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I'm seeking a Mac app for creating basic flowcharts and similar diagrams.

Google has been no help; I've followed dozens of links to apps that either don't exist anymore, I can't find any real reviews of, or that won't run on OS X 10.6.6.

What I'd really like:

  • A simple and clean interface

  • Basic shapes

  • Automated connectors that stay linked as you move shapes around

  • Inexpensive, preferably under $30 but definitely under $50

What I'm not looking for:

  • Hundreds of shapes

  • Default styles that have shadows and textures and such that I have to keep removing

  • Dozens of amazing features that allow you to automatically map databases and draw UML diagrams from code and such (I'm looking at you, Visio) that I have to constantly navigate around to make a few basic diagrams

  • A mind-mapping app with all the features such a thing entails, one that happens to also let you make basic diagrams

  • A full-fledged drawing app where, once again, I have to maneuver around a whole bunch of features and options to get to the basic functions I need. (I have Illustrator, I love Illustrator, but it's crap for basic flowcharts and other simple diagrams.)

I wouldn't actually use it for flowcharts, but rather basic similar diagrams to show data flow between apps, information flow in a company or other places, that kind of thing.

I recently found out that the drawing portion of Google Docs actually does a pretty good job with the types of diagrams I need to create, but the UI is pretty poor and it obviously requires a constant net connection.

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  • So you do not want to use the free feature in MS Office (SmartArt)!
    – user44516
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 10:33
  • 4
    I suppose it's "free" if you own MS Office.
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 22:45
  • Rather than spending$100 on some flowchart stuff, you spend bit more and have the office. <kbd>⌘</kbd>
    – user44516
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 23:05
  • one of the software I find very useful is Balsamiq mockups. balsamiq.com
    – Ivan Aracki
    Commented May 6, 2017 at 21:48
  • This review describes 17 alternatives: machow2.com/flowcharts-for-mac-the-best-software
    – iled
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 19:14

31 Answers 31

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If you can stretch your budget, get OmniGraffle for Mac. At $149, it's pricier than you'd like (do you possibly qualify for the $89.99 edu price?), but it's exactly what you're looking for.

On the lower end there's Mindcad Incubator for $10.99, but I haven't tried it myself and I'm not sure it does everything you want.

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  • I appreciate the suggestion. I spent about 45 minutes with OmniGraffle a couple of months ago, trying to make the type of simple diagram I'm talking about. Unfortunately I found it to often be counterintuitive and/or in the way. I've not managed to figure out how to, for example, not have a shadow appear on every shape I draw, a shadow that I have to manually remove. I grew accustomed to copying and pasting shapes that I'd removed the shadow from (along with other default formatting), and realize that with enough effort could make my own template, but why should I for $100?
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 7:22
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    I recommend Omnigraffle. It is a maddening program out of the box, with all of the defaults configured to please one of the old gods from the Cthulhu Mythos by HP Lovecraft, but it is possible to configure them sensibly. The ones in Preferences are easy to find, but the tricky bit is how to figure out how to set the defaults on drawing: click on the toolbar icon of choice with the option key down, so that Omnigraffle lets you set the desired default properties using the inspectors without having to create a graphic object first.
    – Michael Brian Bentley
    Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 19:37
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    I've chosen OmniGraffle as my answer, though maybe I'll use it to design the app I really want. :)
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Jan 20, 2011 at 5:25
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    @Dori I went with OmniGraffle back when you first suggested it and am now very experienced with it and love it. Thanks for the recommendation!
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 22:54
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    Not a shill, just happy with my decision: they just released version 7 of Omnigraffle and it's even more useful for my needs now. I use it for many hours a week.
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Nov 5, 2016 at 19:59
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For free online diagramming there's diagrams.net, which I am a developer on. It supports the automatic connection and dragging of components you're looking for. Also, it's free (and open source), which meets your under $30 requirement.

There is also a Desktop version available.

