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Project Manager
Real User
Jan 17, 2023
The ease of use, clarity, and different functionalities make this one incredibly useful tool
Pros and Cons
  • "Lucidchart is a 10 out of 10 when it comes to documenting things such as processes, systems, and new teams. It's just so user-friendly. The fact that even if you've never used Lucidchart, if you take a template and adapt it, you'll inevitably find something to fit your needs, but it's also perfect for building from scratch. It's the ease of use, clarity, and the different functionalities that make it incredibly useful."
  • "What I do find extremely frustrating is that when I've sent the sheet to non-license holders, you have to create an account. You create a username and password. The path taken to create that account is so confusing that everyone thinks that they have to give their credit card number, and then they're reluctant. They don't want to go through the sheet."

What is our primary use case?

I have used Lucidchart for many things, but the biggest piece that ended up generating the most work was process mapping. 

I have done Kanban charts. I've used it for organizational charts. I've even used it for describing business entities to describe relationship management, which isn't necessarily a process. 

How has it helped my organization?

Lucidchart has been an outstanding visualization tool when words aren't enough. Ensuring you understand your business' fundamentals is essential.

What is most valuable?

Lucidchart is a 10 out of 10 when it comes to documenting things such as processes, systems, and organizational charts. Even if you've never used Lucidchart, you'll inevitably find a template to fit your needs, but it's also perfect for building from scratch. It's the ease of use, clarity, and different functionalities that make it incredibly useful.

Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC which is important to me because I work in a Mac environment but when it relates to business, a lot of people work on a PC. Accounting and Business Development teams are typically PC users and they've had to see process charts or have needed to manipulate them.

I have used Lucidchart to collaborate among users in real time when accessing and working on the same version of a document. It has positively affected the project development process by creating efficiencies because, especially in our new hybrid reality, we're not all at the office and we can't all be in one room working on a sheet together. So it's allowed us to be able to work remotely on one document.

The ability for people to look at the diagram rather than read through written documents has saved significant time, and as a result, money. In some cases it's invaluable. If there was a hole in the process and things were falling in the cracks, it could have cost the company millions, but it didn't.

What needs improvement?

You don't need to have a Lucidchart account or license in order to view a sheet if you're just a viewer. However, I found it frustrating when non-license holders created their accounts, which should only consist of creating a username and password, the setup process lead them to believe that they needed to give their credit card numbers to proceed. I have at least two colleagues who did put in their credit card information and then they forget to cancel the subscription, and they ended up getting charged for a license that they don't use.

To me, the confusing setup for non-license holders is a barrier to entry. If you want new people to see this tool, the process shouldn't be that confusing to view a sheet for non-users. But as a user myself, it truly is perfect. For non-users, this is a pain point.

Buyer's Guide
Lucidchart
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Lucidchart. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Lucidchart for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is impeccable. I've never had any issues, hiccups, or any problems at all.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales well. One of the strong points of Lucidchart, beyond the actual tool creation of sheets itself, is the organization: the fact that you can create folders, and that you can share those folders or share sheets. That portion of it is an added bonus.

Because I work on different projects at different times, in this current project, I haven't needed Lucidchart much yet. However, in my last project, it was one of my central tools that added value in many areas of the business, because the nature of the business was heavily process-oriented. It was a government-regulated environment, which means the process is everything. So it was one of my top two tools. 

Every project is unique and the tool scales well for each one. 

How are customer service and support?

In five years, I've never had any problems with the tool so I guess I'm happy to say I can't speak to the quality of Lucidchart's service/technical support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used to be a big fan of Visio, but when I found Lucidchart, it just blew Visio out of the water.

I tried importing Visio sheets once but it didn't work that well. It was faster for me to start over, which is what I did, and it looked better anyway. I also tried the web version of Visio recently and I just couldn't figure it out. To me, Lucidchart is a clear winner. It's more attractive, intuitive, and just overall better.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and easy. I taught myself to use the tool by following tons of tutorials online.

There are so many cool functions that learning the tool is ongoing. You don't need a tutorial to start since you just drag and drop shapes but there's a world to discover! To this day, I still look up better ways to use the tool and love to learn new functionalities. 

What about the implementation team?

I was initially introduced to the tool when our company shifted from Visio to Lucidchart (five year ago).

What was our ROI?

I've ended up looking like a superstar so many times, especially when it comes to, for example, how a business is structured. In one instance, it took me 30 minutes to put together a chart to show business entity relationships that solved weeks of conversation in a moment. Suddenly I look like a genius in the room because I had the ability to put a scenario in images.

The same with hyper-complex processes; you can draw inputs, outputs, roles, and responsibilities in one sheet, and then highlight holes by colour-coding to quickly identify "This is a hole, this is an issue."  Then you focus on what's important.

My return on investment is that this tool has made me more efficient and dare I say, more competent at my job.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think the pricing is fair. It's competitive with other tools so the price is a non-issue. I hope it doesn't increase though!

There are no additional costs to standard licensing. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I may have looked at other solutions. But ever since I discovered Lucidchart, I haven't tried anything else.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Lucidchart a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Aug 16, 2021
Good brainstorming features, facilitates collaboration, and keeps us focused on our work
Pros and Cons
  • "The interface is easy for a layperson to use and adapt to."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I am the regional infrastructure manager, heading the entire IT infrastructure for my company. We are headquartered in Belgium and I work with a subsidiary in India, where we have 23 locations. My job includes taking care of all of the infrastructure-related activities. These are operational and project-related activities pertaining to network security and cloud-based solutions.

I use LucidChart as a brainstorming tool. It helps to ideate the organizational structure and anything to do with workflows and architecture. For example, when something new comes up, I turn to the platform to help with brainstorming and ideation, and it has helped to a great extent.

We use it as a mind map tool, for decision-making workflows, and technical workflows. There are multiple reasons that we utilize it, depending on the use case.

How has it helped my organization?

I also use LucidSpark, which is another tool that helps with brainstorming. Particularly in my role as an infrastructure manager for the region, I need to work on strategies. There are always a number of challenges, particularly during the transformation stage. I'm required to bring in the right products and the right skills. When I am stuck and face a blank, LucidSpark helps me to move forward.

The functionality for documenting things like processes is excellent. The templates are already available and all you need to do is bring one in and use it. This saves a lot of time and effort in terms of documentation, and you can export it to any format you need. It allows us to give our reports a professional touch.

I have used LucidChart to create a database schema for one of my colleagues. It supports the notations that we use, such as one-to-many, many-to-many, and others. There is support for components such as private keys, foreign keys, and other such definitions. It is something that is easy to do.

