Lucidchart flowchart tool review

Feature-rich visualization and diagram management software.

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(Image: © Lucidchart)

TechRadar Verdict

Lucidchart is an extremely powerful visualization program with impressive features and great collaboration tools for large businesses but also plenty of options for personal users.

Pros

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    Free trials available

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    Smart design elements

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    Tidy editing dashboard

Cons

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    Lack of integrations without Enterprise plan

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    Free plan is somewhat limited

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Lucidchart is a powerful, data-based diagramming tool used by 99% of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies. Based on professional flowchart diagrams, it’s a great choice for those looking for actionable information that they can use to improve company workflow processes. 

Along with an impressive range of features suited to businesses of all sizes, Lucidchart comes with a great free trial and easy-to-use templates to get you started. 

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(Image credit: Lucid Software)

Plans and pricing

With both personal and business plans, Lucidchart offers a range of pricing options for users of all sizes. It’s worth noting that all subscriptions include a free trial so you can test before you buy.

For starters, Lucidchart’s personal plans include both a free and a paid option. Both are limited to a single user and are best for small businesses or personal projects. 

The Free subscription is quite limited but gives you access to free shape libraries and all design templates. It’s a good choice if you just want to play around and make a few diagrams for your personal project. 

On the other hand, the Pro subscription costs $9.95 per month but offers significantly more powerful features. These include 1 GB of storage, unlimited documents and shapes, revision history, and a notable chart AI tool. 

If you’re looking for a more powerful subscription to cover your entire business, Lucidchart’s Business plans have you covered. 

Smaller businesses should consider using the Team plan, which starts at just $20 per month for up to three users. Adding more team members will cost more, with a cap at 25 users for $150 per month. This plan includes everything in the personal Pro plan, along with collaboration tools and a range of useful integrations with Microsoft, Google, and more. 

If you’re running a larger business, Lucidchart also offers a custom Enterprise plan which is priced according to your needs. Along with this, it includes a range of management features and optional enhancements to help you boost your business. 

Features

As one of the leading diagramming tools available, Lucidchart comes with an impressive range of noteworthy features. We’ve covered some of the best here, but it’s by no means a comprehensive list. 

One of the most noteworthy things about Lucidchart is its great list of keyboard shortcuts. Designed to help you streamline otherwise time-consuming processes, you should find that these dramatically improve your productivity. 

Lucidchart also comes with powerful layering features. These allow you to create diagrams within diagrams, which should, in turn, help you build a clean, intuitive layout that’s easy to understand. 

Similarly, you can also keep things simple by linking to textboxes or blocks within your diagram. These will only appear when the relevant element is clicked.  

There’s nothing more annoying than having to communicate with your coworkers via email or other messaging apps. Luckily, Lucidchart includes a range of native collaboration features which you can use to communicate with your team members while you’re working. 

Traditional diagramming software can be messy and hard to work with, especially if you have to create neat, presentation-quality images. However, Lucidchart includes a range of “smart” design elements which automatically keep your diagrams tidy. 

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(Image credit: Lucid Software)

Interface and in use

An in-depth trial of the Lucidchart user interface shows why it’s up there with the best management software available. It’s easy to use from the beginning and took us no more than a couple of minutes to get the hang of. 

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(Image credit: Lucid Software)

On top of this, Lucidchart allows you to specify exactly what you’re going to be using it for. Doing so causes the most relevant tools to be presented in an easy-access dashboard. 

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(Image credit: Lucid Software)

When you actually begin to build your first diagram, you will be able to start with a blank document or choose from one of a range of templates. From there, it’s all a matter of adding the elements you want via the intuitive editing interface.  

Support

Unfortunately, Lucidchart does fall down slightly on the customer service and support front. It doesn’t offer any online live chat (except for a chatbot, which works okay at best), but it does come with quite an impressive resource center and community forum.

If you do want to speak with a member of the Lucidchart team, you will have to call or reach out via their social media pages. 

But, the resource center contains hundreds of articles and tutorials designed to provide answers to a range of popular questions. We found it very useful. 

The competition

Although Lucidchart is a leader in the world of diagramming and presentation software, there are numerous great alternatives that are worth considering. 

Gliffy is one of Lucidchart’s major competitors, and it’s also known for its beautiful diagrams and powerful design features. 

Meanwhile, platforms like Draw.io come with full cloud integrations, allowing you to save and access your diagrams and charts from anywhere. 

Final verdict

All things considered, it’s easy to see why Lucidchart is up there with the best diagramming and chart management software available. Its prices are extremely reasonable, and it even comes with a full free trial. 

Similarly, Lucidchart’s features are almost unrivaled, and its user interface is simple and intuitive. Although its customer service does fall down slightly, everything else about this program is so good that we think you’ll love it.  

Daniel Blechynden

Daniel is a freelance copywriter with over six years experience writing for publications such as TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, and Hosting Review. He specializes in B2B and B2C tech and finance, with a particular focus on VoIP, website building, web hosting, and other related fields.