Lucidchart vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio comparison

The compared Lucid Software and Sparx Systems solutions aren't in the same category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 24.8% mindshare in the category. Sparx Systems is ranked #2 in AM , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 11.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Lucid Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Sparx Systems users who would recommend it.

Lucidchart

Read 56 Lucidchart reviews

5,234 Views
733 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Read 99 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect reviews

8,412 Views
3,449 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 108 Visio reviews

7,159 Views
1,002 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Visio

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Mind Mapping Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Lucidchart	24.8%
Visio	29.6%
draw.io	16.0%
Other	29.599999999999994%

Mind Mapping Software

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect	11.3%
LeanIX	13.1%
erwin Data Modeler	8.8%
Other	66.8%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visio	12.5%
Camunda	11.3%
Bizagi	10.8%
Other	65.4%

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Michael Verruto

Managing Director, Project Design+Development at a government with 10,001+ employees

Visual approach facilitates clarity and process efficiency in complex real estate tasks

I haven't done much with Lucidchart's integration with other popular apps such as Teams, though one of my colleagues mentioned it can be added. This has sparked my interest to look into integration with Excel and Word, though we haven't implemented these features yet in our less than a year of operation. I access Lucidchart from multiple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and PC desktop. Our PCs are all laptops, so we can work remotely. I've collaborated with people from home on my iPad while they were on their laptop, though this isn't our routine behavior. I would recommend Lucidchart to others, but I'd also recommend exploring other options. It depends on what your fit and feel is for what you're trying to accomplish. For heavy users or technical users, Lucidchart might be very appealing. It has more capabilities than I'm currently using. The Highway Bridge Maintenance group, who are familiar with Agile processes, speak positively about it. For average users, they might find similar functionality in Miro or other less expensive alternatives. Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

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Milan Sterba

Senior Enterprise Architect at Deepview S.r.o.

Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

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Osama Nabih

Chief Executive Officer at Easy Touch

Has helped me communicate business processes clearly and improve documentation efficiency

The customer service experience rates a seven. It's very difficult to find the right person. When you have an issue and open a ticket, sometimes the wrong persons answer and don't know the solution. They shift you from one person to another and sometimes it takes weeks to find a solution for a problem. It happened with me more than one time. Sometimes the answer is misleading. For example, we had an issue in Enterprise Group in KSA, and we raised a ticket with Microsoft. They sent us a document of 170 pages with possible root causes and solutions. The cost to deploy this 170-page solution was too high and the needed time was months. It was almost not an answer. If they don't give me a specific reason, they haven't replied to my question. We neglected the document from Microsoft and started deep diving and finally found the solution ourselves.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"Lucidchart helped us to realize efficiencies in the projects we use it for. I can show people pictures, and I can change things in a meeting and then email it by the end of the meeting. Because most places we go, especially now with everybody in-home office, I'm going to have great internet access, and that just makes it easier to be able to change things quickly while we're in a meeting and go, "Oh, you changed this. Oh, okay.", and then send it to them as a proof and send it as a PDF or send them a link. That works great. That saves time and accelerates a sale."

"Lucidchart's capabilities for understanding workflows is high. I use a couple of different programs, like MindManager, and what I like about using Lucidchart is that it is all web-based. So, I can quickly go into a web browser, drag and drop a bunch of files, pictures, or notes, draw some flow lines, and rapidly be able to create a visual representation of what I am trying to do. As a product manager, I can quickly organize thoughts that way and show people what we are working on."

"Lucidchart is a lovely tool for creating visual representations of any process or organization."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of use, and just being able to drag and drop."

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

"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."

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

More Lucidchart pros

"The system provides powerful tools for obtaining reports and documentation."

"It is an EA tool that is approved by Open Group. It is in the tool register of Open Group."

"Its ability to reference and link to components from any diagram."

"Large variety of profiles and frameworks available out-of-the-box without the need for customization."

"It's easy to search within the solution."

"The profiles and ready-made templates are an extremely helpful feature. This is one of the biggest features that I find very useful in Sparx."

