Lucidchart vs Visio comparison

Lucid Software and Microsoft are both solutions in the Mind Mapping Software category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0. Lucid Software holds a 22.7% mindshare in MMS, compared to Microsoft’s 26.7% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Lucid Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Lucidchart

Read 62 Lucidchart reviews

4,970 Views
746 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 109 Visio reviews

7,023 Views
1,053 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Visio

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 9, 2025

Visio and Lucidchart are both widely recognized in the diagramming software market, catering to a range of user needs in technical and collaborative environments. Visio has a competitive edge due to its integration with Microsoft tools, whereas Lucidchart stands out for its ease of use and collaborative features.

Features: Visio integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft Office suite, providing robust diagramming capabilities with a comprehensive library of templates suitable for technical drawings and BPMN diagrams. Lucidchart's user-friendly interface supports flexibility and real-time team collaboration, offering various templates and tools that facilitate process design and workflow visualization.

Room for Improvement: Visio lacks full support for XPDL, and its web publishing features could be enhanced. Its complexity can be a barrier for new users. Lucidchart could improve by offering better layer management and more complex design templates. Both tools should enhance their integration capabilities, with Visio expanding beyond Microsoft products and Lucidchart enriching its template library.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Visio offers both on-premises and cloud deployment options, suitable for enterprise environments, but its customer support is inconsistent. Lucidchart is predominantly cloud-based with simple deployment in collaborative spaces, and it is known for efficient customer service, though it could be more proactive in user education.

Pricing and ROI: Visio's pricing includes standalone licenses and Office 365 plans, which can be expensive for larger teams, but offer good ROI through efficient documentation. Lucidchart offers cost-effective subscriptions with robust collaborative features, although individual license costs might be prohibitive for larger organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Lucidchart vs. Visio Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart vs. Visio

December 2025

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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

Lucidchart

Ranking in Mind Mapping Software

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Visio

Ranking in Mind Mapping Software

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

109

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Mind Mapping Software category, the mindshare of Lucidchart is 22.7%, up from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visio is 26.7%, down from 30.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Mind Mapping Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visio	26.7%
Lucidchart	22.7%
Other	50.6%

Mind Mapping Software

Featured Reviews

Faizuddin Shaik

Principal Application Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Visual planning has improved migration mapping but now needs broader cloud icon support

In my opinion, the best features Lucidchart offers include the toolkits they provide, such as the icons for AWS. These features allow us to use proper service icons rather than simple plain boxes for everything, helping us effectively map out the actual services instead of getting confused. The AWS icons and toolkits make my diagramming process easier and more effective because it is easy to explain and show to my customers which service is being used for a particular component. For instance, when using Amazon S3 for object storage or Amazon RDS for SQL, I can clearly indicate those services. If I need to show containers, I can pick those specific icons to demonstrate that, making it easier than reading it within a box. Lucidchart also offers other specific UML diagrams that I could use, including class diagrams, before I get into the code-level details.

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NitinSharma

Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Created detailed rack and network diagrams that streamline documentation and collaboration

For creating diagrams, I definitely use Visio for HLD, LLD, and traffic flow diagrams. Apart from Visio, I use Jira only if the customer specifically requests it; otherwise, I do not use an in-house version of Jira in my organization. One of the good features of using the Microsoft umbrella product is that if I create a big diagram and then work on the HLD or LLD in Word, I can select everything from Visio and paste it as an image without needing to resize it, which streamlines the process of creating documentation for customers. The main benefits Visio provides me include simplifying processes, saving time on manual work with diagram creation, and delivering a clean architecture, whether it is network architecture or application flow. I have created diagrams for AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises data centers, including rack elevation diagrams and organization charts. Modifications can be made easily and reflected immediately, and I can create PNG images to share with the executive team.

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

"The interface is very good and easy to use. We don't need documentation on how to use it. It is self-explanatory, which is very convenient for a new user."

"The collaboration, hands-down, is the top feature. It is valuable because our company doesn't believe in working in silos... While I may be the one leading the efforts, it's very important that my team gets buy-in on decisions being made when we're designing. It's critical, especially in this virtual environment, when we're not in an office to have a team meeting and able to whiteboard something. Lucidchart is an extremely useful tool for our team."

"Lucidchart is very visual in nature, and it is something that we do use extensively for stakeholder mapping, for example. If you want to build graphs for things like who the decision-makers are in a particular organization, Lucidchart can be used for that."

"The ease of creating some of the maps and diagrams is most valuable. Lucidchart is just simpler and works more intuitively than other solutions that I have used in the past, such as Microsoft Visio. I am not in a creative role, but I know how to use Adobe Illustrator and other solutions like that. If I need to map out something that I've never mapped out before, and it is going to need a totally custom graphic, eight times out of 10, I'm going to go to Lucidchart rather than trying to build it in Illustrator. Its intuition and flexibility are really big features for me."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The architecture and brainstorming features worked exceptionally well for me; no one in the organization had used it for brainstorming, and my implementation really helped with the visuals and capturing people's opinions and divergent thought processes."

More Lucidchart pros

"I definitely recommend Visio to other users."

"If you are a knowledgeable individual, the initial setup isn't too difficult."

"The Data Objects are hyperlinked to the Standard Operating Procedures, Letters, and Forms."

"The tools tab within Visio has been amazingly useful, and it is updated quite frequently. Along with how Visio handles components and everything else, I would call it an easy-to-use tool."

"The product's initial setup is really simple."

"The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process."

"Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and basic illustrations that I can use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients by hand."

"Visio is easy to use."

