Visio Reviews

My primary use case is for designing the architecture diagram and the network diagram. 

The most valuable feature is how easy it is to use. 

Visio could be improved by adding more features. If you look at draw.io, they have more features. Also, if you want to design something for the cloud, Microsoft Azure still isn't enabled, so you need to install the plugin. This prototype is easily available, though. 

I have been using this solution for almost ten years. 

The stability is quite good. There is not much maintenance really required. If it's on your desktop and something goes wrong, it is usually available to repair again. You don't need anyone else to maintain it. 

I previously used the Sparx System Enterprise Architect, but my experience with it was limited. It was discontinued because they stopped the licensing. 

The installation was straightforward. It takes about five to ten minutes and you can do it yourself. 

I implemented myself. 

I pay for the license and it is very expensive. If you're only going to use this tool from time to time, you can save money by just using the available online tools. But if you plan on using it heavily, then it's worth it to invest. 

I would rate this product an eight out of ten. I recommend this product to others because it's a useful tool for designers and architects. 

I use Visio for visual rendering of technical concepts. I use the stencils that depict different workflows, data flows, or architectural structures from an IT perspective that I could render in other documents like PowerPoint or Word documents.

Since we work in IT, we deal with very technical abstract concepts. So having the ability to visually depict a concept that we're trying to get across is helpful. When we write documentation, we have to write it for the broadest audience possible. If you can reduce the number of words, either in technical documentation manuals or others, and do it visually, that seems to register with the targeted audience.

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. 

It thinks that it knows what you want to do, but it doesn't. It has a way of behaving that can be very frustrating from time to time. Either it moves things about because it thinks its placement should be at a certain place, or it's keeping track of things that you don't necessarily see, so it moves something elsewhere. So when the software requires more keystrokes than one would think to either capture or register a placement, or a drag and drop function that you think should be easily executed, it sometimes doesn't always work that way. Regardless of the skill, the user experience can sometimes be interesting. The predictive behaviors of it at times can be a little bit of a drag.

I've been using Microsoft Visio for twenty plus years.

More often than not, stability is not an issue, it's a fairly stable product. I've noticed that when I have multiple products open, like PowerPoint, Excel, Microsoft, and a couple of others, sometimes it begins to act flaky and then I have to start cutting down services or closing things. In general the Office suite, sometimes it can let you know that it's going to start acting funky, or the behavior begins to be flaky. You have to just know by experience that's your cue to cut down services, close windows, close applications, because the robustness of the applications are not allowing you to be as multitasking as you want to be.

Scalability is okay. It's like everything else, most people they use at most, 30% of the product's capabilities, so there's a lot of stuff in Visio that doesn't necessarily get used. You don't know that when you do the typical installation, that a good part of the product capabilities are never going to get used. The default configuration is to load everything, as opposed to custom, and it's just easier just to let it deploy everything. As a result of that, there's a lot of functionality that gets pulled in, and memory and CPU that may be consumed that the user would never benefit from. That's just the nature of the beast.

Setup is mostly straightforward, but there are occasions where the installation process can be prone to some issues that may not always be apparent until after you deploy it. Sometimes the installation experience requires expertise. Sometimes it's not always clear if you're going to have compatibility issues with the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version, there's been those type of subtleties in the past.

Since I've worked in different shops, sometimes I have installed it from my own product license that I purchased. So I've deployed it from a physical media and I've deployed it from an on-site provider because I purchased the key and there was no physical media. Then there are other times where the company that I worked for, their end user computing team, or their desktop support team, because they have to keep track of the licenses, they own the deployment and the push down to the user and make it part of their image. Because there's a cost to deploying that product in some variation of the product packaging, they tried to keep control of that. 

Just be mindful that the software, while it's helpful, it can behave in ways that can be a little frustrating. A lot of companies say go and find a Visio-like product that can do 70% of what Visio does, for free. There have been companies that I've worked for that said we will not pay the license fee for Visio, go and get a similar product that you can download from the web that can do 70% of what you need it to do. 

I would rate Visio an eight out of ten. It's a product that's been known. Many people use it. It's got an established install base. It's not flawless by any means, but since it does allow some intimacy with the Microsoft products, that's probably its greatest thing, and in a business environment, that's important. Because of its cost structure, a lot of organizations are trying to figure out if there are alternatives out there, which there are. Those other products can do much of the heavy lifting that Visio does at a cost point that, in some cases, is very attractive.

