IBM Blueworks Live vs Lucidchart comparison

The compared IBM and Lucid Software solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #13 in BPD , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 3.0% mindshare in the category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 22.0% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Lucid Software users who would recommend it.

IBM Blueworks Live

Read 22 IBM Blueworks Live reviews

2,277 Views
2,004 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Read 63 Lucidchart reviews

4,939 Views
790 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM Blueworks Live

Lucidchart

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Blueworks Live and Lucidchart based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Microsoft, Bizagi and others in Business Process Design.

To learn more, read our detailed Business Process Design Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

February 2026

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Helped 884,873 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

IBM Blueworks Live

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (13th)

Lucidchart

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Mind Mapping Software (2nd), Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

IBM Blueworks Live and Lucidchart aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM Blueworks Live is designed for Business Process Design and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, down 3.5% compared to last year.
Lucidchart, on the other hand, focuses on Mind Mapping Software, holds 22.0% mindshare, down 24.2% since last year.

Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM Blueworks Live	3.0%
Visio	9.9%
Bizagi	9.4%
Other	77.7%

Business Process Design

Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Lucidchart	22.0%
Visio	23.4%
draw.io	13.6%
Other	41.0%

Mind Mapping Software

Featured Reviews

Nupur Wadhwa

Consultant 2 at Protiviti

Enables efficient process mapping but requires improvement in maintaining server stability

The pricing of the solution can be quite expensive when compared to competitors, though IBM Blueworks Live stands out from a technical standpoint. IBM Blueworks Live provides clear ROI as it saves both time and money. I have successfully imported Visio flowcharts into both IBM Blueworks Live and ARIS. Both tools handled the imports successfully, though some manual intervention was required because Visio is quite a basic tool. Importing flowcharts into advanced tools such as ARIS and IBM Blueworks Live requires some manual effort. The primary advantage is the ease of use. I have not encountered any features in other tools that I couldn't find in ARIS. This is a major factor because I don't have to switch between tools to find specific features. Using ARIS for the past three years has built confidence and trust in the tool.

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AlexMartin1

Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé

Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions

The best features Lucidchart offers are that it diagrams processes very well. It allows for project management to help with client timelines. It is also easy to use and create diagrams, especially mermaid diagrams. Collaborating is easy. Out of all those features, collaboration stands out to me the most because it is easy to share with team members to do joint design work. Lucidchart has positively impacted my organization by improving productivity and collaboration. In terms of specifics, collaboration helps us come to conclusions. I notice better throughput as it is easy to use. Improved productivity allows us to express ourselves more quickly.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We are you using the product as a process mapping tool and as part of a larger process improvement project. We use it with IBM BPM and IBM ODM. We get an automated workflow solution for our customers, an improved workflow automation."

"It has the ability to document in different formats. It is not tied to a specific model. You can look at it from different angles and see the intuitive nature of it. It always generates a valid diagram. You cannot create something that is not BPMN compliant."

"The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave."

"Collaboration is most valuable. You can collaborate online with many people. People can comment, and you can comment back. It is just like a social network, and that, for me, is very good."

"It enables decisions based upon processes that we do model, and ultimately move forward with."

"The ease of documenting and digitizing the processes was valuable to us."

"The reporting that we can generate from IBM Blueworks Live has been interesting. We found the KPIs, risks, process modeling, format, and colors, to be very good. We use the EY template and it is interesting to generate reporting in this format."

"The business process discovery is excellent. The diagram or blueprinting functionality of the solution are very good. It's quite easy. You can link the sub-processes and get a big overview of the whole process then."

More IBM Blueworks Live pros

"Lucidchart enables me to put down on paper what I was visualizing in my head. It makes it more shareable than only using words."

"The flow chart is most valuable. It is a very user-friendly and simple-to-use product. Quite quickly, I was able to understand how to use it and just get on with my process flow."

"There is no alternative to Lucidchart if you want to describe a five-step process with bullet points. I believe every person who ever worked with PowerPoint on any type of documentation and then thought about which tool would actually help to describe what they're trying to do but without the words, would come up with Lucidchart."

"When it comes to documenting things like processes, systems, and new teams, I'd give it an eight or nine out of ten. It's very high because it's fairly intuitive, there's a low learning curve, and it's easy to get immediate output. You can get results very quickly without a lot of direct effort. You don't usually take a week-long series of training. You don't need to go through a lot of hoops to make it work."

"Its ease of use is most valuable. As compared to draw.io, connecting the lines and doing things like that are much easier in Lucidchart. It has been great for some of the process flow diagrams and data flow diagrams. I can export these diagrams as PDFs and share them with team members."

"Lucidchart's ability to create a visualization that people prefer to look at, over reading written documents, has definitely saved me a lot of time. Moreover, it has helped to make my code bug-free because I no longer have broken endpoints."

"I like the panel on the left of the screen that has all of the shapes that are available to use in the charts. It's easy to use because you can just drag and drop."

"We are using Lucidchart a lot for documenting things, such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. Its ability to document processes is great. Some of the major pluses are the sheer number of templates and the flexibility in the types of things that you can document. This is a benefit because we are able to structure it in whatever format we want. So, we can take a template that maybe was designed for something different and not have to create it from scratch. We just modify it for our purposes."

More Lucidchart pros

Cons

"The objects that the solution creates are not unique."

"The solution is a very basic discovery product so it doesn't have that much modeling capability. This can be improved."

"I would like to see integration with ERP systems. This would help us to simulate the process and see where the problems are. Though IBM Blueworks Live is a good tool for documenting, it is not good for simulating."

