draw something secretive, such as visitor networking maps, you should non use the complimentary version. In that location are other free diagramming apps, including Draw.io, that allow yous keep your work private. With a free Gliffy business relationship, y'all can't import Visio files for editing, either. It's very express.

There are three paid levels of Gliffy, called Standard, Business, and Business organization Team. They are all subscription-based, and the prices are low compared with other diagramming apps. But only the Business concern Team account has anything compelling enough to warrant paying for information technology.

For example, Gliffy charges $14.85 every three months for a single-user Standard account, which is equivalent to well-nigh $3.99 per month or $59 per year. Only the account lets you create only 200 diagrams. There's no pick to integrate with Google Drive or whatever other storage service, and you lot don't get whatever private sharing tools or commenting tools. At least you can import Visio files.

The single-user Business account isn't much better. Gliffy charges $29.85 every three months, so that's equal to $9.95 per calendar month or $119.twoscore per year. Once more, the toll is depression, merely the features are deficient. The Business concern account at least gives you the ability to make an unlimited number of private diagrams, but you nevertheless don't have an option to integrate with Google Bulldoze, and you don't go private sharing or commenting tools. The only other upgrade yous get from the Standard package is UML and wireframe shapes.

The Business Team package costs $59.88 per user per year, which works out to $4.99 per month, but at that place is no monthly payment plan. You become unlimited private diagrams, UML and wireframe shapes, an option to integrate with Google Drive, and individual sharing and commenting. When you compare Gliffy to other options for diagramming tools, the Business organization Squad account is the only one even worth considering.

As I said, Gliffy doesn't accuse much, simply it'south not the simply diagramming app with a low toll. Creately costs virtually the same as Gliffy. An online subscription runs $v per month or $49 per year for a Personal plan. A downloadable desktop version of Creately costs a i-fourth dimension fee of $75 for individuals (chosen Desktop Personal) and is available for Windows, Os X, and Linux.

The very best diagramming apps toll more than, only y'all get what y'all pay for. Lucidchart, which is my top selection and a PCMag's Editors' Pick, costs $v.95 per calendar month or $59.twoscore annually for a Basic unmarried user account, which includes 100MB of storage. A Pro account, which is the tier I recommend, comes with 1GB of storage and costs $9.95 per month or $107.40 annually. Lucidchart is merely available online, even so. In that location is no locally installed option.

The other Editors' Choice in this category, SmartDraw, has an online version of its app chosen SmartDraw Cloud that costs $179.twoscore annually. SmartDraw besides has a desktop app for Windows, bachelor in three tiers: $297 for Standard, $397 for Concern, and $2,995 (starting toll) for Enterprise.

Microsoft Visio, which is known for being expensive, costs nearly the same as SmartDraw for Windows Standard. When purchased on a disc, Visio costs $299.99. Visio is available on Windows PCs, simply not Macs, and there's no Spider web app either. Microsoft does offering a product called Visio Online, but it's for viewing and sharing diagrams just, not creating and editing.

Gliffy in Action

To use Gliffy, you lot must create an account, which takes no time at all. From at that place, you tin first drawing a new diagram from a from scratch, start a new diagram from one of Gliffy's templates, or import an existing file, as long equally you accept the proper account type (Visio file import is for paying subscribers but, recollect).

The latitude and depth of a diagramming app'south templates carries a lot of weight in judging its value. Gliffy's template selection is decent, with options for several dissimilar kinds of network diagrams, organizational charts, wireframes for Web and mobile, flowcharts, and more than. It isn't well-nigh as rich equally Visio's or SmartDraw'due south, though. SmartDraw has the well-nigh impressive template collection I've seen, providing not only examples of diagrams y'all need to make, but samples of those y'all didn't fifty-fifty realize you needed, like an emergency evacuation plan. Lucidchart has an ample template drove, too.

Templates come pre-populated with objects, which y'all move or delete every bit necessary. An office floor plan template, for example, has objects for all the things you'd notice in an office, such equally desks, chairs, conference tables, plants, and water coolers. You can turn on a grid to help you arrange objects, though a snap-to-grid option is fifty-fifty amend at getting objects into place quickly.

Aside from moving and deleting objects, y'all customize a diagram by dragging new objects onto your canvass. Gliffy's layout is similar to just about every other major diagramming app on the market, and then you'll discover a tray of objects on the left. Which objects appear depends on the template yous're using or on how you adjust the collapsible submenu options. For example, in the floor plan template, the object tray shows submenus for Floorplan Structure, Floorplan Living Room, Floorplan Office, and so forth. If you lot collapse all the submenus specific to your template, you'll offset to encounter more than generic options, such as Basic Shapes—circles, squares, arrows, and and then on.

