Excalidraw
Hand-drawn style virtual whiteboard for diagrams, sketches, and collaborative brainstorming
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123k
Design & Creative⭐JavaScriptApache-2.0
draw.io (diagrams.net)
Free diagram maker for flowcharts, org charts, UML, and network diagrams — works offline
Editor's Take
draw.io is the Swiss Army knife of diagramming — it covers more diagram types than any single competitor, from flowcharts and org charts to UML, ER diagrams, network topologies, and BPMN. It works in your browser or as a desktop app with full offline support. The Google Drive, OneDrive, and GitHub integrations mean your diagrams live wherever your documents live. What makes draw.io genuinely useful is its zero-friction approach: open it, draw something, save it. No account required, no premium features gated, no learning curve. The template library is massive and the shape libraries cover virtually every diagram standard. It's not the prettiest diagram tool, and it doesn't have real-time collaboration. But when you need to create a professional-looking diagram quickly — especially one that needs to follow a specific standard — draw.io is the tool that never lets you down.
Good first choice if you want a practical tool without spending the afternoon reading developer docs.
Start Here
Why It Stands Out
- 1Works in browser or as desktop app with offline support
- 2Integrates with Google Drive, OneDrive, and GitHub
- 3Massive library of templates and shape libraries
Best Use Cases
Create flowcharts quickly
Drag-and-drop shapes to create professional flowcharts and process diagrams
UML for developers
Draw class diagrams, sequence diagrams, and entity-relationship diagrams
Plain-English Buying Guide
draw.io (diagrams.net) is a good candidate for individuals, non developers, developers who want an open source option in the design & creative category. The key question is not whether the repository is popular. The better question is whether it removes a real friction point from your day: replacing a paid SaaS tool, keeping more data under your control, speeding up a repeated task, or giving a team a workflow they can inspect and adapt.
draw.io (diagrams.net) is most useful when your goal matches one of its real use cases rather than when you are simply browsing popular repositories. Start by checking whether "create flowcharts quickly" sounds like your situation. If it does, read the install guide, try the smallest possible setup, and only then decide whether to bring it into a personal workflow or team stack. The project is tagged around diagramming, flowchart, no-code, web, which gives you a quick sense of the ecosystem it belongs to. It can also fit "uml for developers", but that second path may require a different setup or expectation.
Before You Install
draw.io (diagrams.net) is one of the easier projects in this category to try first. You should still check the official installation page, but the expected path is closer to downloading an app, running a simple command, or following a guided setup than maintaining a complex server.
Check the Apache-2.0 license, the JavaScript ecosystem, and the latest activity on GitHub before using it for important work.
When to Skip It
Skip it for now if your current tool already solves the same problem well. Open source is most valuable when it gives you privacy, flexibility, cost savings, or a workflow improvement you cannot get from your existing setup.
If you are unsure, compare it with the similar projects below before spending time on a full setup.
Who Should Try It
individualsnon developersdevelopers
Similar Projects
#diagramming#flowchart#no-code#web