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  • 6
    I think this is the best one as its platform independent. Thanks.
    – AliBZ
    Commented Jul 9, 2013 at 22:17
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    this is the best thing ever
    – user1244109
    Commented Jan 28, 2015 at 22:19
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    Wonderful! Similar to LucidChart, but free of charge.
    – qed
    Commented Jun 28, 2016 at 13:06
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    I'm an experienced OmniGraffle user but I don't find it's the right tool for flow charts. Too much time fiddling with alignment and styling. Just spent some time with draw.io, much better
    – ABCD.ca
    Commented Dec 6, 2017 at 19:33
  • Didn't know this existed. Excellent, excellent find. Thanks.
    – dashard
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 3:39
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The Google Docs suite of tools now has a diagramming tool that lets you create flowcharts. While not as feature rich as something like OmniGraffle, it does cover all your requirements: simple & clean interface, basic shapes (and not an overabundance of shapes), automatic connectors with elasticity, and it meets your price point at free.

Certainly can't hurt to try it out before you drop $100 on the Mac Daddy of diagramming programs for Mac.

Edit: just noticed your last paragraph in your question. Not much I can do about the UI, but I will mention that offline support is about to make a return via Chrome.

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15

I found another one. Seems to meet all your prerequisites.

Shapes

Shapes is a simple, elegant Graphing and Diagramming app for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Shapes gives you all of the most important features you need in a Diagramming tool without all the extra cruft, and without breaking the bank.

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    Just bought shapes from the app store after stumbling on this thread. I find it fast and intuitive. Just shapes, lines, and text. Thats all I wanted. I was able to make a flowchart with several dozen elements in less than half an hour.
    – colonelclick
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 17:05
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Dia is pretty useful. From the description: "Dia is a program to draw structured diagrams". Available for Linux, Windows, OS X.

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  • Multi-platform, which has, of course, certain downsides.
    – myhd
    Commented Nov 7, 2012 at 11:24
  • +1 for Dia. Just created a diagram using it and it works great on Mac. Only drawback is that it indeed doesn't feel like a native application, however it's cross-platform (so once you know how to use it, you can use it anywhere else), free and open source. Exports great to PDF as well, which is what I needed. All in all, great, useful software.
    – laurent
    Commented Oct 7, 2013 at 13:22
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GraphViz

The link above is to a GUI wrapper to the command line utility. With GraphViz, layout is automated, so you don't get to choose exactly where the nodes end up, although you can provide hints and have some limited control.

Regarding your other points:

  • It is CLI, so I think that counts as a simple and clean interface
  • Basic shapes are provided
  • Connectors are automated and will stay linked (although you can't move shapes with a mouse).
  • Free.
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12

I'm late to the party, but NeoOffice's drawing tool meets your four criteria.

enter image description here

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12

How about pencil? This is for fast prototyping.

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    Not sure who voted this down, but Pencil has flowcharting capabilities, and looks like it might serve the OP's purpose to me.
    – Dave
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 2:38
  • It mainly GUI prototyping tool, however diagramming are also possible
    – wik
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 23:51
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I know this is an older thread, but I would like to throw in my $.02 (since things have changed some since this was posted). Lucid Chart for Google Apps is a viable solution. It is free for basic diagramming, and there are very reasonable pricing for more advanced features. It even has the capability to open (and save) Visio documents. It is integrated with Google Drive (for personal OR Apps Domains) and is real-time collaborative. Google Docs, of course, has a Drawing tool, but Lucid expands on it with some drag-n-drop features and other more advanced tools you would expect from fat-client apps. more information can be found on their website but if you search in the Chrome Web Store, you will find it and can install it directly from there. At that point it is as simple as logging into Google Drive and clicking Create and selecting Lucid Chart as the document type.

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9

Apple's Keynote may primarily be for presentations, but its diagramming tools also hit all your requirements: simple interface; polygons of arbitrary number of sides; connection lines (select two shapes, right click, "Add Connection Line"); cost of USD$20.

As a bonus, you'll have great presentation software to show off your cool new diagrams.

