Software Alternatives & Reviews

draw.io VS PlantUML

Compare draw.io VS PlantUML and see what are their differences

draw.io logo draw.io

Online diagramming application

PlantUML logo PlantUML

PlantUML is an open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw UML diagrams.
  • draw.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-20
  • PlantUML Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

draw.io

Categories
  • Diagrams
  • Flowcharts
  • Wireframing
  • Flow Charts And Diagrams
Website drawio.com
Details $

PlantUML

Categories
  • Flow Charts And Diagrams
  • Diagrams
  • UML Diagrams
  • UML
Website plantuml.com
Details $

draw.io videos

draw.io - Draw diagrams in the cloud or as an AppImage

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Draw.io Tutorial - Getting Started || How to use Draw.io
  • Review - Creating Entity Relationship Diagrams using Draw.io
  • Review - Using Layers, an advanced draw.io feature
  • Review - Draw.io (aka diagrams.net) Basics
  • Review - Better, faster, stronger; draw.io introduces AI-powered Smart Templates

PlantUML videos

PlantUML - beautiful quick diagrams to explain your models

More videos:

  • Review - Folge16 - PlantUML und IntelliJ
  • Tutorial - PlantUML Gizmo Tutorial: Google Docs Add-on
  • Review - Mermaid vs PlantUML vs HackerDraw: Which One Is Best For You?
  • Review - Using PlantUML For Diagrams In A GitLab Wiki

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to draw.io and PlantUML)
Diagrams
69 69%
31% 31
Flowcharts
69 69%
31% 31
Wireframing
70 70%
30% 30
Flow Charts And Diagrams
47 47%
53% 53

User comments

Share your experience with using draw.io and PlantUML. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare draw.io and PlantUML

draw.io Reviews

5 great diagramming tools for enterprise and software architects
Where do you even begin with Diagrams.net, formerly known as Draw.io? Besides being free of charge, it also has a low learning curve, so anyone can quickly start creating diagrams or whiteboards. Many people use Diagrams.net for diagramming business processes, data flows, and networks. You can also modify elements without having to change the entire diagram with this tool.
Source: www.redhat.com
Software Diagrams - Plant UML vs Mermaid
There are many generic diagramming tools that can be used to design software such as diagrams.net (formerly draw.io), Miro, or Lucid Charts. These generic tools do allow a lot of flexibility but end up costing you more time than you intended to align all boxes and arrows and to get the colour schemes just right.
10 Best Visio Alternatives for Cost Effective Diagramming [2022]
Price may vary from time to time as Draw.io does some promotions and might give discounts as well. You should check their website for the latest prices. Also, the pricing depends upon the features you are taking it for. So, it has very distinctive processing. You’ll get all your options in the right column and the drawing and editing options you’ll get in the space provided...
Top 10 Alternatives to Draw.io / Diagrams.net - Flowchart Maker Reviews
Drawio is a free online software for creating flowcharts and process maps. It is an easy way to create professional diagrams and share them with your team, your clients, or the whole world. Drawio's user-friendly interface lets you drag and drop shapes from our library onto the canvas and format them using our comprehensive set of tools. Drawing charts has never been easier!...
Best 8 Free Visual Paradigm Alternatives in 2022
Another cost-efficient option as an alternative to Visual Paradigm is Draw.io. This is an online flowchart maker that you can use for free. Draw.io is absolutely free to use so you won’t have to worry about spending any amount. The only drawback that we saw upon reviewing the tool though, is the lack of templates. It is purely made for flowchart creation so the interface...
Source: gitmind.com