"The best thing about the tool is that its database is open."

"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect was easy to set up and it took just twenty minutes."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros

"I could jump into it and learn the basics pretty quickly."

"The most valuable features are that the user experience is simple, and it's customizable."

"The task sequencing, the process level views, and the ability to communicate between lanes are valuable features in Visio."

"The interface of the solution is very good. It's easy to navigate."

"I like to use Visio because it gives me a quick view of the things I had to put in a model for a company. I don't use it as an interface, though."

"I like the way you can hypertext across tabs so you can actually create an interactive that you can export as a website. You can also extend it to a monitoring tool if you really wanted to."

"We can easily add templates to SharePoint for collaboration."

"The main reason I choose Visio is that it is easy to use. The user interface is familiar and straightforward. Additionally, it offers a variety of templates, such as those for Cisco solutions, which make it easy to create diagrams for specific use cases. For example, we use a Cisco Meraki switch and we can find the exact template for it, then we can easily drop in the components and connect the cables to create the diagram."

More Visio pros

Cons

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

"I would like to have access to more colorful and more vibrant icons."

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

"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'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."

"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."

"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."

"The flowcharting feature would be improved if it had some kind of prediction capability that helped to create the diagrams, such as the ability to automatically join components with my database."

More Lucidchart cons

"I would like to see integration with Confluence or any other TRM, and the capability to integrate with the data storage, such as a repository similar to GitHub."

"I have found the solution is lacking options. The general usability needs improvement and more compliance to CML definitions."

"The Portfolio Management features can be added in the next release. As it helps you to manage more portfolio of projects and architectures of cost projects on a portfolio level. This would be an important feature in the next release."

"The fact that you can do a lot yourself is a plus point, but it also becomes a challenge because you need an understanding of the programming languages to get things to work. It becomes challenging for those who are not very good at programming. You have standard reports, but if you want to make your own reports, you have to program it. Similarly, if you want validations rules, you have to take care of them yourself."

"The areas of improvement should be focused on utility service such as producing better graphics, perhaps having a wider image library set and producing better models for working directly with customers."

"The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds."

"When many users are accessing the system at the same time, Sparx slows down. It can't easily support a large team."

"The elements of the modeling sets can have better customization and visual representation. It would be great to have a mobile version."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect cons

"The solution should have better integration capabilities with MacOS and Linux."

"The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated."

"When I create an organization chart in Visio, and I want to show it to management, I shouldn't have to copy and paste it into a PowerPoint presentation or put it into a PDF file."

"The export and import functionality from Visio to other tools and the import and export functionality from other tools to Visio are areas with shortcomings."

"It is a visualization tool, so database visualization is pretty static in it. They haven't moved the ERDs very well. They haven't adopted any real visualization like what you have in Hackolade for JSON or other data patterns. It has none of that. If you go onto broader patterns, you can actually label and integrate with a data set, if you want, for Visio, but it's very clunky and very difficult for me to assign that to another user. I can't assign it to a junior or a documenter. They really haven't cleaned up and made their tools simpler to use when linking to data, which is primarily what you're trying to do."

"From my perspective, Visio could probably add more help guidelines for users, and I would prefer to see more intuitive user interfaces to help with dragging and dropping, using the right components, etc."

"The product only functions well professionally, with adding additional software for configuration."

"The solution is pretty expensive."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"I'm happy with the pricing of Lucidchart but I can't say I'm completely happy with it. It could be cheaper for what it offers, about $5 cheaper, or Lucid could charge $5 more and add more features, like automation. Right now, it's $15 per user per month... On the other hand, they have made their billing super-easy for users, such as for people who have to do expense reports. It is probably the easiest platform I'm using when it comes to billing for software as a service."

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

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"The license I use is on-premise. We haven't gone to the cloud where we have to pay monthly or something like that. Sparx is cheaper than most similar tools."

"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."

"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."

"It is cheap."

"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."