In terms of integrations, we use Microsoft teams as our platform for communication and I was able to successfully integrate it with LucidChart. The one limitation with teams is that people have to be comfortable with viewing things on a web browser.

Using this product brings up the wow factor when I present my ideas. I don't have to rely on PowerPoint presentations, which is another skill. The graphical representation also makes it more open to peer contribution and focusing on a problem.

This product has improved our collaboration and we now do it in a much better way. However, we do not yet have several people collaborating on the same version of a document at the same time. For example, earlier today I was working on a project with infrastructure managers from several regions. We were all on a call and I presented my thought process and ideas. I was the only contributor and I shared my screen. Although I was getting opinions from people, I was doing all of the work on the board. Ideally, people would treat it like a working session and do things like putting sticky notes on the board. In the future, having this type of collaboration would be great.

The plan is to let people know that the option for this type of collaboration is available, and have people come forward to contribute. This way, we start thinking and doing transformation on a different scale.

I can see that using LucidChart is going to save us time in project development, collaboration, and brainstorming. I can't estimate exactly how much it will save us without first having a baseline, although I can say that without the tool, ideation would take me approximately five times longer. The time it takes to complete a project has been drastically reduced.

What is most valuable?

The interface is easy for a layperson to use and adapt to.

There are a lot of pre-existing templates available to assist with a variety of methodologies.

Several different charts are available that include A3, fishbone, and others. There are also a lot of good techniques embedded, such as cyborg, lean, and agile. This helps us to set up the platform and choose which template to use, based on the problem statement.

This product is very adaptive and bringing it in has saved us a lot of time. Once we started using it, the thought process improved.

One of the best features is being able to share work product and opinion with my peers or take it to my CIO. There are good options and it shows how good our tools are at helping with brainstorming and ideating the thought process.  

What needs improvement?

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.

For example, when I want to edit something or place an object then I have to click on the arrow. If instead, I need to zoom in, zoom out, or navigate to another area, I have to click the hand button, which will be replaced with a mouse cursor. If there was a feature to cut down on the number of clicks then it would be helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using LucidChart for approximately one month. I have been delegated the responsibility of evaluating the effectiveness of the tool in my region.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is absolutely a stable solution. I haven't seen any glitches and in my experience, it is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have a global moderator, who is a system architect. This person distributes responsibilities to the regional level, such as North America and Latin America. EMEA and India are also regions, and I am responsible for India.

At this moment, it is a little early to talk about scalability because, for the part of our organization in India, I'm the first person using it. We will expand in the next two years and we will be doing a lot of activities. This includes transformational activities and we need to bring some brilliant brains together. When we do that, this tool will be a great help in terms of facilitating collaboration.

When we get to this point, we will definitely seek the help of Lucid experts.

How are customer service and technical support?

A gentleman from customer support has reached out to me but unfortunately, my calendar has been booked and I haven't had the time to speak with them. As such, I have not yet spoken with anybody from Lucid support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

If I want to reorganize my unit, there are multiple platforms that I can work with. I can use draw.io, Visio, or Miro, but adopting LucidChart was better from a strategic perspective.

At this time, it is my responsibility to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool in my region. I'll be in a position to evangelize the product across the whole organization, based on the key outcomes and whether the success criteria have been met. After I demonstrate its worth, the whole organization will adopt these tools.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

For a layperson, it is quite interactive and quite helpful. From my experience, it was smooth.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI in terms of time savings, which naturally helps in terms of costs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

At €167 per user per year, the pricing is slightly higher than Visio, but it's worth it.
First, it is just a little bit higher than Microsoft Visio. Second, there are a lot of additional features.

Lucid is a single platform but they have two products, LucidChart and LucidSpark. These go hand-in-hand and it would benefit many users if these two products were combined into a single, cost-effective license. I think that by combining these two products, Lucid can be very competitive and it would be a great value add.

One of the things that I do not yet know is whether anonymous users need a license in order to contribute. For example, if I have a license and I bring in some anonymous participants to interact with the board, I don't know whether the license covers them to do so, or if it is more limited than that. In other words, I am unclear as to whether a single license extends to multiple users.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Prior to selecting LucidChart, we were assessing multiple tools. Miro was one of the contenders, as was Lucid. I worked with Miro in between periods where I was using Lucid.

When exploring the various options, I found that Lucid offered a lot of existing templates. These helped me a lot with brainstorming.

A more complete evaluation was done by our global team. That said, I don't foresee any disadvantages in using it.

What other advice do I have?

We are trying to bring in Jira for project management, and if that happens then I plan to integrate it with LucidChart.

There are no Mac users in my organization so it is not very important to us that LucidChart accommodates both Mac and PC users.

My intention is to be an ambassador within the organization and promote Lucid to multiple people who are in need. We need to have this solution used regularly by the team, although the first thing to do is identify the people who need it. I've been liaising with multiple people to understand how it would assist, and how we can make the best use of the tool.

Once we have a large enough audience, we will contact Lucid for help on improving the effectiveness of the tool. They may suggest certain things that can be done. In the meantime, however, I am passionate about using the platform and will continue to explore it on my own.

Overall, this is a good solution and for a layperson, it will be very easy to get started with and adapt to using.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
Lucidchart
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Lucidchart. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user1618536 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Developer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Aug 8, 2021
Good integrations and makes it easy to create, explain, elaborate, and edit on the go
Pros and Cons
  • "It gives information about the roles and responsibilities of any architecture system and the exact system flow, business flow, or process flow. It also gives information about how the development team should take it forward. It shows the gap analysis in the flow charts and makes it easy to define the actor and his roles and responsibilities in the organization."
  • "I'm not sure if this feature is already there, but it would be good if we can import a cloud database in the web version."

What is our primary use case?

We use Lucidchart for building business presentations and business flows and explaining processes to stakeholders.

I am using its web-based version.

How has it helped my organization?

It is good for documenting things such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. It clearly explains the roles, actors, their responsibilities, and provides a high-level view of any architecture system. It makes it easy to explain, elaborate, and edit on the go. I would rate it an eight out of 10 in this aspect.

We can't draw everything from scratch all the time. Sometimes, we need to reuse something that is already present. We also have some legacy frameworks that we need to edit. Lucidchart helps in such cases by allowing us to import those legacy diagrams. From there, we can move to new inputs or new technology.

We are using Lucidchart to collaborate with others on a daily basis. It reduces the clashes that we have during the discussions through phone calls. When we share the screen and collaborate, everyone gets to know what the other person had on the mind, which is a good thing. It helps in comparing different things and eliminating what is not required.