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Take a look at the free and simple to use yEd, I believe this would fit about right for your 2 yr old question :)

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  • yEd is great and also free.
    – chespinoza
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 16:13
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Would MindNode fit what you're looking for?

There's a free version and and $20 version available. They're both on the Mac App Store.

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I love Gliffy. It's free and very user-friendly.

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You also have several proposals from another SO thread here. OmniGraffle won the competition but the other links are quite interesting and could fit your needs.

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Give Xmind a try. It's Java, so expect a Java applications… if you know what that means.

But given that you haven't found OmniGraffle very "attractive" for you, you might want to give it a try.

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  • can you explain me what do you mean by saying "so expect a Java applications… if you know what that means.". I know it is a bit off-topic, but I'm deciding which language to learn next and I'm evaluating Java too, so, if you can show me some limitations I'll be very happy. Thank you.
    – Aerendir
    Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 8:11
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    @Aerendir Java apps are known to have slow UI and a non-native appearance. They tend (but not always) to be slightly slower to start (especially the first time) and of course, require you to keep you Java updated and what not. Java as a programming language… that's another topic that can spur an endless debate. You should learn java, if anything because it widely used and you may need it if you need to develop for Android. It's a good language to know anyway whether you like it/use it or not.
    – Martin Marconcini
    Commented Jun 30, 2016 at 18:43
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There is new diagramming tool Diagrammix in the Mac App Store. Simple and beautiful.

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  • Thanks for pointing it out, it looks like it has promise. I'm downloading the trial now!
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Apr 22, 2011 at 2:02
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I see you that you need to draw flowchart with basic shapes and grids. I would recommend a web based solution since you are not always using it. But if you are drawing flowcharts frequently I suggest you to get an flowchart software like Creately. There is a mac version available and you can try for free

  • Creately has an improved interface and I can assure you that it is very user friendly powerful and simple.

  • Yes, Creately supports 1000's shapes since there are more than 50 diagrams types made available to use. And you can customize to use the ones you want to use frequently as well.

  • Creately has what you call (smart connectors) that can automatically connect shapes by identifying the position of the shape and the connector type it requires.

  • You can edit change / add different styles and improve your diagrams with creately as you want.

  • Its a fully fledged diagram designing application made for diagramming mainly focused on the design and use. It has specific features for each diagram type.

  • Perfection is the word for the diagrams you design from creately. Further more there are many templates and examples to be used to create instant diagrams.

  • Price is under 50$ as you mentioned and the whole package is worth it. You can always try be for you buy.

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You can take a look at MyDraw (https://www.mydraw.com), which has versions for Mac and Windows. It costs 69USD and is in your budget. MyDraw has thousands of shapes for different diagramming scenarios (flowcharts, OrgCharts, UML, mindmaps etc.) and is packed with enterprise features like:

  • Import and export to Microsoft Visio.
  • Highly interactive, fast and modern User Interface that is Visio like.
  • Support for embedding barcodes (and soon charts, gauges and tables) in drawings.
  • Export to vector formats like SVG, PDF, WMF and DXF (Autocad).
  • Export to raster formats like BMP, PNG, JPEG and other.

MyDraw

Disclosure: I work for Nevron

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IHMC CmapTools is very good. You have to register for it but it is free to use and can run on all major OSes.

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  • Stephan, welcome to Ask Different! Ask Different is an english-only site, so please refrain from posting answers in German.
    – user6124
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 10:27
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    Stephan, willkommen zu Ask Different! Ask Different ist ein englisch sprache webseite, bitte refrain aus beitrag Deutsch. (translated with google translate)
    – user6124
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 10:28
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iPlotz

iPlotz allows you to rapidly create clickable, navigable mockups and wireframes for prototyping websites and software applications.

Create a project, add wireframe pages with design components and discuss your creations with others.

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  • At $99/year, it costs as much as Omnigraffle and does less. Yes, there's a free version, but that only allows one project.
    – Dori
    Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 19:46
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Your best solution is probably Inspiration. There's a free trial version available you can try out.

