IBM Blueworks Live vs Lucidchart comparison

Why PeerSpot?

The compared IBM and Lucid Software solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #12 in BPD , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 2.8% mindshare in the category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 18.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Lucid Software users who would recommend it.

IBM Blueworks Live

Read 22 IBM Blueworks Live reviews

3,054 Views
2,779 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Read 66 Lucidchart reviews

6,109 Views
1,283 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

IBM Blueworks Live

Lucidchart

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Executive Summary

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

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

September 2026

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Helped 914,262 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM Blueworks Live

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (12th)

Lucidchart

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

Mindshare comparison

IBM Blueworks Live and Lucidchart aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. IBM Blueworks Live is designed for Business Process Design and holds a mindshare of 2.8%, down 3.4% compared to last year.
Lucidchart, on the other hand, focuses on Mind Mapping Software, holds 18.1% mindshare, down 22.9% since last year.

Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
IBM Blueworks Live	2.8%
Bizagi	7.7%
Camunda	7.1%
Other	82.4%

Business Process Design

Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Lucidchart	18.1%
Visio	18.7%
Xmind	14.3%
Other	48.900000000000006%

Mind Mapping Software

Featured Reviews

Ateeq Rehman

Unit Head System Implementor at Allied Bank Limited

Has supported automation efforts while limited use suggests need for wider implementation

We use an on-premises solution, and being a financial institution regulated by a governance body, most of our solutions are on-premises. Most scenarios involve use cases where human intervention is needed, and we take these use cases from human resources to automated processes. I do not use the process mapping feature in IBM Blueworks Live much since my involvement is to grasp the requirement. I generally use it on a high level. At the moment, IBM Blueworks Live is for preliminary documents only. I have not used the analytics feature in IBM Blueworks Live because I have not had the opportunity to explore it, as my usage is at a preliminary or basic level. I am satisfied with document and process automation overall, and it is a very good tool. I do not see many areas for improvement for IBM Blueworks Live because I do not see it in detail since it is a cloud-based solution. I am satisfied with integration in IBM Blueworks Live since it is primarily a different architecture, and the cloud approach is definitely far different from on-premises mechanisms, so there is generally no connectivity and no collaboration. The procurement for IBM Blueworks Live is not handled by me, so I did not buy it directly from IBM or through a marketplace. I believe IBM Blueworks Live might be on a hybrid cloud, but since I have not utilized it that way, I cannot comment. I rate the overall solution as a seven out of ten.

Read full review

AlexMartin1

Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé

Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions

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

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Blueworks has provided us with a steady set of templates to utilize for mapping, and has given us a consistent standardization across the organization to do all our process mapping on one platform."

"It raised the process maturity of the organisation from a low level to a reasonable degree of awareness and introduced some process language and conventions to the organisation."

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

"This solution is good at utilizing standards rules for connectivity."

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

"I don't think that there is another product out there quite like it."

"I like the two-tiered approach, that is, discover and then drill down to the main steps. You can right click and attach risk, policies, and much more. It is a user-friendly solution."

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

More IBM Blueworks Live pros

"Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding process flows or workflows is excellent. The way that you put together the parts of charts and edit the chart are all very intuitive and easy to use."

"We saved our team time by 20-30% and made our work considerably easier."

"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."

"It makes collaboration easy, it makes presentation easy, the real-time collaboration is super-helpful, and it has saved me time on the order of 20 percent for project planning."

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

"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."

"I really like the drag and drop feature because it makes the work easier. It is very easy to use. All the pieces are very good. All the icons and all the fields are available in the left panel. So, I just click, drag, and then edit a piece. When I showed it to my managing director, he was very inspired, and he also got a premium account for himself."

"None of those were even half as easy to use as Lucidchart, and I am a strong advocate for dropping those other software solutions for Lucidchart."

More Lucidchart pros

Cons

"In the Blue Works Live software boxes and lines are automatically placed by the programme and can't be easily manipulated."

"I think the spaces could be improved, it's not well organized so it's really convoluted."

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

"IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts."

"We'd also like to see it be Six Sigma or Lean compatible, a lot of people have asked about that."

"We haven't yet been able to dabble in case management with Blueworks Live, as it is not yet offered with the product."

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

"The ability to create a very structured rule. With the capability that we have right now, Blueworks Live is more process focused. We should be able to enhance it to include a lot more of decisions as well."

More IBM Blueworks Live cons

"I would really like to be able to set default appearance settings for new documents because I have a set of appearance settings that I always use. I end up setting that manually every time. There may be a way to do that, and maybe I am not able to find it. This is my only major point of feedback for improvement. There are other little nitpicky things, such as being able to lock layers without them looking like a big red line around them would be nice, but every graphic design software does that, so I understand why they have that. All my concerns are nitpicks. They're not big."

"Sometimes, I have created charts with a lot of layers, which locks down parts of the chart and hides parts of the chart to edit it."

"It would be nice to have more features that help me visually present information. Since I use it as a canvas, my use case for it is probably very specific. I use it as a way to present information to people visually on a large mind map. So, it would be nice to be able to have more graphical things to clean it up, like a header, banners, or something to help draw attention to certain areas. I would also like more infographic-like features, because I am kind of limited to float chart shapes. This makes the solution a little cumbersome."