Its real-time collaboration saves time. Now, we can complete our discussions within 15 minutes rather than an hour or an hour and a half.

The ability for people to look at the diagram created in Lucidchart rather than reading through written documents has saved time. It has saved one to two hours daily.

We use its integration with Slack. We have a lot of developer communities in Slack where they share pictures or diagrams. It has a plugin, and it is very easy to import or export to Slack instead of downloading on the system and uploading to Slack again.

What is most valuable?

It gives information about the roles and responsibilities of any architecture system and the exact system flow, business flow, or process flow. It also gives information about how the development team should take it forward. It shows the gap analysis in the flow charts and makes it easy to define the actor and his roles and responsibilities in the organization.

I like its integrations with Visio, Word, and Excel. It is easy to integrate them with Lucidchart and convert them into flow diagrams. Migration of Visio files into Lucidchart was straightforward. It is very user-friendly, and it is not something you need to code. We could easily import Visio files into Lucidchart.

I have used Lucidchart for creating new schemas, modifying schemas, and building the ER relationships. I would rate it an eight out of 10 from these aspects.

It is very user-friendly. Whatever you have in mind, you can draw it on the screen without any limitation.

What needs improvement?

I'm not sure if this feature is already there, but it would be good if we can import a cloud database in the web version.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Lucidchart for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. It is easily accessible and compatible with all browsers.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I did not use huge processes to test its scalability. It is good for my daily use. I also haven't heard any complaints from any of my peers.

We are a team of 20 people, and almost 15 people use Lucidchart for building processes and designing and modeling.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't interacted with their support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Visio a few years ago. Lucidchart is more user-friendly than Visio. Visio also doesn't have a web version. You need to install the app on every system, which is not the case with Lucidchart. You can also access it on your phone. It is compatible with everything.

How was the initial setup?

Its initial setup was straightforward. I'm using the web version, and it hardly took two minutes. It was very easy.

What other advice do I have?

With Lucidchart, you can easily define the scope of a process. You can also easily define who is involved in which role. It clearly extends the interaction between the actor and the system. It is useful for discussions and designs. The what-if analysis is very good for identifying any gaps. 

I have not used Lucidchart's ability to compare versions of documents. Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users, which is good because there are a lot of Mac users out there in the market.

I would rate Lucidchart an eight out of 10.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user1624443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Informatics Data Scientist at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Aug 5, 2021
Enables us to better visualize our engineering processes and architectures within our Atlassian tools but caused us to lose diagrams
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability for Lucidchart to create database schemas or modify existing data structures is strong. That's what I initially introduced it for in our organization. The script that Lucidchart provides works with other systems like Oracle, SQL Server, and Postgres that I can copy-paste, and get a quick dump of metadata and import into has saved me a ton of steps that I didn't have to manually create these tables. I had a lot of things where I still had to put in the linkages between tables, but I didn't have to type in every field name, every data type, and everything else that came in. That saved me tons of time."
  • "Lucidchart subset their older components or something like that had happened. I don't entirely know the totality of it, but we were forced to upgrade to a different integration with Lucid than what we had. I've had a lot of frustrations with that because I've lost a lot of diagrams. I can't get them back and I'm getting pop-ups that are showing me that our data will be loading and I can't run four or five years of my engineering diagrams"

What is our primary use case?

I was previously using whatever was on the web, but we have a plugin for our Atlassian tools, like Confluence, where we can integrate Lucidchart diagrams into our Atlassian tools as well. 

Previously, I was using my own personal cloud subscription, but then I stopped doing that. Once we had integrated it into our Atlassian suite, there was a plugin for Lucidchart and we had licensed the plugin. And so we would use the plugin that when we would add that type of graph, it would take us to the external website for configuring our diagrams, and then we could exit back and it would render the diagram in our Atlassian solution.

Lucidchart subset their older components or something like that had happened. I don't entirely know the totality of it, but we were forced to upgrade to a different integration with Lucid than what we had. I've had a lot of frustrations with that because I've lost a lot of diagrams. I can't get them back and I'm getting pop-ups that are showing me that our data will be loading and I can't run four or five years of my engineering diagrams. I'm extremely angry about that. I can say that all the time I've had this thing is making me leery to using the plugin, let alone rather just use the tool independently and copy-paste pictures because when the plugin fails to work and you don't have an image to fall back on, you could lose years of work.

I have that as a real big sore point and I can't figure out what, why, or how, and there's not really a good clear point of context to figure out how I address recovering all the lost work I have or how to migrate it.

I had massive engineering, ERD diagrams, database diagrams, architectural diagrams, you name it for years. And a lot of the documentation I had in Confluence, including system architecture documents for our products. I can't get those assets back.

My primary use case was for data entity-relationship diagrams for UML. It shows the engineering, architecture documents, using UML and the general flowcharts, and swim lanes for process swim lanes. I do tons of processes and swim lanes. I'd say those are really the four things I usually do with it.

How has it helped my organization?

It's filling a gap where we can better visualize our engineering processes and architectures within our Atlassian tools.

It provides real-time collaboration among users so that everyone is accessing and working on the same version of a document. Although we rarely use it in that way. Unlike sharing a spreadsheet that is being filled in by multiple people or something like that, usually editing diagrams isn't something we're doing at the same time.

It hasn't affected our project development process. For other tools, having simultaneous collaborative access is great, but for diagramming, it wasn't really a necessity for us. And I think that is mostly because we access Lucidcharts through a plugin, through Confluence, as opposed to logging into Lucid and then using that as a primary tool.

The ability for people to look at a diagram rather than reading through documents has saved time. They can look at a diagram to better understand something as opposed to reading words. That's kind of an abstract idea. I can't put up a price tag on it. There are probably tens of hours saved on managing the ERD diagrams and specifics since the automation is there for that.

It helped us to realize efficiencies in our projects.

What is most valuable?

I was the one within our company that advocated bringing in Lucidchart five or six years ago, compared to other things like ERD diagramming tools. I found that we were reverse engineering and recreating a lot of database diagrams that were not being maintained with other systems and Lucidcharts. Actually, their import tools for that is what made it a lot easier to bring back some visibility in terms of large data warehouses and things that were going undocumented for far too long.

Its ability to document things such as processes, systems, and new teams is great. It's a very strong diagramming tool. I think it's better than Visio and other tools that I had previously used.