The solution is primarily used for diagramming. I use it for a couple of different things, however, it's mostly for diagramming and documenting data center infrastructure including racks, wide area networks, logical designs, physical designs, and conceptual models.

The ability to clearly demonstrate and create labels has helped the organization immensely. To be able to create and to provide detailed configuration guidance on what ports to plug wires into, et cetera, is useful.

We use it to discuss design, network, and configuration options, as well as provide detailed guidance to the engineers on how to connect and how to configure our data centers.

The product itself is useful due to the fact that it's widely accepted. I can go out on the internet and I can pull down stencils in VisioCafe. I can easily get pre-drawn stencils for whatever I need and that makes life a lot easier.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The solution is stable. 

There are too many features. One of the things I find most annoying about Visio is the automatic connections. They're just like everything Microsoft does. They overdo it. There are too many features - especially when I have people who are not familiar with the tool. 

Users will start creating text boxes for objects that already have a text feature. For example, if you've got a computer and you take a picture of a computer or a stencil of a rack-mounted server, people wind up putting text boxes next to it instead of double-clicking on the box and adding the title there. It's mostly user error, however, it's overwhelming for new users. They don't realize what can be done.

I've been using Visio since before Microsoft bought it. It's been anywhere from 15 to 30 years. I've definitely used it for more than a decade. It's been a while. 

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable for the most part.

I use the desktop version of the product and cannot speak to how scalable the product is. It's only limited by the resources of the laptop itself. 

In our company, we have 10,000 users on the product. It's used extensively. All departments use it.

I can't say if the organization plans to increase usage or not. 

I never need to call technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

Our organization has used the solution for decades. We haven't used anything else. 

The initial setup is very straightforward. That said, I've also been doing this for three decades and therefore have had a lot of experience handling the process.

It's installed pretty cleanly. It's a Microsoft install and there's not really a whole lot of issues. If I don't have a stencil for what I'm drawing, I can go on VisioCafe and a couple of other websites to get them. You can get stencils for network devices, switches, routers, hubs, servers, and all sorts of fun stuff.

I cannot speak to the exact pricing. It's not an aspect of the solution I handle. 

We're a customer and an end-user.

Visio is one of the only approved products where I work, and it's one of the best.

I don't know if there's a newer version out, however, the only one I'm allowed, the only one the government provides me with is, is the 2013 version.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. The only real problem is that there are too many features and it's somewhat overdesigned. 

We use Visio in my organization to create architecture diagrams.

Visio has allowed us to create good diagrams for our technical employees to consume. The solution provides templates, is straightforward, and has tools for the easy creation of diagrams.

The solution could improve by making it more modern.

I have used Visio for approximately 15 years.

Every group in my organization can use Visio and approximately 150 people use it. It is a tool that design engineers and architects teams use most. We have approximately 150 people that use it.

I have not needed technical support.

The installation is not complex.

The price of Visio is reasonable.

I rate Visio a seven out of ten.

Visio is mainly used for documentation purposes. For example, drawing flow charts or network diagrams. It can also be used for defining schemas or application development.

In my organization, people from multiple departments use it, especially the IT team. They prepare documentation on the network architecture. Additionally, the data team uses it to create flow charts, sequence diagrams, and schemas.

The solution is easy to understand with some hands-on experience.

Microsoft should include Visio as part of their Office 365 offering.

I have used Visio for approximately 10 years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable and flexible.

We have approximately 15 people using the solution.

Microsoft technical support is convenient. They have an online community for Visio and if we have created a ticket with the support they always respond promptly. We have not had any problems with the support.

The installation is easy, it only takes approximately five minutes. You only need to go to the vendor website and download an executable file and then it is straightforward.

We did the implementation ourselves. The solution does not require a technical team for implementation.

You can purchase a corporate license for more users to use the solution. We have purchased a stand-alone license and which could be cheaper.

I rate Visio a nine out of ten.

I'm the business process manager and we are customers of Visio. 

The process modeling is a valuable feature for us.

The solution could include better modeling and an interface with workflow capability, better integration would make the Visio to Power Automate connection a lot better. I'd like to see a feature that would enable the creation of a library of process models that could be linked to roles within the organization.

I've been using this solution for ten years. 

The solution is very stable. 

I think licensing costs are reasonable. 

If you're looking for a business process modeling tool, there are other options out there designed with that in mind. Visio is a good general diagram tool, but not specifically for business process management.

I rate Visio eight out of 10. 