"I would prefer an on-premises solution for IBM Blueworks Live, and this could be a recommendation."

"The solution is stable, but there are some glitches and latency issues."

"Some of the import functionality was a bit restrictive, in terms of loading data in from other data sources. Something as simple as Excel, loading data tables from Excel, wasn't great. And vice-versa. Some of the export and import functionality with something like Visio - which, I know it's a slightly different tool - but being able to work seamlessly with those other tool sets would've been quite useful. I know it was something that was in the pipeline to be looked at. So that would be useful."

"There should be an option to import from and export to Microsoft Visio. Being able to move files back and forth between Blueworks Live and Visio would be good."

"Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively."

More IBM Blueworks Live cons

"I've had an issue is when you create, let's say, a rectangle box. You can write some text in it and give it a name, and, depending on how you shape the size of the box, the text will rearrange itself to fit. That is, except if your box is very, very narrow, but very long, like a long, narrow rectangle in a vertical position. In this case, the text will always go out of the rectangle."

"Sometimes, I have created charts with a lot of layers, which locks down parts of the chart and hides parts of the chart to edit it. If they have a better way to deal with specific layers when it gets complex, then that would be helpful. I would like to see something like an illustrator program, where they have a pallet of these layers that I want and don't want as well as being able to see each layer individually. That is the one thing that could be helpful."

"When I download a flowchart as a PDF file, it breaks it up. I would like to see the continuous display of flow charts, even if they are larger than one page."

"This might already be a feature, but I remember sometimes when we're just all viewing, if you accidentally click, then there's an arrow that pops up, and you have to go back and delete it. A lot of times there are accidental arrows being drawn when really we're just trying to present to each other."

"There is a basic function that I struggle with, in the interface, which is having to switch between the editing and navigation modes. A lot of clicks are required when switching between edit and navigation modes and I think that many could potentially be avoided by handling the tasks at the same time."

"One area for improvement is the fact that I had to create two sheets. I had to create a process flow diagram, and I had to create a timeline. I wasn't able to do that in one sheet. If they could add that kind of feature, where you could input a timeline and different types of templates into one worksheet, that would be really useful. I had to include two and then cut and paste, and that was an extra step for me."

"I would like to have more text boxes to write more comments so I can write a small note below a picture. I would like some flexibility."

"There were some things I wish were a little bit more user-friendly. For instance, when you're putting all the stuff onto a document or PDF, there's a set limit of width and height. It would have been very nice in certain situations to be able to drag people on the far edges and move them back up so that everything fits nicely onto the page."

More Lucidchart cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is very, very cost-effective."

"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."

"The solution is not very expensive."

"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."

"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."

"Making it less expensive would be good."

"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."

"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."

"The licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."

"I have only used the trial version and have not yet paid for it, or explored the pricing options."

"I have a subscription as an individual user for one year, and it is not expensive."

"The pricing and licensing are fine, though I wish they didn't require you to buy the licenses in batches of five."

"We chose Lucid based on the price comparison between it and draw.io... Lucidchart was about 15 percent cheaper per user... I was surprised to learn that it came with a separate subscription model and was not included in my existing Lucidchart subscription."

"Pricing comes in at about $100 for a year's subscription, which is very reasonable if this is a tool that you will use more than once."

"I was using the free version of Lucidchart, which was very helpful."

"At €167 per user per year, the pricing is slightly higher than Visio, but it's worth it."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?

I do not have exposure to IBM Blueworks Live pricing since this is managed by other personnel who handle the financial aspects of licenses.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?

I do not use Security Identity Governance and Intelligence, as it is not implemented here. I would prefer an on-premises solution for IBM Blueworks Live, and this could be a recommendation. Regardi...

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What is your primary use case for IBM Blueworks Live?

IBM Blueworks Live and security management are my primary products within the IBM suite. I particularly work on automation-related items, so most of my automation work lies with IBM, and I oversee ...

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LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

Hi @Krista Thompson - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...

See all answers

Do you recommend Lucidchart?

I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the market. Out of all the solutions I have tried, it is by far the best for diagra...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we do not have to use the setup because we are using public cloud. We just created an account on Lucidchart and started using it.

See all answers

Comparisons

Visio vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 17% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 16% of the time

ARIS BPA vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 10% of the time

ARIS Cloud vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 10% of the time

Camunda vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Blueworks Live Competitors

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 15% of the time

Visio vs Lucidchart

Compared 14% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 11% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

Mindjet MindManager vs Lucidchart

Compared 3% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live

March 2026

Download IBM Blueworks Live product report

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

March 2026

Download Lucidchart product report

Also Known As

IBM Lombardi Blueprint

No data available

Overview

IBM Blueworks Live is a cloud-based business process modeling tool that helps you discover, map and document your processes. It is easy to use, allowing you to learn and perform business process modeling in minutes.

With Blueworks Live you can:

Simplify business process modeling
Quickly build business processes in a straightforward, cloud-based interface designed for both IT and business users.

Improve process efficiency and accuracy
A central process repository eliminates version control and consistency issues by providing users real-time access to process workflows.

Enhance cross-team collaboration
A shared team workspace engages all business process owners, encouraging cross-team participation and continuous process improvement.

IBM

Our online diagram application makes it easy to sketch and share professional flowchart diagrams. From brainstorming to project management, we support all of your communication needs. That’s why millions of users choose Lucidchart.

Lucid Software

Sample Customers

Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council

Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

February 2026

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