The ability for Lucidchart to create database schemas or modify existing data structures is strong. That's what I initially introduced it for in our organization. The script that Lucidchart provides works with other systems like Oracle, SQL Server, and Postgres that I can copy-paste, and get a quick dump of metadata and import into has saved me a ton of steps that I didn't have to manually create these tables. I had a lot of things where I still had to put in the linkages between tables, but I didn't have to type in every field name, every data type, and everything else that came in. That saved me tons of time.

I like the integration with Atlassian because Atlassian lacked strong modeling and diagramming tools. It didn't really have anything good for that. This solved that problem. That was really it since Atlassian tools are our one-stop-shop for managing our whole software development lifecycle, but it lacked good diagramming tools. This was a good solution for that, short of my frustration recently after the conversion of losing all my content, which I still want to get solved, but otherwise, it is filling that gap.

It's important to us that Lucidchart accommodates both PC and Mac because our company is split. 

What needs improvement?

The improvement we would like has to do with what happens either in a license not being renewed, or if you have an end-of-life scenario where the plugin was used and you're not going to support it, or the customer is going to stop using it. What happens with the data on the diagrams that was there previously? I feel like there should be something in the way that plugins are managed that if other customers have a third-party tool, if there's a cached version of an image or something it should make sure that the content is never lost. Once you've used that you shouldn't have to be bound forever to maintaining that relationship or have that problem that I have where the plugin was a subset, they did something else and now I've lost years' worth of work.

At a bare minimum, there should be some kind of fixed backup image on my server with the use of the plugin that would have been the better thing to do from the customer's perspective. I don't know if that makes sense, because this way it goes away, they don't want to support it. They want to change something. What happens to years of my work? And whatever else that I have. At a bare minimum, they should let me retain a PNG file or something of the diagram that I had. I would even have something to reference if I had to recreate it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Lucidchart for six to seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think it's pretty stable. It's never crashed on me.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I haven't had any scalability issues, even very large diagrams. I've never had any issues with that.

There are between 20 to 30 users that are mostly a mix of the engineering team, architects, and senior engineers.

The maintenance requires less than one part-time person. 

It meets our needs. We don't really have a reason to change it. We were forced to update the plugin to a different license type recently. We're still working through that, but it's still our preferred tool for diagramming at the moment.

How are customer service and technical support?

I never used technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used Visio before and I switched to Lucidchart. I was not really a fan of Visio, mostly from the perspective that the ERD diagrams were harder and Lucidchart was just easier.

The migration from Visio to Lucidchart was easy. 

I think they're both about the same or similar when it comes to intuitiveness and ease of use. I haven't used Visio in around five years. It could be totally different at this point.

How was the initial setup?

I think the setup was done within a sprint or two, they had it working and figured out way back when, but that was a long time ago.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is very economical for what it is. Nobody had an issue with the pricing of it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not evaluate other solutions. This was just a tool that was used at a previous company that I picked up and we were using it for this and I really liked it. It just kind of happened organically. And then I brought knowledge of that here when I was faced with a similar task in this role when I started here five or six years ago.

The only other tool that I use a little bit is Excalidraw, which is a free online drawing tool. I'm using that more now because I got burned by losing a lot of things with Lucidchart, with the plugin transfer. And so I'm finding now I'm starting to use other tools for a general diagram that I can copy-paste in a diagram of. I got burned with the lack of support and the plugin and losing years of drawing. And so now I'm making a concerted effort to integrate PNGs, as opposed to using the plugin as a container. That's pulling the content from the third-party server that I don't know what's going to happen with that relationship. I'm just going to use it as an external tool, copy-paste, and take screenshots going forward.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to be careful with the plugins, as far as if you're using this plugin as a means to bring in diagrams into something else, understand what the long-term implication is. If you decide to change or not, it's a great tool.

Copy-paste your diagrams, copy-paste pictures, or export picture PNGs of your diagrams to paste into other tools so you don't rely on the plugin perpetually working.

I would have rated Lucidchart a ten out of ten but after my recent experience with them, it's now a seven.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user1613331 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Aug 1, 2021
Facilitates collaboration, integrates well with Atlassian products, and it's easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "The swimlanes feature is one that I use a lot. I have used swimlane diagrams to create business process flows and I think that it does the job pretty well."
  • "Lucid should create some proper documentation and video tutorials to demonstrate the capabilities of the product to new users. It should explain everything that it offers and everything that it can be used for."

What is our primary use case?

My company is a solution provider and I primarily use Lucidchart to create workflows for my clients, to show them how a product is going to work. It helps us to create a pre-sales demo of what our solution for them is supposed to look like.

I use Lucidchart to document things such as business requirements, as well as entity-relationship diagrams to see exactly what the schema of their solution is supposed to look like.

Essentially, everything I do with Lucidchart is part of the requirements for making a presentation to the client.

How has it helped my organization?

I have used Lucidchart to create database schemas and I think that it does the job pretty well. I've been doing that for a while now, and I don't have any issues with it. In this regard, it provides all of the functions that a business analysis or a developer might need, which is pretty good.

Creating process flows and workflows is one of my main use cases, and Lucidchart has everything that I need. This includes all of the different types of shapes, where every single one has a different meaning when I'm presenting a business process flow to a client. It covers this in all aspects. 

Lucidchart is integrated with the Atlassian suite of products. We will create different types of diagrams in Lucidchart and then embed them into Confluence when required. We also send out a link whenever we create a use case, which is then stored in Jira.

This integration is extremely important to us because we have the majority of our documentation in Confluence. Every solution that we design has a lot of technical documentation and at the end of the day, it is just words. However, with the help of the Lucidchart integration, we can properly visualize what is going on.

Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users because you're using it out of a browser. I have used it on both of these platforms and ultimately, it really makes no difference which system you are using.

It is really helpful when you are able to visualize something rather than read documentation. It has certainly saved us a lot of time. I can't estimate how much money the company has saved but obviously, if it is saving time then it is saving money.

Lucidchart has helped to improve efficiency because we're able to pinpoint all of the moving pieces and components within a project. It shows where you can be more efficient because having it in a visual representation, points out which product and which solution can be broken down into simpler ones. It's really helped in designing a much more streamlined solution in software development.

What is most valuable?

The swimlanes feature is one that I use a lot. I have used swimlane diagrams to create business process flows and I think that it does the job pretty well.

The best feature is the real-time collaboration among users, which allows everybody to work on the same version of a document. Multiple people can have access to Lucidchart and you can give them the ability to edit or view documents at the same time. The collaboration is fantastic.

The real-time collaboration has definitely sped up my project development process, although I can't really put a figure on how much so. Generally speaking, it has sped up things in the organization.