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

"In terms of improvement, they should make it very clear, whether it's a single A4 page or two A4 pages, it should be mapped out. Either I don't know how to use it, or it's not there, but having to stick to margins so I can see what's going to be on different pages when I print it or move it to a PDF has been my only challenge so far."

"They could provide more documentation or tutorials of ERDs or DDD on the Lucidchart site. That could be better."

"When you log in the first time, they ask you a lot of questions, such as what are you going to use it for. Half of the things weren't applicable to me. I couldn't see the skip button, so I picked random things because none of the given options was applicable to me. It is a tech startup, and I am in a consultant role. I use it for a variety of things, but the questions were tailored for HR professionals who are creating org structures or IT professionals who are doing data flow diagrams. What if I do both of them depending on the project I'm working on? I just felt that I am wasting time with those questions and just wanted them to stop asking me these questions and get into charting."

"The UML diagram that it gave me initially was a huge flow with a bunch of UML tables, and I wasn't going to need that many. If it was a more simple linkage between the tables then it would be easier to finish projects, instead of having to select unnecessary tables and delete them."

More Lucidchart cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

"The solution is not very expensive."

"Making it less expensive would be good."

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

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

"Its pricing is very affordable and reasonable for the features that it provides. I am using its basic plan, and for my usage, it is perfectly reasonable. It suits perfectly."

"There is a nominal charge for the paid version of the product. They have a free version available and from what I could see, there was not much difference between it and the pro version."

"The pricing and licensing are fine. It has a lot of features that I prefer over some of the other programs, which is good. Being that it is web-based, I feel that it is acceptable that it's on a monthly pay basis. However, I think I pay on an annual basis, which is fine with me."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	29

Questions from the Community

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

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?

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

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Blueworks Live?

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

See all answers

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

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

See all answers

Do you recommend Lucidchart?

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

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?

It is cloud-based, so no setup is required. Currently, we are using a free plan.

See all answers

Comparisons

Visio vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 11% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 9% of the time

ARIS BPA vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 9% of the time

MEGA HOPEX vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 7% of the time

Camunda vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Blueworks Live Competitors

Visio vs Lucidchart

Compared 9% of the time

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 6% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live

September 2026

Download IBM Blueworks Live product report

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

September 2026

Download Lucidchart product report

Also Known As

IBM Lombardi Blueprint

No data available

Overview

IBM Blueworks Live offers a cloud-based tool with real-time collaboration and BPMN 2.0 support, designed for efficient process mapping and management. It integrates well with IBM services and allows seamless Visio flowchart imports, emphasizing ease of use and intuitive process documentation.

IBM Blueworks Live is designed to facilitate business process discovery and optimization. It supports collaborative workshops for process mapping, providing a central repository for all business process information. This tool is ideal for companies aiming to innovate and transform their processes through detailed modeling and analysis. With automation support and cloud accessibility, it streamlines process governance and role management. Potential areas for improvement include cost efficiency, reliability, better integration, user management, and customization features.

What are the key features of IBM Blueworks Live?

Ease of Use: Intuitive interface for streamlined navigation and mapping.
Real-time Collaboration: Enables teams to work together efficiently.
BPMN 2.0 Support: Advanced process modeling standards for industry compatibility.
Cloud Accessibility: Access and manage processes from anywhere.
Visio Integration: Seamlessly import existing flowcharts for continuous use.

What benefits should users expect when using IBM Blueworks Live?

Process Efficiency: Quick and accurate process documentation and management.
Improved Collaboration: Enhanced team communication and workflow management.
Automation Support: Streamlined governance with built-in roles and workflows.
Scalable Integration: Compatibility within IBM's business process management suite.

In specific industries, companies leverage IBM Blueworks Live for comprehensive business transformations, integrating it with IBM BPM for deploying intricate process models. It serves both internal process architecture and external customer engagement needs, facilitating process discovery sessions and collaborative innovation.

IBM

Lucidchart offers a dynamic platform for visual collaboration, enabling teams to enhance workflows and boost productivity through real-time updates and diverse templates.

Lucidchart provides an intuitive interface designed for seamless integration with tools like Google Workspace and Salesforce. This enhances team collaboration by reducing misunderstandings and accelerating workflows. Its cross-platform compatibility ensures both Mac and PC users achieve visual clarity in process management. While users value its efficiency, there is a desire for improvements in handling complex diagrams, more accessible pricing for advanced features, and enhanced offline capabilities. Customization, such as color schemes and dark mode, along with robust tutorials, remain areas for potential enhancement.

What features define Lucidchart?

Real-time Collaboration: Allows teams to work simultaneously on diagrams.
Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies the creation process with intuitive controls.
Diverse Templates: Offers a variety of pre-built templates for extensive usage scenarios.
Seamless Integration: Connects effortlessly with Google Workspace and Salesforce.

What benefits can be expected from Lucidchart?

Enhanced Productivity: Facilitates efficient collaboration and workflow acceleration.
Time Savings: Streamlines process mapping, saving teams significant time.
Visual Clarity: Aids in clear project management and teamwork communication.

In sectors like technology and business, Lucidchart is extensively used for visualizing workflows, system architectures, and process maps. It serves as a powerful tool for collaboration, brainstorming, and documenting procedures. Teams find it effective for demonstrating technical and business structures, improving coordination, and supporting tasks like planning, migration, and development.

Lucid Software

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

September 2026

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