It's easy plenty to create and edit diagrams in Gliffy. The app is congenital using HTML5, and it's interactivity is solid. It's smooth and reliable. I didn't have any problem resizing objects, adding text, connecting elements with lines, and the like.

I thing Gliffy does well is to brand the context-appropriate tools available to yous when you select an object or multiple objects. When I selected a few role chairs in the part floorplan template, Gliffy automatically displayed an icon for editing group properties. Information technology just and so happened I wanted to align the objects and space them evenly, two functions that are included at that place. Lucidchart does the same matter.

As smooth as Gliffy is, the app isn't equally intuitive to use as SmartDraw. What makes SmartDraw different is the extent to which it focuses on anticipating what users will be doing and making with its software. Based on the template you're using, which can exist quite specific thanks to the large collection, SmartDraw anticipates what kinds of shapes and objects you will use, and what kind of human relationship between objects yous might want to bear witness. The tool or object you demand is often correct in front of your optics earlier you have fourth dimension to fifty-fifty think nigh it.

Supported File Types

If you piece of work with other people's diagrams regularly, you'll need a diagramming app that supports a wide range of import and export formats. Gliffy supports a modest range, and in my testing, they worked with no issues. You lot tin consign to JPG, PNG, SVG, and Gliffy, and that solidly covers the exporting basics. As to importing, Gliffy supports GON, VDX (for paid accounts only), Gliffy, and Gxml files, but not AWS Architecture (which Lucidchart supports) or proprietary file types from other diagramming apps.

Gliffy Business Teams has an embed format that lets you publish diagrams easily on other platforms, such equally WordPress or another content management system. The document has to be saved publicly for it to work, and then Gliffy generates codes and links that you lot tin paste into your folio. You can generate an embed code for sharing inside Slack, Basecamp, HipChat, and other apps, besides. There'southward an API for developers likewise.

Collaboration and Sharing

Gliffy does have some collaboration features, as long as you have a Business Team account with two or more users enrolled, that is. Merely compared with other tools, Gliffy is mediocre at all-time when it comes to collaboration, mostly because it doesn't accept real-fourth dimension collaboration.

You can add collaborators to a diagram by typing in people's e-mail addresses, or by generating a unique link to the file. The file can be public, or y'all can generate a secure link to a private file. When inviting others to share the file, yous accept a chance to set up their priviledges so that collaborators have the power to view, comment, or edit.

If you allow others to comment on your file, they can mark an area of the diagram with an orange dot and attach their notes. The dot indicates to others that comments are attached.

When you give others the ability to edit a Gliffy file, those collaborators must take a Gliffy acccount. If they don't have one yet, they can sign up and go a free trial.

You and your collaborators can each edit the file in turn, simply not at the same time together. There's a Salvage push in the upper right corner, and you lot have to click that for your changes to commit. Then, the other collaborators have to refresh their pages to see the changes. So really, just i person can edit the document at a fourth dimension.

Many diagramming apps offer much better environments for collaboration. Lucidchart and Depict.io are the best in this regard. They give you a real-fourth dimension collaboration that's very similar to what you see when you interact in Google Docs. The big difference is that Lucidchart's collaboration capabilities are built into the tool directly whereas Draw.io'southward are merely available when you lot use the app in conjunction with Google Drive.

Creately is as well on the better finish of collaboration, supporting real-time synchronous editing equally well. When collaborating, the app highlights objects when other people select them and movement them. Creately gives you the option to grant collaborators reviewer rather than editor status if necessary.

SmartDraw'due south collaboration capabilities weaker. Y'all cannot collaborate synchronously in existent time, though y'all can share a file that's saved to a deject storage infinite and let others to work on information technology in their own time. Visio offers some collaboration options, likewise, but as with SmartDraw, you outset have to salvage your file to the right place, which in the instance of Visio means either a SharePoint or OneDrive space. However, Visio does allow for synchronous collaboration amongst multiple people. Visio likewise lets two people work on the same object at once. For example, one person can change the color of an object while some other person changes the text within it.

Fine for Limited Utilise

Gliffy is a fine tool when you demand to create a diagram quickly and don't want to install whatever tools on your estimator to do then. Information technology doesn't compete with other diagramming apps for more rigorous use. You're amend off paying more than for an app that has more templates and supports more file types. Lucidchart and SmartDraw Cloud are PCMag's top picks. Draw.io is a slightly better option than Gliffy for free use, because it doesn't require that your diagrams exist kept public.