What needs improvement?

There are not a lot of learning resources that Lucidchart shares with the user. As such, users are really at the mercy of their colleagues and need to have them explain how to use the product. Otherwise, they have to learn on their own time just by trial and error.

Lucid should create some proper documentation and video tutorials to demonstrate the capabilities of the product to new users. It should explain everything that it offers and everything that it can be used for.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Lucidchart for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The web-based version of Lucidchart is pretty stable. However, when I downloaded the plugin for Google Chrome, I was not able to get it started. It is supposed to act as a shortcut but it doesn't work, and it hasn't worked for a while. That said, I'm okay with just using the base version. It isn't very important so I did not contact support about it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I can't comment on how the tool might scale but I can say that with what I have in front of me, it works pretty well. There have been no problems with scaling in our organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not been in contact with technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used a couple of different tools in the past, one of which is Microsoft Visio. It is certainly helpful if you are using Microsoft Office products because you can take images created in Visio and copy them directly into Microsoft documents. However, Visio is an on-premises desktop-based application, which I don't really like. I like the web-based solution that Lucidchart offers. There is less clutter on my laptop. At the end of the day, I prefer Lucidchart over Visio.

I have found that some organizations use Visio whereas others use Lucidchart, and switching between one and the other is not really important. All of them work fine, depending on the preference that the organization has. There is also the cost factor to consider, and whether the organization can afford it.

Lucidchart is much easier to use than Visio. Performance is important when it comes to ease of use and it is important to remember that not everyone has a fast laptop or a fast personal computer. Visio is a desktop application, so if you don't have a good computer then it is going to run slowly. Lucidchart is web-based, and the only thing that you need is a good internet connection.

Another product that I have used is Draw.io. It is not as advanced as Lucidchart. One of the main advantages of Lucidchart is everything that it offers you at the beginning. This includes different types of diagrams, different types of shapes, and different containers. In general, the UI tools are better when compared to Draw.io.

Overall, I think Lucidchart is a better solution at this time.

How was the initial setup?

This initial setup is pretty straightforward. It's a subscription-based tool, so you just create an account, you pay for it, and then you start using it. There is no implementation strategy needed.

All of the technical people in our organization use it. We have about 50 people in the organization and I estimate that 45 use Lucidchart. Approximately 50% of them are business analysts and consultants, and the other 50% are developers.

This is not the type of product that we need to maintain.

What was our ROI?

My company has definitely seen ROI on Lucidchart. When you are a consulting firm or a software development firm, you need a tool like Lucidchart for creating presentations of your solutions for your clients. The return on investment is pretty good.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

What other advice do I have?

There is a lot of functionality in Lucidchart but for my use cases, what I need is limited.

I have not used the organizational charts to visualize and understand team hierarchies and relationships, but I have a high-level understanding of how it's supposed to be done. It's pretty simple and does it pretty well.

Similarly, I have not used the functionality to compare versions of documents. This is something that I might use in the future but I have not used it thus far.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using Lucidchart is that it's a great tool for putting your ideas into something visual and brainstorming with your team. Multiple people can collaborate on the same visual diagram that you're creating, and they can all add their ideas at the same time. The brainstorming and ideation features are the best ones.

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is definitely to implement it. If you are developing software then Lucidchart is something that you should look into.

In summary, this is a good product but it is not perfect because of the lack of training material that is available.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user1609617 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Operating Officers at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Aug 1, 2021
Good interface that is easy to use, document and file sharing is helpful for collaboration
Pros and Cons
  • "The interface is really good and it is very easy to use."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I was using Lucidchart to design charts and diagrams. One of my tasks was to design an organizational flow chart.

How has it helped my organization?

This is a very professional tool to use for business.

Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding process flows are very good. There are tools included that you can't find in other applications, such as Photoshop or Google Docs. These tools are very helpful when it comes to completing the task.

I have used the solution to modify existing data structures but I would only rate it as a six out of ten in its capabilities. One of the more technical people on my team said that he wasn't able to solve or achieve some of the things that he wanted to be able to do with respect to data structures.

We integrated Lucidchart with Photoshop and it meant that we were able to move files from one to the others. There was one file that we couldn't complete using Lucidchart, so we moved it to Photoshop and finished it there.

GitHub is another solution that we integrated with Lucidchart, and it was helpful because we were able to transfer files that were related to programming. We are building organization software that uses a chart flow, and it was designed using Lucidchart.

Generally speaking, Lucidchart made it easier to complete my workload. I had used Photoshop for certain things and I found it difficult to use, so I was looking for good software that was both straightforward to use and could handle my workload.

What is most valuable?

The interface is really good and it is very easy to use.

The collaboration features work well. I was able to share a document that I was working on with another team member, who signed up for their own account. It is very professional in that regard because being able to share documents and files is pretty helpful.

Being able to collaborate with others has helped to realize efficiencies in the projects that I worked on. In one case, I was able to send my design to the programmers and after working on the design together, they were able to program the system based on the diagram. This can work if you are designing something like a website or a mobile application, where a diagram can visually explain what buttons lead to what tasks.

Another thing that I like is that it saves your document where you left off. It was pretty smooth in that it saves your document, and the last thing you did is the first thing that will be on there when you restart.

What needs improvement?

I think that the trial period should be longer than seven days. When companies offer a free trial period, they are trying to get the customer hooked on the product. I don't think that seven days are enough for the customers to feel that it should be a recurring payment plan for that product.

Having a trial period of 14 days would be better because it is enough time for the customer to better understand the product and the payment plan. Also, after the free trial expires, there should be more options available that people can still use for free. This way, once the trial expires, there is still enough to learn the product, use it, and then know enough to justify the subscription later.

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.

I think that the advertising for Lucid could be improved because I really had to do a lot of deep-dive research to find them. Their search engine optimization isn't bad because they appear on the first, second, or perhaps the third page of a Google search. However, I did not know anything about them. If you compare this to software like Slack, it has become well known. Ideally, Lucid would be out advertising their products more so that customers don't have to search very hard to find them.

When I first set it up, I couldn't see a quick tutorial, like a one-minute video, that explains what different tools are available in the product. Something like a popup below your screen to explain the different tools, or how to use Lucid effectively, would be very helpful.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used Lucidchart for about two weeks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not had any issues with stability, such as freezing. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability depends on who is using it. For me, it was pretty good because I didn't use it extensively. I don't know how much they give you to use, in terms of time or space, but for me, it was pretty good.