I usually use Visio for really high-level conceptual modeling. Ironically, this works well with iServer. But, I use Visio for conceptual modeling since it makes it easy to draw things and is not as strict. This is because, at the conceptual level, one is not properly familiar with the details or constraints. This way, a business person would be able to critique something as being incorrect or not linked or drawn properly.

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. Mostly, the solution is employed for presentations made to business people, with the aim of facilitating their understanding of the design one wishes to use. Due to its greater flexibility when it comes to how things are joined together with lines, it is possible to put things together that would not work in a physical environment. This reduced constraint is good, as it allows one to initially familiarize himself with his system and ask the appropriate questions for which he may not have answers at the moment. At the minimum, this allows a person to put something up for critique in the event that it is incorrect.

The automated tools exist for making the computer do the dumb stuff. It may be worth going out to the market to see the sort of things people are trying to obtain. The solution integrates well with other tools and one can bring Visio diagrams into Word. Once in Word, a person can open the diagram for editing purposes if need be and then close it again and keep it in Word. So, all the integration capabilities with the other Office products is great. I can't think of much that I wish to add to the solution.

When creating a database, more stringency is required, as the computer is really dumb. A person is a lot more constrained, much more so when using the actual database creation tool, such as erwin Data Modeler. So the solution's flexibility can be perceived as both a strength and a weakness.

Visio is a general modeling tool, which encourages so many things beyond the use of mere data models. I think it's pretty good. Years back, when we first saw Visio being used with social security, the solution promoted itself as the missing piece. Word, Excel and Outlook were available. There was actually a piece missing where they stuck on the Windows logo.

In the late '90s or early 2000s it was possible to buy Visio with and without Office. They then removed this capability. Nowadays, one can obtain 365 but, with Visio, the component must be bought separately. The issue exists more with the purchasing and it would be nice to have it included as a standard feature. I believe they've now checked in Power BI as a standard component with Office, but Visio has so many more uses, since business people can use it to do swimlanes. Regular people and not just those with a technical background can use it for so much more. It should just be part of the enterprise or the professional version of Office. That's what I'd say. It's just so damn useful.

One of the things that was removed prior to it getting spun out was an enterprise version of Visio which could be set up, kicked off and actually go through one's network to ping everything that was attached to it, including printers, routers, PCs, laptops, et cetera. It would then bring all that information back and write a network diagram itself of all of those things. I thought that was a pretty cool part of the product. I'm not sure whether people now have network tools that do the same thing and that's why it's not used anymore. But, it was nice to see this sort of automation.

I have been using Visio since it came out in 1995 or 1996. 

The solution seems to be pretty stable, because I've opened models that I wrote 20 years ago and it still reads them without incurring frequent crashes. I did something flaky the other day which it didn't like. I don't know whether that was because it was going through a virtual machine and have yet to track down what the core issue was. However, overall, things have been pretty stable.

When it comes to scalability, I suppose that Visio is like any other product. One of the drawbacks of any Office product is its design for a single person. There exist ones on the web which allow for online editing in Excel, but many of the features I use do not exist in this version. This is a pain point.

We are talking about a one-person product, but the fact that you can print it off as a PDF and share it with others is a good feature of it. Visio differs from a real modeling tool, an expensive one such as, say... erwin Data Modeler, in that the latter has its own repository for storing models, which another person can access and use for modifying the relevant model. The model can be split into an overall one and a subject area. This way, two people can work in different subject areas. As long as two people are not working on the exact same object they will avoid stepping on each other's toes. Visio is akin to any other Office products, in that it involves a single person at a time per document.

I don't believe I have ever had to contact technical support to get the solution to work. We usually look up things on the internet. For most Microsoft products the help is not too bad. The last time I had to contact Microsoft support was years ago, concerning flowcharts, I believe.

For any issues involving the local installation I would contact our own infrastructure team. This said, I don't believe I have ever had to go out with an actual bug in the product.

I am not involved with the infrastructure side, but my understanding is that the initial setup was relatively straightforward. I had to put in a purchase order when I started this new role, but obtained access to the tool pretty quickly. I'm assuming that it is similar to other Microsoft products, in that there is a standard implementation, with the IT people having a fixed method of configuration, as with other Office products, which are rolled out.

When it comes to the setup, I have a couple of what are referred to as stencils, which are the things on the side that can be used for creating one's own series of diagrams or its components. I have a couple of these which I reuse. This is the only thing worth mentioning were one setting it up from scratch. But, many of the standard objects are pretty good and extensive. As such, the setup is not too difficult. Neither is it difficult to create one's own look and feel. So, it's pretty good.

