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asciiflow VS ShowdownJS

Compare asciiflow VS ShowdownJS and see what are their differences

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Contents:
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  2. » Reviews
  3. » Alternatives

asciiflow logo asciiflow

Infinite ASCII diagrams, save to Google Drive, resize, freeform draw, and export straight to text/html.

ShowdownJS logo ShowdownJS

A Markdown to HTML converter written in JavaScript
  • asciiflow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-28
  • ShowdownJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04

asciiflow features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    AsciiFlow provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to quickly create ASCII diagrams without needing extensive technical knowledge.
  • Browser-Based
    Being an online tool, AsciiFlow requires no installation and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.
  • Free
    AsciiFlow is available for free, making it accessible to users who need a quick and easy ASCII diagramming tool without incurring additional costs.
  • Collaboration
    Users can easily share diagrams with others, which facilitates collaboration and feedback.
  • Simple Export Options
    Diagrams created in AsciiFlow can be easily exported to plain text, which can be included in code comments, documentation, or emails.

Possible disadvantages of asciiflow

  • Limited Features
    AsciiFlow offers basic diagramming features, which may not be sufficient for users requiring advanced functionalities such as complex node management or extensive customization.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Since AsciiFlow is a web-based tool, it requires an internet connection to use, which can be a limitation in offline environments.
  • Performance Issues
    Large or complex diagrams may lead to performance issues, including lag or slower response times, especially on lower-end devices.
  • No Version Control
    AsciiFlow lacks built-in version control capabilities, making it difficult to track changes or revert to previous versions of diagrams.
  • Limited Integration
    The tool has limited integration with other software and platforms, which may be a drawback for users who need seamless workflows with other applications.

ShowdownJS features and specs

  • Open Source
    ShowdownJS is open source and freely available under the MIT license, allowing for modification and distribution.
  • Wide Compatibility
    It can be used in both the browser and server-side environments, making it versatile for various projects.
  • Active Community
    The project has an active community and regular updates, which contribute to stability and ongoing support.
  • Extensive Documentation
    ShowdownJS provides comprehensive documentation, making it easier for developers to understand and implement.
  • Customizable
    It offers a wide range of extensions and options, allowing users to customize the behavior to suit their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of ShowdownJS

  • Performance
    For very large documents, performance may not be as high compared to some other specialized Markdown parsers.
  • Learning Curve
    Although documentation is available, new users might need some time to fully understand how to leverage all features.
  • Dependency Management
    In projects where minimizing dependencies is important, adding another library might be a concern.
  • Feature Parity
    While ShowdownJS supports many Markdown features, some advanced or niche features might not be covered.

Analysis of asciiflow

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Asciiflow is generally considered a good tool, especially for those who need to quickly create and share text-based diagrams without the need for complex software.

Why this product is good

  • Asciiflow is a useful tool for creating simple ASCII diagrams and flowcharts. It is appreciated for its ease of use, accessibility through the web, and the ability to export diagrams in multiple formats. It is particularly useful for developers, system architects, and anyone who values simplicity and clarity in visual representations.

Recommended for

    Asciiflow is recommended for software developers, system architects, educators, and technical writers who need to create or share simple flowcharts and diagrams using ASCII art.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to asciiflow and ShowdownJS)

asciiflow

ShowdownJS

Diagrams
100 100%
Diagrams
0% 0
Competitive Intelligence
0 0%
Competitive Intelligence
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
Flowcharts
0% 0
SEO
0 0%
SEO
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using asciiflow and ShowdownJS. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, asciiflow should be more popular than ShowdownJS. It has been mentiond 32 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

asciiflow mentions (32)

  • Building and deploying a custom site using GitHub Actions and GitHub Pages
    I've used GitHub Pages for a long time to serve sites for free, notably https://asciiflow.com, however I have recently moved it and other sites to CloudFlare Pages - it's also got a very generous free tier and many other useful features that GH pages lacks. Setup is simple - https://github.com/lewish/asciiflow/blob/main/.github%2Fworkflows%2Fdeploy.yaml GitHub Actions is just great, and I think people overlook... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • ASCII Silhouettify
    I'll still use https://asciiflow.com/# over figma. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Monodraw
    Https://asciiflow.com/#/ works pretty well. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Monodraw
    I maintain a list [1] of main web based text to diagram tools including ascii drawing tools like these. Web alternatives for this are probably https://fsymbols.com/draw/ or https://textik.com/ or https://asciiflow.com/#/ or https://web.archive.org/web/20210503172024/https://fatiherikli.github.io/archetype/ or https://app.monosketch.io [1]: https://xosh.org/text-to-diagram/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Monodraw
    Yeah, I'm known as the ASCII diagram guy at work because I use ASCIIFlow a lot. Still not sure if people think I'm a joke. https://asciiflow.com/#/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

ShowdownJS mentions (9)

  • How do I display a markdown table on a website with go backend?
    So you're going to need a Markdown parser that produces HTML. But there's a question of where is the data coming from and where you you want to process it? If it's going to be all on the frontend like a text editor, use a JS library for it (a quick google search produces ShowdownJS). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Docusaurus first impression and stealing like an open sourcer
    Previously, I was required to implement the markdown support manually which meant that the use of public libraries was prohibited. My tool could only support limited styling elements such as header1, header2, links, bold and italics, but now I can finally let my tool have a full markdown support by using Showdown. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • I made a full-stack portfolio site using Next.js and Tailwind!
    The first two ages are very heavy on content so I decided to use markdown and tailwind’s typography plugin for styling. I also used showdown to fetch the markdown and turn it into HTML. The code for the above can be found on the site’s GitHub repository. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Working on a no-code data notebook. You can quickly pull data from platforms like Stripe and do complex analysis without writing SQL, all within a Notion-style interface. Thoughts?
    I'm using https://github.com/showdownjs/showdown for the core rendering-markdown functionality, with a bunch of additional listeners etc on top of it to fit it into the notion-style UX! Hope that helps :). Source: over 2 years ago
  • Markdown-Tag: Add Markdown to any HTML using a <md> tag
    It looks like it uses showdown as the engine. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing asciiflow and ShowdownJS, you can also consider the following products

Lekh Diagram - Lekh Diagram empowers you to express your idea on iPad and iPhone simply by sketching shapes with...

Markdown-it - High-speed Markdown parser with 100% CommonMark support, extensions & syntax plugins.

Core2D - A multi-platform data driven 2D diagram editor.

Marked.js - A full-featured markdown parser and compiler, written in JavaScript. Built for speed.

PabloDraw - PabloDraw is an Ansi/Ascii text and RIPscrip vector graphic art editor/viewer with multi-user capabilities.

Snarkdown - The super fast, 1kb Markdown parser in JavaScript

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