Only two of us were using it regularly. I was designing and the other person is a computer programmer. In the future, I could see having three or four people working with it. If we need more charts and diagrams on a more regular basis then it would justify the monthly cost. At this point, we don't have plans to do so, but you can never say for sure.

How are customer service and technical support?

The product is so straightforward that I didn't need to contact technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When I was researching chart products, I found that Lucidchart was one of the good options. I decided to implement it and didn't stop using it until I found that the price was too expensive for me.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. My implementation strategy was as simple as setting it up and sending the link to my team members. From there, we were able to design our charts.

No maintenance is required.

What was our ROI?

Since it was a free trial, I did not have a monetary return on investment. However, I was able to achieve what I needed to do, which is a measurable return.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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. Lucid offers a free trial where some of the features are missing but there are still a lot of features in the free plan.

It would be nice if there was more leeway for customers utilizing the free trial. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When I was searching for a charting solution I tried to use Photoshop, as well as Google Docs. I also tried the tools in Microsoft Office. I wanted to find the one that would make it easiest for me to achieve what I was trying to do. Sometimes, when you're working on a chart flow, it can be a lot of work. It needs to be done in a professional manner so that the programmer can fully understand what it is that you want to do.

In my experience, and I tried a bunch of solutions, Lucidchart was the best. Since using it, I have not evaluated other options.

What other advice do I have?

There were several features that I did not use, including the org chart capabilities. However, for what I did use, I felt that it was pretty good in terms of being able to share documents and complete tasks. This is true, even for the free version.

I only use a PC and the experience was pretty good. I didn't have the opportunity to use it on a MacBook.

Some people find it easier to look at a diagram, rather than read through written documents. This is a good product for people that have knowledge of diagrams. Not everybody is a visual person. For people who work in engineering or architectural fields, where they are used to having a good visual representation to help them understand what they're trying to achieve, it saves them time and money.

However, for people in other fields, where they don't typically use visual representations, I don't think it will necessarily help. You have to have an eye for that, and you have to be in that field to be able to understand what's happening on a chart or the visual representation is actually depicting.

I will definitely advise people to use Lucid. I don't know if people are willing to pay monthly, without even getting a full taste of what the product is and how helpful the product will be to them. With the trial period, it may not be enough time to fully explore the multiple features that Lucidchart has to offer. Ultimately, I think that if people take enough time to experience the product, they will see that it gives them what they need.

My advice is to try it but do so as quickly as you can because the free trial goes by quickly. There is also a limit on the things that you can do, with respect to the charting capabilities. Limited-time trials should have full capabilities but Lucidchart does not.

Overall, this is a good product and the biggest trouble that I had was finding them.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user1620129 - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrator at a media company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Aug 1, 2021
Organizational charts help to visualize and understand team hierarchies and relationships
Pros and Cons
  • "The organizational charts for visualizing and understanding team hierarchies and relationships are the reason why we purchased the package that would allow me to do more with it. I tried to find all the cheap ways to do things but the ease of access and the already preset structure that Lucidchart had in place made it easier. Out of all the choices that I saw come across my desk, Lucidchart was the best and easiest choice."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

I used Lucidchart because I had to create an accountability chart. We use an operating system called EOS, which is Entrepreneurial Operating System and I was tasked with assigning a seat for every role that's necessary to run an organization properly. Starting at the very top with what's called our visionary, which is really the CEO, and then my seat, which is the COO and I'm the integrator. From there, I had to divide it into departments and department heads and then the different roles each person plays within each department.

How has it helped my organization?

When I got hired at my company a month ago, I immediately went to the accountability truck that they had created. They used an Excel spreadsheet and it was so confusing because they had so many different boxes and nothing was color-coordinated. From an outsider looking in with no background knowledge of the company, it took me literally four hours studying their Excel spreadsheet to understand who answers to who, what role, and what job responsibilities each job has. I had to scroll way down or way over to see everything. What I liked about Lucidchart was that from a top-down view, I could see the entire organization and who's involved in what roles on one page.

You can't print on Excel. Excel spreadsheets are not friendly when it comes to printing something like that. Lucidchart offered a better viewpoint. I'm going to put seven or eight hours into a chart and everybody else is going to glance at it one time. If it's confusing, it's going to make it even worse. The final product seemed a lot easier to understand from Lucidchart.

The ability for people to look at a diagram rather than reading through written documents saves time and as a result, money. Everybody's been asking for Slack, Lucidchart, and our information with our company to be all in one place. I think it's going to help with communication and future involvement.

So far Lucidchart has helped realize efficiencies in the projects we use it for. For the project I've used it for so far it's been easy to understand. I've shown it to a few people who have never used Lucidchart and have never really seen our organization's accountability chart put together in one spot. We had three different Excel spreadsheets that were doing the work of one Lucidchart. The few people I've shown it to have really liked what they've seen so far. If I can learn more about it, gain more knowledge, and even somehow get certified in something with Lucidchart, I think it's going to help the organization as a whole.

What is most valuable?

Whenever you create a new role with a new person, some of the presets were nice. You can have a photo of that person that was customizable. That was nice. It was pretty self-explanatory. I didn't have to create individual boxes, it was already preset. Some of the preset features are nice. 

Some of the presets were easy to use and it was a very helpful and speedy process trying to create a chart. But it is hard to create those kinds of charts in Excel, Word doc, or something like that. It's really not very user-friendly, it's very rigid. Lucidchart made it a lot easier on some of the presets.

When it comes to documenting things like processes, systems, and new teams, I would rate Lucidchart an eight out of ten. I don't think it's perfect, but I think it is one of the better choices out there available right now.

The organizational charts for visualizing and understanding team hierarchies and relationships are the reason why we purchased the package that would allow me to do more with it. I tried to find all the cheap ways to do things but the ease of access and the already preset structure that Lucidchart had in place made it easier. Out of all the choices that I saw come across my desk, Lucidchart was the best and easiest choice.

It is important that Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users. At our company when you get hired you get the choice of using a Mac or a PC. It depends on each user. But it's very important that we're able to go across platforms and across Mac and PCs because every person in our company could have either/or, or both.

Lucidchart provides real-time collaboration among users so that everyone can access and work on the same version of a document. Right now, we're in the collaboration phase of the leadership team before we roll this out to the whole company. I found the share feature and I was able to put it in everybody's emails that needed to see the chart. I sent it to them on Friday. 

I think Lucidchart is going to be a great platform to help communicate to everybody and anybody moving forward what we are as a company, how we work, and who answers to who.