More Visio pros

Cons

"When my colleague initially tried to edit the file that I shared with him, he had some trouble. This is something that should be improved."

"In terms of improvement, there can be more templates. There are good templates but there could still be more."

"The communication with sales has been pretty poor. They have been spotty in terms of response. So far, that has been our problem with it. We were in contact with one of their representatives, but he just kind of disappeared one day and we couldn't find him anymore. He has not been responsive to email."

"The main improvement I would like to see is for them to improve the help section on the flow charts or on the formatting."

"I would like an on-premises version of the software that I can just download and use. I think that it's easier that way."

"The layering is something that can be improved because sometimes, it is confusing for me when I'm trying to get to the layer that I want to edit."

"When you want to add text to a connector arrow, I have not figured out how to position the text vertically. It always wants the text to stay horizontal."

"I am not quite sure what different functionalities it provides as well as the difficulties other people are facing. When I have a better understanding of the solution, I will increase my rating of it. No solution is perfect, so I am sure that I will be facing some problems in the future."

More Lucidchart cons

"I would like to see included in the next release is the implementation of web publishing."

"It does not integrate well with other solutions."

"Its integration with other vendors can be better and support for other formats. For example, when we import a JPEG, we cannot customize it. Similarly, we can't utilize the BPML kind of diagrams."

"The solution's flexibility can be perceived as both a strength and a weakness."

"I would like to see better integration with external data sources."

"An area for improvement in Visio is pricing. It's a costly tool for my company because it only uses Visio occasionally."

"Something that needs to improve, is the interface interaction with other tools."

"It requires a lot of skill to get into it."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The pricing is very reasonable, and they have a free trial available that you can play with."

"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."

"Lucidchart's pricing model is not excessive, as compared to similar products. It is pretty much in line with everyone else."

"I had a quick glimpse of it. It was about 100 Canadian Dollars a year for just me. I don't know if there are any additional costs."

"I pay $95 a year for it. It seems like a reasonable price."

"I was using the paid version, but at $12 USD per month, I canceled the plan because it was a little bit too expensive for me."

"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."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"The licensing process is actually a breeze. Simply buy the license and download it from Microsoft, enter the license key in Visio to activate the software, and you're done."

"Cloud-based tools are always cheaper since they are subscription-based. I use the on-premises version of Visio hence the price is quite expensive. However, I believe that the cloud version of Visio may not be as expensive as the on-premises version."

"The popularity of a product is an indicator of its price. Because of the popularity of Visio, its price is on the higher side. We need better pricing for it."

"Our license for Visio is including with the Office 365 subscription."

"Visio is included with our Microsoft enterprise license."

"It's cheaper than other solutions."

"I rate the price of Visio a six out of ten."

"We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."

More Visio pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?

In terms of pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I feel that Lucidchart has provided us with good plans, as we have purchased it through AWS Marketplace. We got team plans that run around nine to te...

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How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?

I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load V...

See all answers

What do you like most about Visio?

The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?

One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about the price with a Microsoft representative. If asked to rate the price, I would gi...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 16% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 10% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Lucidchart

Compared 6% of the time

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Bizagi vs Visio

Compared 30% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio

Compared 9% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio

Compared 7% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Visio

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Blueworks Live vs Visio

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

January 2026

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

January 2026

Download Visio product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Visio

Overview

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

Visio is an innovative collaborative solution that enables users to quickly visualize data-connected business process flows with a host of integrated intuitive features that bring the power of Microsoft 365 to Visio. Visio allows users to easily create professional diagrams, graphs, and other visual data, easily anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Users are able to confidently and easily transform data into creative powerful visuals. Visio provides dozens of easy-to-use templates along with thousands of customizable colorful shapes that bring a user's best ideas to life. Visio is available for all Microsoft 365 commercial users and is available on desktop and Web applications.

Visio Features

Visio can easily create visual data for today’s business needs. Some of its most useful visual data include:

Flowcharts: Users can easily bring business concepts to fruition with Visio’s robust flowchart features. Visio provides a huge library of shapes, stencils, and templates to transform numbers and data into impactful, easy-to-understand business stories.
Organizational charts: Visio makes it easy to design articulate org charts to better visualize team, reporting, and hierarchy structures. Users are then able to seamlessly share the charts with stakeholders, teams, and employees.
Network diagrams: Users are able to creatively display how a system design processes function and visually illustrate how devices and networks interact with each other using a variety of network shapes, templates, and connector tools.
Brainstorming: Visio makes brainstorming simple and actionable with a wide range of templates designed specifically for interpreting problems and mapping out solutions, including fishbone and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) diagrams.
Floor plans: Users can design ergonomic workspaces, retail store layouts, new homes, and more with accurate, scalable templates and tools to help them better visualize function, flow, and overall aesthetic appeal.
Accessible: Visio is able to integrate with a wide variety of accessibility tools, such as Narrator, Accessibility Checker, and high-contrast support, to ensure Visio diagrams are available to your entire team.

Reviews from Real Users

“Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and essential illustrations to use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients manually.” - Michael B., Principal Consultant at Lexington Consulting

“I use it for diagramming networks, racks, data centers, data flow applications, etc. It is a useful tool to map data flows, network objects, and computer science technology and to show to clients. It does what I need it to do. It's a tool I've used the longest, so I know it the best, and that's probably the claim to fame.” - Greg S., Director of Solution Architecture at Winslow Technology Group

“We use Visio for architecture modeling. We also use it to facilitate communication with other people. The feature I like most about Visio is that it acts as a facilitator of communication, as it displays information in a way that's easier to understand.” - Guy M., IT/Business Architect at a financial services firm

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart vs. Visio

December 2025

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