Visio vs Visual Paradigm comparison

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12,265 views|9,226 comparisons
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7,021 views|4,408 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Visio and Visual Paradigm based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Business Process Design solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Visio vs. Visual Paradigm Report (Updated: November 2023).
745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is easy to scale.""The usability in general is good. The integration of uploading custom stencils is also very nice.""The product's initial setup is really simple.""The most valuable feature of Visio is diagram creation. If you have a presentation, you can create your data model using Visio.""It has a lot of great features.""It is a useful tool to map data flows, network objects, and computer science technology and 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.""Very interactive with an intuitive interface.""The product is stable."

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"What I found most valuable in Visual Paradigm is diagramming. I had a great user experience as diagramming in the tool is easy and convenient, even for complex diagrams or models. Visual Paradigm is the perfect tool for me, and I prefer it over Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect. Visual Paradigm is better for collaboration if you consider, for example, versioning, so this is another valuable tool feature that's simple and embedded in the solution. In Visual Paradigm, it's also easy to set up the project with team members and collaborate, and it's also a pro of the tool.""Stable design software with multiple functions and features. It's simple to install and easy to use.""I find it very user-friendly for my purposes, which is creating business process models that I can publish as HTML pages. It has worked flawlessly for my project, and my clients are able to utilize it as an internal web portal for their process documentation and other needs.""It is easy and intuitive to use, not excessively rigid, and quite flexible.""It is a scalable solution...The initial setup was straightforward.""It is a scalable solution since it can be used at an individual level as well as for enterprise-sized businesses.""The Visual Paradigm business process forms for designing we good. There was not a lot of configuration for the process diagram.""The application is easy to use and provides informative diagrams."

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Cons
"Sometimes, there is a little bit of a learning curve with it, especially while doing complex network diagrams and getting the lines to snap the way you want them and not overlap or be confusing. It would be great if there was a built-in tutorial. It is not that you can't YouTube, but it would be nice if they gave you some free training. I've been using it forever, but every now and then, I got to do something complicated with it and I wonder how do I do that again. Maybe they do have such information, and I don't know. I have not done research on it because a bunch of people work for me, and some of them are better at it than I am, so I just ask them to do this for me.""Indeed, Visio should progress beyond its current stage of solely drawing diagrams and transition into a more advanced phase, possibly integrating with different packages or aligning with Microsoft's offerings. It could potentially evolve into a comprehensive business process management solution, comparable to tools like Addis or Signavio, thereby competing in the realm of process management tools. It might be advantageous to explore functionalities such as process simulations or benchmarking, introducing simulators to discern potential bottlenecks or errors within complex flow diagrams. This addition would prove valuable for business analysts seeking insights into the intricacies of their diagrams, aligning with the evolving trends observed over the past six years.""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.""One issue I've noticed is that when working on a shared video link with a friend for Visio, there can be a delay in changes reflecting on their screen after I've made them. This also occurs when we're working on the same document. It would be beneficial if changes could be reflected in real-time. Additionally, I've experienced some text size issues with the flow task feature. Sometimes when I enter text, it appears very small, and increasing the size causes it to extend beyond the diagram, creating formatting issues. It would be helpful if these text and formatting issues could be addressed.""The performance sometimes lags and has room for improvement.""Visio is not as scalable as other tools due to the proprietary restriction. You cannot customize it or scale it up like the way you do with Trello or Jira. Microsoft places restrictions on things that you can do with Visio.""Integration with other software would be an area of improvement, so that it's not just used to document but also as a center plane for information sharing.""It requires a lot of skill to get into it."

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"The solution can improve by updating the user interface, and graphics.""Visual Paradigm could improve many aspects. The performance could be better because it can be low. When we have large and complicated models, it has a low speed and many bugs. Sometimes the solution stops and you have to restart Microsoft Windows on your PC. The larger database modeling cannot be done properly, I have to use another solution called SAP PowerDesigner.""Takes up a lot of resources.""Visual Paradigm is heavier and has more complexity than one of its competitors, e.g. Lucidchart. It could have been better if it was more simplified.""There is room for improvement in the licensing model. I would suggest implementing country-specific pricing, as many other products in India do. This would make Visual Paradigm more affordable and accessible.""The product's versioning capability needs improvement.""The user interface is not easy to navigate, so it should be made easier.""I was looking to generate code from the diagrams, but it was not totally clear how to do it."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The popularity of a product is an indicator of its price. Because of the popularity of Visio, its price is on the higher side. We need better pricing for it."
  • "We probably have an M-365 E3 license."
  • "The licensing process is actually a breeze. Simply buy the license and download it from Microsoft, enter the license key in Visio to activate the software, and you're done."
  • "Visio is a pricey tool. It's a five out of ten, cost-wise. It would be great if it had a pay-per-use licensing model because my company uses it sparingly."
  • "I give the cost of Visio a five out of ten."
  • "The solution is expensive. The solution does come bundled in other packages."
  • "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."
  • "We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."
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  • "This product is fairly cheap, but if you want more complex features, e.g. integration with other products, it does require an additional cost."
  • "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."
  • "Visual Paradigm costs $99 per license. I chose the cheapest option from the pricing list."
  • "Pricing for Visual Paradigm is a four out of five for me. I'm happy with its pricing."
  • "Compared to other solutions such as IBM Rational which is expensive, This solution is priced low."
  • "This is an open-sourced solution, it is free to use."
  • "I rate the pricing a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
  • "I rate Visual Paradigm's pricing a five out of ten."
  • More Visual Paradigm Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:The product is inexpensive if you already have Microsoft products in your environment. The license encompasses all the required services.
    Top Answer:The application is easy to use and provides informative diagrams.
    Top Answer:The product's versioning capability needs improvement.
    Ranking
    1st
    Views
    12,265
    Comparisons
    9,226
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    439
    Rating
    8.0
    7th
    Views
    7,021
    Comparisons
    4,408
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    405
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft Visio
    Learn More
    Visual Paradigm
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    Overview

    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

    Visual Paradigm is a UML tool. The tool is designed for a wide range of users including software engineers, system analysts, business analysts and system architects, or for anyone who is interested in reliably building large-scale software systems using an object-oriented approach. In addition, Visual Paradigm supports the latest standards of UML notation.
    Offer
    Learn more about Visio
    Learn more about Visual Paradigm
    Sample Customers
    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
    Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Government12%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Aerospace/Defense Firm8%
    Government8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company12%
    Educational Organization10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    University8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business65%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise26%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise63%
    Buyer's Guide
    Visio vs. Visual Paradigm
    November 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Visio vs. Visual Paradigm and other solutions. Updated: November 2023.
    745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Visio is ranked 1st in Business Process Design with 28 reviews while Visual Paradigm is ranked 7th in Business Process Design with 12 reviews. Visio is rated 7.8, while Visual Paradigm is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Visio writes "Provides a quick way to spruce up client reports and proposals with rudimentary yet impactful visuals". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Visual Paradigm writes "Complete feature sets, plenty of models, and useful document engine". Visio is most compared with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Bizagi, IBM Blueworks Live, SAP Signavio Process Manager and Lucidchart, whereas Visual Paradigm is most compared with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Lucidchart, No Magic MagicDraw, Bizagi and ARIS BPA. See our Visio vs. Visual Paradigm report.

    See our list of best Business Process Design vendors.

    We monitor all Business Process Design reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.