I believe Visio to be priced pretty reasonably. Erwin Data Modeler may be a bit on the pricey side nowadays. When it was spun off from Computer Associates, they did so as a separate product and someone else bought it. I seem to recall at the time that the price either doubled or trebled, although I don't remember the reason for this. It was not clear to me what extra value was being offered for the price. Likely, the sole problem with erwin Data Modeler is that the price point is a tad on the high side. It can make selling to clients challenging and they are generally put off by the price.

Probably, it would have been better if erwin Data Modeler was the introduction to the environment whose creation is being attempted, meaning the DI suite and all the other parts involved in the governance, their glossary and all the bits and pieces. As the first taste is always free, it might've been better to have erwin Data Modeler at a lower price point. Once a person has obtained this product he would likely feel compelled to buy the other tools that work with it, rather than attempting to obtain something which does not. This would allow one to lower his price for the initial tool and then charge a bit more for those that nobody else has in their possession, such as one's involving data governance. This said, I'm not really involved in sales or marketing, so what I say should be taken with a grain of salt.

Visio is really good for high-level presentations but, when it comes to much more lower-level tasks, the best I've found so far is erwin Data Modeler and the DI, the governance suite that they've put out more recently. I've also worked with Oracle Data Modeler. One can't argue with the price on that one since it is free and presents no issues if money is lacking for other expenditures. If a person can do the drawings and present something to people then he can actually generate databases out of it, which is what one's end game is supposed to be anyway. It's not as pretty and it's a little bit more fiddly to do when things start to get complicated.

When I first started, everything was on-premises, although I do not recall if it switched to Azure at a later point. I believe I used it in 365. I am pretty sure the later ones are part of Office 365 or appear as add-ons, as they are not included.

My advice is that a person first work out what he wishes to use the tool for, to see if it suits his needs. While it's great for presenting information to people, it is not as good in the end when it comes to actually trying to build a product out of it. Of primary importance is that the person come up with his own look and feel for the organization, with a focus on business oriented issues rather than those of a technical nature. This would entail coming up with one's own color scheme or design and then remaining consistent in this domain. It is helpful to present to business people in a format with which they are familiar.

As the product will pretty much do what one wishes, which is nice, the focus should remain more on the presenting side rather than on its use. Certain products pose a challenge when it comes to getting them to comply with one's wishes, but Visio is a bit easier in this regard.

As a presentation tool and a high-level design tool, I rate Visio at least a nine out of ten.

We are end users of this solution. I'm a senior director of the company and a digital engineer.

The solution has helped us get our life cycle diagrams right and show the accountability across groups. It affects the business process sometimes at a very high level. Although it's not a BPA tool, a management tool, it has been utilized in some of those aspects and has been helpful to draw the handoff and the handshake across teams and across roles as we draw the life cycle diagram. With the various tools that come out of the box, it's been pretty helpful to get that in a pictorial fashion as it makes it easier to explain.

I like that it's simple to use and a very intuitive solution. The tools that it provides out of the box are pretty good. The out of the box categorization of flow charts helps. Its ability to take it to PowerPoint is easy as well. 

I'd like to see the portability simplified from Visio to PowerPoint and vice versa. With other products coming on the market, Visio is losing a little ground and as a result, I mainly use PowerPoint now and Visio much less. The user interface could be simplified enabling non-technical people to use it. There's something about it that makes it complicated to use. 

I've been using this solution for a few years. 

It's a pretty stable solution, I haven't had any issues around it.

I haven't seen any issues from a scalability perspective. 

I have previously used Confluence, PowerPoint and Precio, which have similar features in terms of what they're trying to do. They may not be out of the box, but you end up drawing it yourself. Visio is really a complementary solution as it merges when you're drawing deeper  solutions, more technical and when you're wanting clip art and pictures. It's being more in that space rather than really drawing technical stuff.

It's important to understand your objectives, understand who the audience is and your needs. You can then make a call as to which solution suits. It's not an easy solution for non-technical folks and is generally used by technical staff in technical IT departments within corporate companies. I started as a technical person so haven't had issues with it. I really like that it's easy to draw stuff out. You don't need PowerPoint for a standalone diagram that you have only from a collaboration perspective, like the confluence etc. If you're doing a standalone diagram, trying to communicate the message in a visual format, Visio is great. 

I rate this solution a seven out of 10.