"Enterprise licensing is competitive. What would be helpful if they load the pricing for consultants, you know, people who are consultants for clients. So the license is fine for end-user organizations. Still, they should consider lowering the license to support this adoption, particularly for people who are consultants like myself."

"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."

"It is very economical and low cost. You have to pay for a one-time license, and it is active forever."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pricing and cost advice

"My company does pay toward the licensing costs of Visio. It is a cheap product based on my experience, and since I purchased Visio for my own use."

"I give the cost of Visio a five out of ten."

"The product is inexpensive if you already have Microsoft products in your environment. The license encompasses all the required services."

"The price could be more flexible for infrequent users. If it's your main utility that you use daily, then it's a good price."

"While I don't recall the exact price I do recall that it was quite high."

"We pay annually for the Visio license and it is expensive."

"If I want to buy Visio for myself, I think it will be around 80 to 120 USD, though it is important to consider that I am unsure of its actual costs."

"My organization has paid for the solution. However, I have used it personally without payment. There is a free option available."

More Visio pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	38
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	58

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

Hi @Krista Thompson - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. ...

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lucidchart?

The system is a bit clumsy when it comes to stylizing to match corporate imaging styles. In real estate, we need ever...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not stra...

See all answers

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

I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty st...

See all answers

What do you like most about Visio?

The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task a...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?

One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about t...

See all answers

Comparisons

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 15% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

erwin Data Modeler vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Visual Paradigm vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 14% of the time

No Magic MagicDraw vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 9% of the time

LeanIX vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 8% of the time

SAP PowerDesigner vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 4% of the time

MEGA HOPEX vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 4% of the time

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Competitors

Bizagi vs Visio

Compared 30% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio

Compared 9% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Visio

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Blueworks Live vs Visio

Compared 6% of the time

Camunda vs Visio

Compared 5% of the time

More Visio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

October 2025

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

October 2025

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report

Download Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

October 2025

Download Visio product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Visio

Overview

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

Lucid Software

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is an enterprise solution that helps streamline, accelerate, and integrate software, system, and business development. With this intuitive modeling and design solution, enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, enable collaboration, support their teams and colleagues, and manage complex projects. Software architects, business analysts, project managers, developers, support staff, and testers can unite under a single repository. Through numerous view points and potential sub-systems, users are offered a unified view in a complex environment.

With Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, users are also offered a shared model option which can be accessed quickly and securely by in-office and remote team members through the Enterprise Architect’s Pro Cloud Server. Building a coherent, verifiable model can be done by connecting and integrating a variety of behavioral and structural information in visual form. As a result, Enterprise Architect offers high performance, flexibility, and the ability to model, manage, and trace every stage of the business development and modeling process.

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Features

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect assists in creating a unified and accessible vision in business development by offering a flexible platform with a unique set of rich features. These features include:

Test and debug - Streamline software development and visualize software with the simulation process. Users can test and confirm correct behavior, set and oversee test points, and debug and examine software.

Track tasks - Track, prioritize, and assign individual and group tasks to assist in the model’s development. Users can visually monitor their progress through the Gantt chart.

Open standards - Users can visualize and analyze running software with integrated custom tools. They can also run advanced simulations, team-based repositories, testing tools, and version control. In addition, the solution supports enterprise architecture frameworks such as UPDM and TOGAF.

Simulation - Create and debug embedded solutions by simulating behaviors and state models. Users can specify events, triggers, constraints, and more. Users can also specify extensive and complex structural systems and create custom domain-specific solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect merges high-end tools, online availability, a dedication to open standards, and accessible pricing so enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, whether remote or in-office. Users particularly like the architectural frameworks and the scalability.

Marc L., a principal architecture enterprise solution adviser at Cronomagic Canada, notes, "The product offers very good support for all mainstream modeling notations and architectural frameworks."

An enterprise architect at a manufacturing company writes, "Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."

Sparx Systems

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

Visio Features

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

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

Reviews from Real Users

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

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

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

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

OmniLink

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