Following last week's small article on the online diagram tool called diagram.ly, I received a comment indicating a preference for another online diagram tool called Lucidchart.com and promised that I would review it, as at first glance, it really does look like a much better application than diagram.ly. Several features really set Lucidchart apart from its competitors.
First of all, Lucidchart is an online diagram tool, designed to replace applications like Visio. Like most diagram tools, Lucidchart support several file output formats, allowing you to export your work to other applications if required. Secondly, Lucidchart provides several interesting features, which include collaboration (the ability to have several people working on the same file from different locations), which can be very handy for those that actually make use of such technologies. Of course, this feature is really augmented by the inclusion of a revision history feature, which lets users determine who made what change to a specific diagram, and when this change was made. Add to these features a library of hundreds of shapes and templates, as well as full compatibility with any of the modern browsers under any platform and you have a recipe for an excellent application.
But (and there is a but here) I'm not as ecstatic about paid subscriptions and this is something required if you really want to access all of the interesting features provided by Lucidchart.com. There is a free account, but with several limitations (including a single user per file, a maximum of two collaborators, 25MB maximum file storage and a limit of 60 objects per chart) and these are severe enough to limit the type of diagram you can create without paying for a better account. There are several choices though and I believe that most users will eventually find the account type that is right for their needs.
Following a comment I made, I still believe that Lucidchart.com is a better application from a charting perspective, but diagram.ly offers the not inconsiderable advantage of being free, which in this day and age, really makes a difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment