Software Alternatives & Reviews

Graphviz VS PlantUML

Compare Graphviz VS PlantUML and see what are their differences

Graphviz logo Graphviz

Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. It has several main graph layout programs.

PlantUML logo PlantUML

PlantUML is an open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw UML diagrams.
  • Graphviz Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-18
  • PlantUML Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

Graphviz videos

Graphviz - Make Diagrams - Ubuntu 10.10

More videos:

  • Review - Use Soot and Graphviz to Generate and Visualize Java Call Graphs

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 Graphviz and PlantUML)
Diagrams
37 37%
63% 63
Flowcharts
37 37%
63% 63
Flow Charts And Diagrams
27 27%
73% 73
Network & Admin
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Graphviz Reviews

Top 7 diagrams as code tools for software architecture
Graphviz is a graph visualization software for representing structural information as diagrams.

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, Graphviz seems to be a lot more popular than PlantUML. While we know about 79 links to Graphviz, 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.

Graphviz mentions (79)

  • Should I Open Source my Company?
    Thoughtful post, thanks. However, this tripped me up: "our GPU graph viz server" -- I couldn't understand how you a) scale graphviz[1] on a GPU and b) make money hosting graphviz. Quick read of your web site cleared that up :) [1] https://graphviz.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Trippy 0.9.0 Release
    Tracing flows: breakdown complex UDP/TCP ECMP traces into individual flows (i.e. Common network path); render a chart of flows in GraphViz DOT format (example). Source: 5 months ago
  • Calculate the difference and intersection of any two regexes
    It has the look of graphviz about it, which is an excellent tool. Often helpful in debugging anything related to graphs. https://graphviz.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • What are some tools to help in visualizing concepts
    If you are talking about making visualisations for other people it would depend if you want to make them interactive, static, or a mix of the two. I’m not really sure what to recommend given I don’t know - but here are a few places to start: - Python tutor - manim - processing - graphviz - simple but good - draw.io. Source: 11 months ago
  • Good graphic FlowChart drawing tool ?
    It sounds like you're looking for a web-hosted tool - if you're interested in self-hosted text-based tools, graphviz can make flowcharts, and if integration with LaTeX is desirable, so can TikZ. Source: 11 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 / 15 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: 5 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 Graphviz and PlantUML, you can also consider the following products

draw.io - Online diagramming application

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.

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.

Gephi - Gephi is an open-source software for visualizing and analyzing large networks graphs.

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

StarUML - StarUML