Slack integration would be vital to our work. We have our Gmail account, so we have email and all that kind of stuff. That's how I communicate with people. The editorial department communicates through Slack. As the company moves forward we're going to want to use a day-to-day announcements page and group creation. Having Lucidchart as a part of that is only going to enhance our users' experience with Slack, therefore enhancing the Lucidchart experience as well. It's vitally important moving forward that those two are integrated together.

What needs improvement?

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. Lucidchart seemed to have a preset distance left to right and up and down from each box and I couldn't adjust that. It made it very difficult when I was getting to the end and I had 30 people on one document and then I had to put our logo there and our core values because it was going out company-wide and I couldn't move some people around to fit onto a page. Lucidchart was just going to allow it to be off the page. I spent an hour and a half trying to drag things around, trying to adjust things, move things and combine things in order to get everything to fit on one page. It does have endless scroll but I have to be able to print this thing off onto one sheet of paper. It wasn't going to allow it to fit. I couldn't fit it to one page with everything fitting nicely because all the distances between boxes were predetermined. 

We need things to be printed out and pasted across the walls of our company. We're able to go beyond the borders on the digital side of it and it would be nice to have a feature that you could click just one button, like fit to page or something like that, and it would adjust everything to fit onto one PDF page. A feature like this would be helpful because I had to go to each individual box and adjust the height and width of every box. And I had to combine some roles into one role in order to get everything to fit.

If you looked at our chart, it's very wide because we didn't want people to think that this was necessarily a hierarchy chart. We wanted them to see that it's jobs across the board. The sales department would have six jobs going from left to right, not necessarily up and down. And so our chart became very wide and that's where I ran into issues. I couldn't drag things into open spots, which would make sense to our company because it seemed it was such a rigid structure that it wouldn't allow me to adjust or customize the space between boxes. 

It's a hierarchy, like an organizational chart. There are the people at the top and then the leadership team and the department heads. Then each department head has their own department and you have to have what each job is within that department. Some of the things that were very frustrating for me were that I couldn't adjust the distance between each box. If I had the department head above and then I created another role, it seemed like Lucidchart predetermined the distance. I couldn't shrink, extend, or drag without moving the entire thing all over the place.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been a teacher for the last five years. As a teacher, I used the free services as a teacher for my students. Recently, I have been using it for my new role at my new job. I am now hired at a multimedia company and I'm the operations officer. So we were creating an accountability chart. I've been using it for a month at my new company.

I'm using the Lucidchart platform. I go to the URL and log in.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not had any outages.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It was pretty scalable. My only concern goes back to having it fit onto one page. It didn't. It seemed very rugged to try to get everything to fit on a page. It took me an hour to create the chart and it took me two hours to make it fit on the one page.

Every department head is responsible for organizing how their hierarchy is within their section. Having the ability to drag and drop people and update people, I think they're going to find it very useful because it's a live document. If people get hired and fired and we add and we grow, we can just simply add and drop boxes and stuff like that. They'll probably be using it on a month-to-month basis as we grow as a company.

I plan to use Lucidchart very heavily in the future because one of my core jobs is to implement our organizational flow across the whole company. Our company is going to grow. We're at 30 people right now and we plan to expand up to 100 in the next two years. My job is to stay hyper-organized in planning ahead. I definitely am going to be reusing Lucidchart many times moving forward.-

We have tons of projects. We are multimedia-based and we have seven newspapers. We have an online presence, websites, and stuff like that. We design websites and all that for other companies. As we develop this, I could easily see the sales department using it when we go to talk to clients, I could easily see the digital department using it for project management, and I could easily see the editorial department using it for project management as well.

I plan to expand to other users in the company. I would love to learn and incorporate. We have six people in the leadership team, including myself, and I want them all to have access to our charts and then be able to create their own charts and share and collaborate with each other so that the sales department and the digital tech department will both know who they need to talk to. Now that the company is paying to have Lucidchart and not doing the free version, I'll be using it heavily every month.

We do not require any staff for deployment or maintenance. 

How was the initial setup?

I clicked on the preset format of the hierarchy chart and then I went in and started adding the jobs, titles, and departments. From a user standpoint, it was very straightforward and easy to use. It just wasn't very customizable as far as spacing was concerned.

I was using the free version and I got up to 30 boxes. I had to upgrade to have more boxes. At first, I didn't do it because, being a teacher, to get anything bought was like an act of Congress. You had to go through a whole checklist of people and places and things to get something approved to be bought. In this case, I just went to my administration and said that it was a good chart and I needed more features. We bought the monthly package. So the process was very easy and straightforward. If you want the stuff, you only need to make a few clicks and you got approved.

What was our ROI?

For the people that have seen what I've created, they like it. Once they see how it can incorporate multiple users and we can all collaborate and it can help each organization, it can help with communication and efficiency throughout, and I think people will get on board. Our CEO is very high on the newest, latest, and greatest things that are going to save us time and money. There's definitely the possibility of moving forward that we would want to expand, grow, and incorporate even more.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We signed up for the month-to-month and it charged us all at once for the whole year. I believe we signed up for the $7.99 one. I think that was the price. 

What other advice do I have?

From a teacher's standpoint for projects for my kids, we used the free version because I was at a low-income school. They always used Lucidcharts to create charts, whether it be a timeline or to show the military. I was a history teacher, so I would show the generals and the people leading out as the hierarchy. I've always used it for hierarchy purposes or timelines, from a teacher standpoint. From an executive leadership standpoint, I only used it for the organization chart that I created this past week. I didn't even know there were databases there.

My advice would be to go to YouTube first and look at how people use Lucidchart's organization. Explore through the website and frequently asked questions and get a better understanding before you start. Use the free version for about a week and then explore if you should purchase Lucidchart. I would definitely look for reviews, recommendations, and past people's experiences before pulling the trigger.

I definitely will explore some options as we have a need for them. This is a trial for the company and if everything goes as well as planned as far as implementing our organizational chart and looking at the other features it has, we will definitely start exploring how Lucidchart could help us.

A tip would be to just start off by using the pre-made charts and the pre-made formats, like I did, and allow time. I would set aside an hour a week to just play around Lucidchart and to click on all different features and all that kind of stuff. I didn't have that opportunity because I was pushed for time. But I definitely would explore Lucidchart through the free version and see what the paid-for version would give you in addition to what the free does and then just play around with it, make different charts and see what all they offer.

I would rate Lucidchart an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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the worst and dishonest trading company that I ever have had the misfortune of dealing with. They are, in my mind, criminals. I requested a withdrawal of £100,000 from my account. Within about 4 hours, the withdrawal had been put back into my account. Then my account was traded illegally with 11 trades taken and losing all the money. I complained to this company and they couldn't give a damn. I had to reach out to oliviatrader 44 @ gmail. com to assist me in getting back my money. Glad I have all my money back now.

