Lucidchart vs Visio comparison

Lucid Software and Microsoft are both solutions in the Mind Mapping Software category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0. Lucid Software holds a 22.3% mindshare in MMS, compared to Microsoft’s 24.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Lucid Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Lucidchart

Read 62 Lucidchart reviews

4,963 Views
794 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 109 Visio reviews

7,149 Views
1,072 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Visio

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 15, 2026

Visio and Lucidchart are major competitors in the diagramming software category. Lucidchart gains an edge with superior real-time collaboration and extensive integration capabilities.

Features: Visio's standout features include seamless integration with Microsoft Office, making it ideal for those already operating within Microsoft's ecosystem. It offers a comprehensive library of templates and shapes for diverse applications, particularly valuable for engineering and network diagrams. Furthermore, Visio's interface allows for easy drag-and-drop functionality that simplifies complex diagram creation. Lucidchart excels in real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on diagrams simultaneously, which greatly enhances productivity. It offers a diverse set of diagramming tools, including UML and BPMN capabilities and integrates effectively with cloud solutions like Google Workspace and Salesforce, making it versatile across different platforms.

Room for Improvement: Visio could improve by adding XPDL support and enhancing pen input on Surface devices. There's also room to better its cloud service integration for a more seamless workflow experience. Lucidchart could enhance its offering with improved mind mapping features, greater user flexibility, and additional options like dark mode to cater to diverse user preferences.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Visio is often deployed in on-premises settings with some cloud integration options, which suits users within Microsoft-centric environments. However, its customer service varies, with reliance on community support. Lucidchart is primarily cloud-based, offering flexibility for public, private, and hybrid cloud settings, coupled with responsive online customer support that ensures a smoother user experience.

Pricing and ROI: Visio's pricing can be prohibitive for smaller organizations; however, bundled packages with Microsoft Office products can provide value. Its return on investment lies in its documentation consistency for Microsoft users. Lucidchart offers competitive pricing with an easy subscription model, making it budget-friendly. Its ROI is evidenced by time savings and increased productivity due to seamless collaboration and deployment.

To learn more, read our detailed Lucidchart vs. Visio Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart vs. Visio

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Lucidchart

Ranking in Mind Mapping Software

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)

Visio

Ranking in Mind Mapping Software

1st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

109

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Mind Mapping Software category, the mindshare of Lucidchart is 22.3%, down from 22.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visio is 24.8%, down from 30.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Mind Mapping Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visio	24.8%
Lucidchart	22.3%
Other	52.9%

Mind Mapping Software

Featured Reviews

Faizuddin Shaik

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

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

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

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NitinSharma

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

Created detailed rack and network diagrams that streamline documentation and collaboration

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

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

"It is a very effective tool for documenting processes and using it has improved our efficiency significantly."

"I like how all the contacts in my chart are linked to LinkedIn. That's what makes it really easy for outreach and for making sure we have all the contacts right there in front of us when we need to."

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

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

"Lucidchart 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."

More Lucidchart pros

"Good interface and good tool configuration."

"I think the best part of Visio is that you can import drawings very well into Microsoft Word. For example, if you put the Visio drawing into Word, you can double click on it and it opens in Visio. It is a very useful feature and something which I miss switching to Enterprise Architect. In Enterprise Architect, if I import a drawing into Word it does not open the diagram in Enterprise Architect. This is one of the strongest features and the ability to create your own stencils."

"What I like most about the solution is that It's quite easy to use."

"Visio is easy to use."

"I find the control flow and settings features valuable."

"The thing I like most about Visio is the stencils. As the product has matured over time, it comes with more stencils and objects that you can just pick out of the menu and go with."

"Visio makes it easier than with other tools to do such tasks as changing things or coming up with one's own visual style for presentation purposes."

"The most valuable features are process mapping and identifying responsibilities."

More Visio pros

Cons

"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"

"It would be helpful if there were different options available for organizing the folders, such as having a high-level display with pictures."

"It can have more colors or graphics. Currently, it is a little boring. It can have a little bit more fun factor."

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

"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."

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

"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."

More Lucidchart cons

"The solution should be included in Microsoft Office 365. For some reason, it's not. It should be bundled in with everything else."

"It is not flexible in terms of functions and modeling deliverables. When you speak of processes, the program has to describe the activities and the deliverables. You have to tell your robots how to deal with and input something, and you should have something more flexible from this point of view."

"Transferring data was one of the issues that I expected Visio to have resolved. I use the older version."

"The tools panel at the top, et cetera, seems really complicated."

"There are some issues in Visio with the connectors, and it gets tricky when you want to connect objects with each other."

"Lacks the ability to analyze the different relations between activities, positions and roles."

"One thing that I always felt was missing was the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products, particularly with things like SharePoint or other Excel Office tools. It may be available, but it is not as good as it could be."

"Some of the improvements that have been made in Visio have not been beneficial, at least to me, personally. Too many things have been added to it, and it makes it kind of clunky sometimes. There is an overwhelming desire or competition to continue to improve it when the product is and has been pretty good, and some of what is done tends to clutter it. In some cases, the updates make it more difficult to use. It is already pretty feature-heavy and continuing to add stuff is not productive from my perspective."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"The yearly cost is approximately $400 CAD ($300 USD)."

"There is a licensing fee, but it is fairly priced."

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

"The price of Visio is reasonable."

"The solution is expensive. The solution does come bundled in other packages."

"I know you can pick it up in retail for under a thousand per person. You can also pick it up for cheaper than that. Microsoft has about 7,000 licensing models, and you get certain percentages off specific licensing. If you're a partner, you get specific numbers of licenses with the partnership price."

"We have an enterprise license. I'm not sure what the cost is."

"The pricing of Visio is much better. It has a free version of the cheapest functionality which is enough for us."

More Visio pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	25

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

Questions from the Community

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

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

See all answers

Do you recommend Lucidchart?

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

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?

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

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

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

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What do you like most about Visio?

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

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?

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

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 30% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Camunda vs Visio

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

February 2026

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

January 2026

Download Visio product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Visio

Overview

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

Lucid Software

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

Visio Features

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

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

Reviews from Real Users

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

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

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

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart vs. Visio

February 2026

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