Unfortunately so many folks have gotten used to super cheap software that there is so much pushback in paying what I consider to be a very reasonable price for a very useful quality application. I own most of the Omnigroup’s apps, and feel like I have gotten way more than my money’s worth for all of them.
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Might not be exactly what you’re looking for but I’ll throw a few contenders into the ring: Scapple and PlantUML.
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I second this. My needs are very occasional but I have no troubles using this service online and it’s very Visio-like if you’re used to that.
It was quite a few years ago, but I tried out OmniGraffle and expected it to behave like a gold standard it was touted to be (and for the price!) Then it did something which completely floored me. It transpired that line thickness was being achieved by turning the line into a rectangle, which had major implications for its behaviour, and was unlike any other application I have ever used. I’m sure it moved on years ago, but so did I.
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I’ve been using OmniGraffle & OmniOutliner* since the early 2000’s and have paid upgrade pricing to keep up. I think I paid around $50 for OG originally but now it’s around $250. That’s a pretty steep increase in price. I’m not saying it has to be $5, but I don’t see what justifies the 5 fold increase in price.
*replaced OO with Markdown, so don’t use this anymore.
I didn’t realize it had gone up that much, as I have had it for over 10 years. I think the Omnigroup has chosen to design apps aimed at the professional user market. When I buy these apps, I compare the price to my hourly billing rate and try to estimate how much time they save me to see if it’s worth it.
I still have Omni Outliner, but find myself not using it much any more.
If you are in education, then the discount is pretty generous. Seems to be 40% off. And once you have purchased, then the upgrade prices seem reasonable. And upgrading doesn’t happen often.
I use OmniGraffle Pro a lot less now than 10 years ago, but that’s because my needs have changed and not due to any disappointment with OmniGroup or OmniGraffle specifically.
Certainly OmniGraffle for drawing flowcharts and similar quickly and with professional appearance. I used to use it frequently for these, but it’s been years since I’ve used it as I’ve tried to cut back on the number of different packages I use, in this case to just EazyDraw as it handles all my vector graphics needs and OmniGraffle is lacking (or at least seems to be) for many of my tasks.
There was another thread about this from last year here. Lots of interesting ideas here as well. Might be worth a quick look
Agreed. However price is a barrier to entry.
I’m not sure the world needs a “democratisation” of diagramming through free tools, though.
I’m an OmniGraffle user - but don’t use it often enough to be really good at it. I once thought I’d go for a diagram a day to get good at it. However I’m bereft of visual ideas - so that fell by the wayside very quickly.
For light to medium diagramming needs, look at what can be done in Keynote or PowerPoint. Many of us already have access to these apps, and they are pretty capable now. PP now includes an extensive library of icons and shapes, and a couple of stand-alone icon libraries will usually cost way less than a top shelf dedicated diagramming app.
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I had a manager for many years who used PowerPoint for all his diagramming needs. I was always amazed with how good it looked however he had to spend a lot of time battling the UI to get things to look the way he wanted them. Even if I was doing a presentation I would draw diagrams in Micrografx Designer (this was in the 1990’s to early 2000’s in Windows) and paste them in PowerPoint! Even now I get irritated with the clunky interface of Apple’s standard drawing tools in Keynote/Pages/Preview… While free is a very good price, IMHO paying a little more is worth it.
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Tried a bunch recently.
- Google Slides isn’t bad. It handles the orthogonal lines that connect boxes so we’ll, for me. The page size is limited, so plan ahead.
- I don’t like how Keynote styles every shape as a blue square that needs to be reformatted, but otherwise is okay. (Same with how Preview always puts the text box in the middle of the page instead of where the cursor is).
- PowerPoint is works as good as Keynote.
- I tried Diagrams and it’s a bit over stylized, candy like.
- OmniGraffle works pretty well, though I haven’t figured out the orthogonal connector lines in OG. And I didn’t spring for the iOS version… yet.
- LucidChart is the perfect blend of features and simplicity, though I’d prefer non-cloud-based.
- draw.Io is pretty good, too
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This is not to be underestimated. In the end, you are telling an idea with a diagram. If you build it with Visio or Paint it does not really matter as long as it is effective.
(And as long as you don’t lose the original source)
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And Google Drive (or whatever it is called these days) as well. This allows you to share your diagrams with your colleagues, killer feature.
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Or your will to live, if using Paint. 