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it_user1609554 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Business Analytics at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Jul 22, 2021
Easy to set up, boosts efficiency, and the sticky notes facilitate collaboration
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a very effective tool for documenting processes and using it has improved our efficiency significantly."
  • "One of the major drawbacks is that we have to extract the work in Lucidchart as an image when we want to create a presentation."

What is our primary use case?

In this company, we are using Lucidchart as a mechanism for whiteboarding and creating flow diagrams, charts, and any other things that are required for my day-to-day work. I use Lucidchart in my company and I used it in my previous job, as well.

I work mostly as a business analyst, in a product owner role. I have to build up the requirements, convert them into charts, and explain everything to the business owners.

The Lucidchart platform is where I use graphics to create pictorial descriptions, which is better than using simple words. It is a very effective tool for documenting processes and using it has improved our efficiency significantly.

How has it helped my organization?

Lucidchart is effective when it comes to reducing the time required to complete projects. It has reduced our efforts and time spent on decision-making, including time spent at both the requirements and presentation stages. I estimate that our efficiency has increased by at least 30% to 40%.

This is a good product for creating visualizations of process flow and workflows. I mostly use it to create process flows.

Many team members are able to work on the same version of the document at once, which is a feature that has helped to improve efficiency. It provides the ability to compare versions of documents but since all of us normally work on the same version, we do not leverage this feature often.

Presenting people with a diagram, rather than have them read through pages of written documents, has helped to save us time. It definitely saves us in terms of hours, but it is difficult to estimate how much it saves us in terms of cost.

Another way that Lucidchart has helped to improve our organization is that it has become a whiteboarding tool that we use in meetings. It has improved our communication and people can more easily understand how the different components of a system connect to each other. It has definitely enriched the experience of the client for which the solution is being developed. This is one of the value-adds that we get from using it.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is putting up sticky notes to share information with the team members, working with them jointly. We have a similar feature in Google Docs and it makes the project team members work more interactively and collaboratively. It even expedites the time to complete the project.

We have used Lucidchart to create database schemas and the functionality is very good. It is something that has existed in other SQL platforms, where you can create a schema diagram, but now, we don't have to download additional software to do it. We can develop the schemas right in Lucidchart.

Lucidchart is able to accommodate both Mac and PC users, which is something that is very important to us. Our team will sometimes sit in a large conference room, where we can project any member's laptop onto the big screen. For situations like this, all of the different laptops need to be compatible.

What needs improvement?

One of the major drawbacks is that we have to extract the work in Lucidchart as an image when we want to create a presentation. If there were some interoperability, where the blocks that you have created in Lucidchart can be directly copied and then edited in a PowerPoint presentation, it would definitely be a value-add. For small diagrams, we just rely on PowerPoint because if we want to make just a small change, it takes too long to go back to Lucidchart to make the change and then re-export it.

We have integrated Lucidchart with Microsoft Teams but it is not working properly. It means that we have to open it in a separate browser and log in, rather than directly with Teams.

The interface and process for managing documents could be improved. By comparison, the experience provided by Google for document management is very simple, and I think that Lucidchart can learn something from that. The interface that they provide in Google Drive makes it easy to scroll through documents, create documents, and create the folder structure. In Lucidchart, you have to create placeholders in the dashboard and it's very complex to view what you have done recently. I also face challenges when I'm scrolling a document, where sometimes it jumps back to the first document.

I would like to see some improvements made to the Mind Map feature. Having more functions to make it more collaborative would be helpful. It is there, but it's just a standard format. There are some new ways of working with Mind Maps, so these features should be included.

There should be quick and continuous revisions on the different templates that are trending. This would be a good improvement for Lucidchart.

It seems that the list structure in the UI is better than a sliding structure. The sliding structure looks great, but as part of the user experience, it becomes hazy.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Lucidchart for between three and four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is 100% stable for us and we have never faced challenges with it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of it being scalable, we have gigabytes in documents and it has always worked fine. Scalability isn't a problem.

I have a team that works under me. I am the lead business analyst and I have several team members that are continuously collaborating on different projects. My team has increased in size.

The business analysts, product team, and technical analysts all use it.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not needed to contact technical support beyond the assistance with our initial setup. We have not faced challenges since that time.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to using Lucidchart, I was using the SmartArt features in Microsoft PowerPoint. The advantage is that you don't have to copy your work from Lucidchart or elsewhere before presenting it.

I also have experience using Microsoft Visio and Draw.io. Visio is too complex compared to using Lucidchart or Draw.io, which both make this type of work very simple. 

I found it very easy to switch over from Visio. The Lucidchart interface is more user-friendly and lightweight. Visio has a very heavy interface.

I was able to import all of my files from Visio into Lucidchart and the process was very easy. This was definitely important because we have some existing documents from other products that we needed to continue working on. In fact, the reason that Lucidchart supports so many different formats is one of the reasons that we chose it.

When comparing Lucidchart with Visio and Draw.io, one of the things to point out is that Lucidchart and Draw.io are both lightweight and easy to launch. They do not consume much in terms of resources. Visio, on the other hand, is important because it comes as part of a suite of products. Since the release of Office 365, we began searching for replacements to Visio. Lucidchart is also much cheaper than Visio.

One of the differences with Draw.io is that we can't collaborate. Our increase in efficiency using Lucidchart is partly because of our collaboration, so this is an important difference..

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward. The folder structure is there, and we can create folders and manage them.

What about the implementation team?

Somebody from Lucid helped us with the implementation.

What was our ROI?

Our ROI is in terms of improved efficiency, definitely. We are receiving good feedback from our senior management, as we are better able to explain the requirements for projects.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have a corporate-level subscription but we are also using it at the individual level.

The pricing is very competitive. It is more cost-effective than some competing products, such as Visio.

What other advice do I have?

Our company has explored Lucidchart's organizational chart capabilities but I have not worked with them majorly. It is the type of chart that is more often used by executives. I found that the functionality was similar to what Microsoft is offering in Word and what Google is offering in Docs.

My advice for anybody who is considering Lucidchart is that if they are used to working with Google Docs, this is the best way to work. It allows you to collaborate and you can put your thoughts into a diagram. There are one or two suggestions, such as having a more collaborative Mind Map, but overall, it is a good product. That said, there is always room for improvement.

I would rate Lucidchart an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Updated: January 2026
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