draw.io is an online diagramming tool with integrations with Jira, Google, and Confluence available free online or at cost depending on integration chosen.
$5
per month
Google Jamboard
Score 6.7 out of 10
N/A
Google Jamboard is a collaborative whiteboard, available as an add-on to Google Workspaces.
If you need to create a diagram in the cloud, I haven't found a better tool yet. If you need further customizability or export options not offered, then a larger tool might make more sense, but wherever Draw.io can fit in, I think it's the ideal solution.
[Google] Jamboard's functionality allows anyone to create a visual representation of information while remaining open to collaboration with others. Students can use the program to solve math problems by writing on their touch screens, while others create timelines of their lives with different shapes, formatting, and text options. Teachers can use it jointly during professional development to brainstorm new ideas and make note of those they would like to implement. The possibilities feel endless.
One element that was hard to use was converting pre-existing drawings and workflows from Gliffy to Draw.io once our company made the change. While we were able to complete the migration, when going back we noticed, oftentimes, some formatting and dependencies did not make it or were not compatible.
While the template repository is vast, it has a heavy focus on network style maps. It would be ideal for added diversity in the templates with a focus on workflows just as much.
While the integrations are strong, the cloud collaborative environment could still use some work. While you can save and edit in the cloud. Group editing and live dynamic sharing/editing similar to Microsoft office are still missing.
Draw.io could add some version control functionality for ease of rollback, auditing, & comparison.
It's a tool that's easily accessible from your Google Suite. For a whiteboarding workspace, it provides a good basic platform. Multiple whiteboards can be created in one workspace, so you can share a session with multiple teams/plants. Compared to more advanced whiteboarding tools, it has limited features. You'll need to have access to the Internet to take full advantage of the collaborative workspace. The amount of storage space required for your session will use up your Google Drive quota.
The support for draw.io is pretty decent, considering it is a free website. I had a question one time when I was trying to do something, so I sent an email to their support email and got a response fairly quickly with an answer to my question. They also have some excellent support tools on their support website for helping you get more familiar with their program, and I found that very helpful.
Draw.io is a free online diagram drawing application for workflow, BPM, org charts, UML, ER, network diagrams. No login or registration are required and features include the ability to save locally (including svg), a range of stencils, .vsdx, Lucidchart and Gliffy import and real time diagram sharing. When I compare draw.io to Lucidchart, it's natural that the first point of comparison will be templates. Lucidchart provides many more templates for both beginners and professionals than draw.io but draw.io has all the essential tools and templates for both business professionals and students (engineering drawing, floor plans, etc). Lucidchart lets you import all the three Microsoft Visio formats — .vdx, .vsd, and .vsdx as well as diagrams from Gliffy, Draw.io, and Omnigraffle. Draw.io lets you import Google Drive, Dropbox, Trello, Gliffy and GitHub. Overall, if you plan to make simple drawings, Draw.io is perhaps the best tool for you. All you need is a Google account to upload and save documents. If you can live with the three documents and sixty objects rule of Lucidchart, you may want to give it a try instead.
Google Jamboard is part of the Google education suite so it's easily accessible and part of our single sign-on authentication. Padlet is another tool that supports active learning web boards, but it is not easily integrated with our LMS and it's yet another tool to support. We've also heard about Mural.co, but that one seems more complicated to use compared to Google Jamboard. It's also more expensive and we try to maximize the resources we have available.
