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Lucidchart vs Visual Paradigm comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Mind Mapping Software (2nd), Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)
Visual Paradigm
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Lucidchart and Visual Paradigm aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Lucidchart is designed for Mind Mapping Software and holds a mindshare of 18.1%, down 22.9% compared to last year.
Visual Paradigm, on the other hand, focuses on Business Process Design, holds 3.6% mindshare, down 5.3% since last year.
Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Lucidchart18.1%
Visio18.7%
Xmind14.3%
Other48.900000000000006%
Mind Mapping Software
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Visual Paradigm3.6%
Bizagi7.7%
Camunda7.1%
Other81.6%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

AlexMartin1 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
reviewer2097357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Innovation in diagramming has streamlined complex UML tasks
Visual Paradigm allowed me to create UML diagrams efficiently. The tool was smarter than other tools in terms of remembering the connections between components on the screen. For example, in other drawing programs, if I moved a box, I had to move the arrow, but Visual Paradigm handled those tasks automatically. This made it much quicker than using other tools like Visio or MagicDoor.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the features that I really like is the collaboration aspect of it. During the pandemic, it's very important that we're able to collaborate virtually."
"As a result, it has saved me time, on the order of at least 50 to 60 percent, because of the ease of use."
"It does everything I need it to do."
"Lucidchart is a really effective tool to help illustrate those pictures, to explain very complex technical ideas to other technical people."
"It's very easy to use. I didn't go through any tutorials or any documentation. It was very easy for me to start. It is intuitive. Right after logging in, I was able to quickly just drag and drop and do the things I wanted to do, without any prior knowledge of the solution."
"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."
"The best feature Lucidchart offers is the ability to collaborate in real-time."
"It is important to me that the solution accommodates both Mac and PC users because the developers in our company use Mac, then the business people use Windows. The technical people create the technical architecture using Lucidchart. So, it is important that it is compatible with both the systems."
"It is easy and intuitive to use, not excessively rigid, and quite flexible."
"As integration goes, the Suite works wonders when you bounce from coding to document redaction (producing the sets needed of UML), because you just need to translate from one to another, given your programs of coding allows it, like Eclipse ( /products/eclipse-luna ) does."
"Visual Paradigm is simple and easy to use."
"The solution is stable. It hasn't crashed, stopped or caused any issues in any way."
"It is a scalable solution since it can be used at an individual level as well as for enterprise-sized businesses."
"It is a scalable solution...The initial setup was straightforward."
"Visual Paradigm is the best product I've used."
"The Visual Paradigm business process forms for designing were good, and there was not a lot of configuration for the process diagram."
 

Cons

"In terms of the UI aspect of Lucidchart, I see that most of the features are available on the left pane, which has the basic diagrams and shapes."
"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."
"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."
"One downside is that you can only modify things online, but when you download work, you download it as an image. It would be useful to have an option to modify it locally."
"Some of the things that were very frustrating for me were that I couldn't adjust the distance between each box."
"There is a premium for the use of certain elements in Lucidchart... It becomes very annoying, especially if you are a first-time user of Lucidchart and you don't have a premium plan. It feels a little too restrictive, in terms of using very basic shapes and icons. It asks you to sign-up for the premium account, which I think shouldn't be the case."
"As far as I know, LucidChart can’t be automated with Visual Basic .Net like Visio."
"Wireframing can be improved. For mock-ups and wireframing, only 10% of what is required is there."
"I would like to see something for visualizing innovation work maps."
"The product's versioning capability needs improvement."
"There is a certain inherent complexity when creating UML diagrams."
"The speed of redrawing elements and links in complex models - when you need to move part or all of the diagram across the diagram, the tool has a slow response when redrawing objects."
"The solution could be more compatible with other products in the future."
"Visual Paradigm can improve by having better process mining tools and model integration."
"When you move projects from Visual Paradigm into Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect via XMI files, you lose all your notes from the elements, so this is an area for improvement in Visual Paradigm."
"There was one particular bug that caused some instability issues; Visual Paradigm was having trouble with Microsoft SQL Server system versioning tables and would just lock up in that one particular instance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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 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 licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."
"The price was low enough to make me think that it was fine, I'll go for it. I think it's $80 or so. It's not too expensive."
"I pay $95 a year for it. It seems like a reasonable price."
"The pricing is very reasonable, and they have a free trial available that you can play with."
"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."
"Pricing for Visual Paradigm is a four out of five for me. I'm happy with its pricing."
"Visual Paradigm's pricing is not expensive."
"This is an open-sourced solution, it is free to use."
"In terms of pricing, I find Visual Paradigm's subscription services reasonable, especially for the modern and standard editions. However, the premium products can be a bit pricey, especially considering our location in the Middle East. Currently, paying around a hundred dollars per user translates to almost six hundred Egyptian pounds, which can add up. For enterprise licensing, I think the perpetual license option could be more affordable. If it were cheaper, say around five hundred dollars, I would have invested in multiple perpetual licenses long ago. Sometimes, to manage costs, we share accounts among team members or switch access on and off for certain members who aren't actively working on projects. As for additional costs, there are charges for cloud services, which I'm considering because I've already exceeded the free capacity."
"The pricing of Visual Paradigm is very appropriate and affordable. There are no hidden costs involved."
"Compared to other solutions such as IBM Rational which is expensive, This solution is priced low."
"You can use Paradigm on a subscription basis and you can choose from different tiers of subscription."
"Visual Paradigm has two models available. One of them is the educational edition, and another is the business edition. For my personal usage, I use the educational version mostly. In a project, my customers have to purchase a license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
 

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 ...
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...
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.
What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?
The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.
What is your primary use case for Visual Paradigm?
I needed to create UML diagrams and to perform a significant amount of diagramming work.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks
Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
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