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Since what you're asking for is an extremely simple to use program without advanced features and lots of shapes, I suggest Delinieato, available through the Mac App store. Delineato gets ideas out of your head and onto the screen with a few clicks. It includes specifically the features you asked for, simple shapes, easy to use connectors, connectors that flow with the shapes as you move them around the screen. Delineato also has an infinite sized canvas, allowing you to shift things around and expand ideas as neccessary.

Best of all, it's under $10 on the App Store for the full version.

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  • I like this app's simplicity, as well as its complexity all at one shot. I have been looking for something like this for a while. There are features being added all the time, but I will be honest, this has a promising start.
    – Matt Ridge
    Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 14:10
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Well, I read all the posts and tried several of these apps, as I was also looking for a flowchart tool. Go for Pencil (thanks Sangcheol Choi) It's amazing yet simple. Yes, it has a lot of shapes, but it also has a very intuitive search tool, and the MEANING of each of them, which many other apps don't have.... Sometimes, that's very useful, at least for people who do not deal with flowcharts every day, so we are not sure about the meaning of some less used shapes....

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Lovely Charts:

A diagramming application that allows you to create professional looking diagrams of all kinds, such as flowcharts, sitemaps, business processes, organisation charts, wireframes and many more....

A cross-platform desktop application that is available for Linux, Mac & Windows, as well as an online edition & iPad edition compliments its versatility.

This is a Premium application and the price varies depending upon which version who choose to purchase.

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I'm really liking Gliffy. I'm a long-time user of Graffle and have tried a number of the other suggestions on this page. Graffle is great except for one crucial, deal-killing problem - it's orthogonal connecting line algorithm is terrible. I have to manually redraw lines almost anytime I move anything.

Gliffy is completely intuitive - everything pretty much does what I expect it to, and there are nice keyboard shortcuts for most things. I'd like to see symmetrical resizing (hold down option like in Graffle) so I don't have to re-center every time I resize a box, but that's a niggle.

The one feature I'd really like that none of these programs seems to have is the ability to expand or collapse a process block to reveal the flowchart of what's in the box. MacFlow under Mac OS9 used to do this, and it was wonderful: double-click a box and a new page would open, where you could flowchart the "nested" process. Close that window and the chart is hidden, but still there underneath whenever needed. Boxes with nested flowcharts had a bold border around them to let you know.

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The ProcessOn diagram platform is completely free, and includes a drawing application that is actually fairly useable for creating diagrams and flowcharts at the simpler end of the scale.

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Try Describio (https://www.describio.com). You can create runnable flowcharts using either the user interface or JavaScript (if you know how to code). You can also use user inputs to help control the flow. It's a more-advanced tool, but it's very useful for creating working prototypes. Check it out!

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  • Welcome to Ask Different! Please see the help center regarding self-promotion and make sure you disclose if you are affiliated with a product.
    – grg ♦
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 20:41
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Why does nobody mention the excellent diagramming app - ConceptDraw?

If you're familiar with Microsoft Visio, this one is absolutely your choice. The only one problem is that it's more expensive than what you expect.

Hope you can have a trial and consider my recommendation.

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You can actually do a lot of flowcharting stuff with Google Docs too. It depends on whether you're willing to pay for something or not. There's a good mix of both paid and free flowcharting software on Mac here.

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You can try Edraw Flowchart for Mac. It's an all-purpose diagram software with all flowcharting shapes. I suggest it to you because I found it one of the greatest diagramming tools after I tried some. It has a simple and elegant interface that you will feel comfortable to work on. It also includes templates that you can choose from. If you are a student, you just pay half price. These are its main features:

  • Automatic connection.
  • Basic shapes.
  • Vector Drawing
  • Templates and Examples.
  • Export to PDF, JPEG, PNG, Word, PPT, Html, PS, Visio, etc.
  • Cloud collaboration.
  • Cross-platform
  • Support 260+ kinds of diagrams.
  • Add hyperlink, attachment, note and comment.
  • Support large flowchart and multiple pages drawing.

enter image description here

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