PlantUML Reviews

Top 7 diagrams as code tools for software architecture
PlantUML is a tool that allows you to write diagrams such as sequence, object, component, usecase, class diagrams and more.
5 great diagramming tools for enterprise and software architects
PlantUML is an open source tool and syntax that allows you to make sequence, use case, class, object, and other diagrams from code. It also supports non-UML diagrams like JSON and YAML. In addition, it enjoys support from ArchiMate, ERD, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), and other common notation styles. Its simple, plain-text definitions make creating, sharing, and...
Source: www.redhat.com
Software Diagrams - Plant UML vs Mermaid
For C4 Models, Mermaid support is still experimental. This shows as you have little control over the way the diagram is rendered, and some parts are unreadable (i.e., arrows over nodes). PlantUML works as you would expect and has support for more advanced setup like sprites. Not even close on this one. Winner: PlantUML
9 Best UML Software For Mac & PC
PlantUML is another free open source sequence diagram software that uses text input to build UML charts. PlantUML requires using a specific PlantUML Language to construct sequence charts but once learned it’s very flexible.
Source: machow2.com
40 Open Source, Free and Top Unified Modeling Language (UML) Tools
PlantUML is a component that allows users to quickly write sequence diagrams, usecase diagrams, class diagrams, activity diagrams, component diagrams, state diagrams, deployment diagrams, object diagrams and wireframe graphical interfaces. Diagrams are defined using a simple and intuitive language. Images can be generated in PNG, SVG or LaTeX format and it is also possible...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, draw.io seems to be a lot more popular than PlantUML. While we know about 714 links to draw.io, we've tracked only 5 mentions of PlantUML. 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.

draw.io mentions (714)

  • Reactor controller
    Glad you like it! :D Feel free to reuse/edit it for the Steam page if you want. Also happy to send you the draw.io file if you'd like :). Source: 11 months ago
  • Note taking app
    Shraing, LDAP, sync, reminders are all possible. draw.io can be integrated by an app in nextcloud. Also, there is "Deck" which is a Kanban board for Nextcloud. Source: 11 months ago
  • Diagramming on Note 2 Air+
    I've been using draw.io web to diagram, but I can't find it on android... Is there any good alternatives? Source: 11 months ago
  • Tips and tricks for picking up Visio?
    Visio isnt hard, but stencils are a pain in the ass. So, I suggest draw.io instead, also its free and they have both a cloud GUI tool and desktop tool on Git. I have not used visio since 2019. Source: 11 months ago
  • Creating wiring schematics with ease!
    Adding the desired temperature instead of multiplying by x75 caused my reactor to overheat but maybe I did a mistake in the wiring. :D Why don't you show how you wire your reactor controller by using draw.io with my libraries. ;) You don't have to, of course. Source: 12 months ago
View more

PlantUML mentions (5)

  • PlantUMLApp 3.0 - Let's play with AI Multi-Modality
    New version 3.0 of my PlantUML App for iPad is out with exciting update! 🤩 The new multi-modality feature now lets you transform hand-drawn diagrams into PlantUML scripts with just a pencil ✍🏻 or your fingers 👆. Take a look 👀 to this short on YouTube and download it from App Store to support me 👍🏻. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • What is your favorite tool for designing complex architecture, and why is it MS Paint?
    Someone at work showed me https://plantuml.com/ recently. If you want your diagrams as code . Version controlled etc.. I highly recommend it. Source: 4 months ago
  • Discovering the Power of PlantUML: Visualizing YAML, JSON, and More!
    Open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw beautiful UML diagrams. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Pikchr: A PIC-like markup language for diagrams in technical documentation
    Seems like a considerable upgrade from PlanUML (https://plantuml.com/ - which is amazing, but sometimes you just can't seem to be able to align the stuff the way you want too). - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Entity Relationship Diagrams
    Plantuml is amongst the best there is. kroki.io has a sandbox for it Mermaid.js can do it in notion, it works as well as any other mermaid. Dbvisualizer is fantastic if you have an existing schema in a db instance. you may need the trial license to render the diagrams. Source: 10 months ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing draw.io and PlantUML, you can also consider the following products

LucidChart - LucidChart is the missing link in online productivity suites. LucidChart allows users to create, collaborate on, and publish attractive flowcharts and other diagrams from a web browser.

yEd - yEd is a free desktop application to quickly create, import, edit, and automatically arrange diagrams. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix/Linux.

OmniGraffle - OmniGraffle is for creating precise graphics like website wireframes, an electrical system designs, or mapping out software class.

StarUML - StarUML

Visio - Simplify and communicate complex information using data-linked diagrams.

Dia - Dia is a GTK+ based diagram creation program for GNU/Linux, MacOS X, Unix, and Windows, and is released under the GPL license.