Best free diagram app for work
Free diagram apps whose free version can be used for work, what each free plan limits, and what you can export without paying.
draw.io
draw.io (JGraph)
Free and open source under Apache-2.0, with no account needed and no limit on diagrams. Desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux work offline, files can live on your own drive or in Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or GitHub, and SVG, PNG and PDF export are all free. It also imports Visio, Lucidchart and Gliffy files.
All draw.io facts- How you draw
- Shapes, Code, Words
- Paid from
- Free
- Free for work
- YesYes
- SVG on free plan
- YesYes
Excalidraw
Excalidraw
Free and open source under MIT for hand-drawn style diagrams, with unlimited collaborators on one shared scene and 10 AI requests a day. SVG and PNG export are free; PDF is on Excalidraw+ ($6 a month billed yearly).
All Excalidraw facts- How you draw
- Sketch, Words
- Paid from
- $6/user/mo
- Free for work
- YesYes
- SVG on free plan
- YesYes
yEd
yWorks
A free desktop graph editor for Windows, Mac and Linux from yWorks, with no limits stated. It exports SVG, PNG and PDF, imports data from CSV, and saves files locally or to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or GitHub. It isn't open source.
All yEd facts- How you draw
- Shapes, Words
- Paid from
- Free
- Free for work
- YesYes
- SVG on free plan
- YesYes
Lucidchart
Lucid
Lucid's terms allow the free plan for internal business use, but it's small: 3 editable documents with 75 shapes each. Enough to try it at work; a real team will end up on Team at $10 per user a month, billed yearly.
All Lucidchart facts- How you draw
- Shapes, Code, Words
- Paid from
- $10/user/mo
- Free for work
- YesYes
- SVG on free plan
- YesYes
Every app that could fit, checked
18 apps, with the facts that matter here. Picks are outlined. The count is facts documented, out of 4.
| App | Free for work | SVG on free plan | Works offline | Open source | Documented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| draw.io | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 4 |
| Excalidraw | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 4 |
| Lucidchart | Yes | Yes | Partly | No | 2 of 4 |
| yEd | Yes | Yes | Not stated | No | 2 of 4 1 not stated |
 D2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 4 |
 PlantUML | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4 of 4 |
 Napkin AI | Yes | Yes | No | No | 2 of 4 |
 tldraw | Not stated | Yes | Yes | Partly | 2 of 4 1 not stated |
 Canva | Yes | Not stated | Partly | No | 1 of 4 1 not stated |
 Creately | Not stated | No | Yes | No | 1 of 4 1 not stated |
 Eraser | Not stated | Yes | Not stated | Partly | 1 of 4 2 not stated |
 FigJam | Yes | No | Partly | No | 1 of 4 |
 Mermaid Chart | Not stated | Yes | Not stated | Partly | 1 of 4 2 not stated |
 Miro | Not stated | Yes | Not stated | No | 1 of 4 2 not stated |
 Mural | Yes | No | Not stated | No | 1 of 4 1 not stated |
 Whimsical | Not stated | Yes | No | No | 1 of 4 1 not stated |
 Cacoo | Not stated | No | Not stated | No | 0 of 4 2 not stated |
 Gliffy | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | No | 0 of 4 3 not stated |
Worth knowing. Read the free plan's terms before it goes into a client deliverable. Several popular apps keep their free plan for personal or non-commercial use only, and a few don't say either way.
