yWorks
yEd
Drag shapesDescribe in words
Free graph editor from yWorks: you place nodes and edges from palettes and let its automatic layouts arrange them, on the desktop or in yEd Live in the browser.
- How you draw
- Shapes, Words
- Free for work
- Yes
- Free plan
- Paid from
- Free
- Paid price not stated
- Exports
- SVG, PNG, PDF
- Runs on
- Web, Windows, Mac, Linux
- Made by
- yWorks
- Germany
Good to know
- The free version can be used for work
Where it stands among 24
Each fact with every app's answer. yEd is outlined.
Main way to draw
Drag shapes
Sketch by hand 5
Drag shapes 13
Write code 4
Describe in words 2
Free for work use
Free version allows work use
Free version allows work use 10
Exports SVG
On every plan
On every plan 15
On paid plans 5
Draws from a text prompt
On every plan
On every plan 14
On paid plans 3
No AI drawing 1
Not stated 6
Diagram code
No live code
Works offline
Not stated
Open source
Closed source
Plans and prices
In USD, per month, as listed by yWorks. Checked 17 October 2026.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Seats | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free planNo limits stated | Work use: allowed | ||
| Paid plans | No paid plan stated | |||
- Free for work use
- YesYes
- One-time licence
- Subscription only
- Enterprise
- No enterprise plan
How you make a diagram
- Ways to draw
- Shapes, Words
- AI from a text prompt
- YesYes yEd Live's ChatGPT feature creates graphs from natural language; free
- AI limits
- No usage limit stated
- Diagram code
- Imports Graphviz only No live diagram code
- Diagram types
- Flowcharts, UML, ER / database, BPMN, Network, Mind maps Automatic layouts; mind-map layout in yEd Live
What you get out
- SVG
- YesYes
- PNG
- YesYes
- YesYes
- Visio (VSDX)
- NoNo Not among the export formats
- Watermark on free exports
- NoNo No visible watermark documented; the licence allows markers identifying files as yEd output
- Imports
- CSV Excel spreadsheets (.xls, .xlsx), GraphML, GML, TGF and XML via XSLT; Visio VSX only for stencils
Where it runs and where files live
- Apps
- Web, Windows, Mac, Linux
- Works offline
- Not statedNot stated yEd Live keeps data in the browser; full offline use isn't stated
- Open source
- NoNo Proprietary yEd licence
- Self-hosting
- Not statedNot stated A locally hosted yEd Live can be requested; terms not stated
- Where diagrams are stored
- Files on your device, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, GitHub yEd Live keeps diagrams in the browser and saves to Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or GitHub Gists
- Works inside
- GitHub, Google Workspace Google Drive and GitHub Gists for storage; the Confluence editor (Graphity) is a separate product
- Live co-editing
- Not statedNot stated Not stated
- API
- NoNo No API with yEd; the separate yFiles SDK is a paid product
Who you're trusting
- Company
- yWorks GmbH
- Owned by
- Not stated No parent company stated
- Based in
- Germany Tübingen
- Launched
- Not stated yWorks was founded in 2000 and yEd Live released in 2016; yEd's own launch year isn't stated
- Security reports
- Not stated None stated; yEd Live is designed to comply with GDPR
- Single sign-on
- Not applicable No accounts
- Data residency
- Diagrams aren't sent to yWorks by default; AI requests go to OpenAI
