Creately is a browser-based visual workspace from Cinergix in Australia. It started as a diagram editor and now sells data-connected canvases for org charts, process maps and clinical genograms. It still works and is still changing: in October 2026 it retired its Starter and Team plans, and Team became Pro.
The free plan limits each diagram to 45 shapes. Pro is $5 per editor a month billed yearly, and Business is $89 a month billed yearly or $149 billed monthly, per the PricingSaaS record for Creately. The picks below start with the closest diagram editors, then move to whiteboards and Microsoft or Atlassian options.
Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Price | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucidchart | Formal flowcharts, org charts and network diagrams | Free (3 docs); Individual $9 a month (check billing period at checkout) | Web, desktop browser apps, iOS, Android |
| draw.io | Free diagrams with no account | Free | Web, Windows, Mac, Linux |
| Miro | Workshops and brainstorming on a shared board | Free (3 boards); Starter $8/member/month yearly | Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android |
| Whimsical | Fast flowcharts, wireframes and mind maps | Free; Pro $10/editor/month yearly | Web, Mac, Windows |
| Microsoft Visio | Teams standardised on Microsoft 365 | Plan 1 $5, Plan 2 $15/user/month yearly | Web; desktop on Windows |
| Excalidraw | Quick hand-drawn sketches and system sketches | Free; Plus $6/user/month yearly | Any browser |
| Gliffy | Diagrams inside Confluence pages | Free to 10 users; $3.80/user/month yearly | Confluence Cloud and Data Center |
Lucidchart
Lucidchart is the editor most Creately users end up comparing against. It covers the same diagram types, from flowcharts and swimlanes to org charts, AWS and Azure architecture and ERDs, with smart containers, conditional formatting and data linking from Google Sheets, Excel and Salesforce.
Its free tier is more generous per diagram and stricter on count. The Lucidchart plans page gives free users 3 editable documents with 60 shapes each, against Creately's 45 shapes but no document cap. Individual removes the limits for $9 a month plus tax; check the billing period at checkout.
Best for: People who draw structured business diagrams every week and want the largest template and shape library.
Pricing:
- Free: 3 editable documents, 60 shapes per document, 100 basic templates
- Individual: $9 a month plus tax (check billing period at checkout), unlimited documents and shapes, 1 GB storage
- Team and Enterprise: priced per user on Lucid's plan pages
Watch out for:
- Three editable documents is a tight free allowance. A fourth diagram means archiving one or paying.
Official site: Lucidchart.
draw.io
For anyone leaving Creately because of the shape cap, draw.io is the obvious stop. It is free with no shape, page or document limits, runs in the browser at app.diagrams.net and as a desktop app, and opens Visio and Gliffy files.
Desktop version 32.6.10 shipped in early November 2026 for Windows, macOS and Linux, per the drawio-desktop releases page. Diagrams save as files to your device, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or GitHub, so no data sits on a draw.io server.
Best for: Engineers and analysts who want unlimited free diagrams and control over where files live.
Pricing:
- Free web and desktop apps, no paid tier
- Confluence and Jira apps are sold separately on the Atlassian Marketplace
Watch out for:
- There is no shared workspace with folders, comments and roles as in Creately. Team access depends on the cloud drive you save to.
- The default styling looks dated next to Creately or Whimsical, so client-facing diagrams need manual theming.
Official site: draw.io.
Miro
Teams that use Creately more as a whiteboard than a diagram editor should look at Miro. Sticky notes, voting, timers, templates for retros and journey maps, and live cursors for dozens of people make it a workshop room first and a diagram tool second.
Prices run per member. The Miro pricing page lists Starter at $8 per member a month and Business at $20, both billed yearly. Enterprise starts at 30 members with custom pricing.
Best for: Product and agile teams running remote workshops with many participants.
Pricing:
- Free: 3 editable boards
- Starter: $8 per member a month, billed yearly
- Business: $20 per member a month, billed yearly
- Enterprise: custom, from 30 members
Watch out for:
- Only three boards stay editable on the free plan, and the three most recent are the ones you keep.
- A ten-person team on Business pays $2,400 a year, far above Creately Pro for the same group.
Official site: Miro.
Whimsical
Whimsical trades Creately's huge shape library for speed. Flowcharts, wireframes, mind maps and sticky notes snap into a clean house style, and docs live next to boards so a spec and its diagram stay together.
Paid seats cost more than Creately Pro: $10 per editor a month on yearly billing, double Creately's $5. In return you get a tool that people outside the design team open without training.
Best for: Product managers and designers who sketch flows and wireframes and care how they look.
Pricing:
- Free: 50 board objects and 50 doc blocks a month, watermarked exports, 7-day version history
- Pro: $10 per editor a month, billed yearly
- Business: $20 per editor a month, billed yearly; sales contact available
Watch out for:
- The free plan is a trial in practice. The Whimsical pricing page caps it at 50 board objects a month and watermarks exports.
- There are no network, cloud architecture or engineering shape sets, so an IT diagram looks out of place.
Official site: Whimsical.
Microsoft Visio
Company IT may already pay for this one. A web version of Visio comes with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans, and the full product adds data-linked diagrams, AutoCAD import and the stencil sets many enterprises standardised on years ago.
The Visio plans page lists Plan 1 at $5 per user a month and Plan 2 at $15, both on an annual subscription paid yearly. Plan 1 is web only; Plan 2 adds the desktop app with offline work and local files.
Best for: Organisations on Microsoft 365 that trade .vsdx files with partners and auditors.
Pricing:
- Visio in Microsoft 365: included with eligible commercial plans
- Plan 1: $5 per user a month, paid yearly, web app only
- Plan 2: $15 per user a month, paid yearly, web and desktop apps
- 30-day trial needs a work or school account and a card
Watch out for:
- Microsoft's guide to using Visio on a Mac points Mac users to the web app, because the desktop app is Windows only.
- Personal Microsoft accounts cannot start the trial, so freelancers without a business tenant are shut out.
Official site: Microsoft Visio.
Excalidraw
Sometimes a Creately diagram is overkill. Excalidraw draws boxes and arrows in a hand-sketched style, opens instantly at excalidraw.com without an account, and shares a live session by link with end-to-end encryption.
The editor is open source under the MIT licence on GitHub and other apps reuse it, including a popular Obsidian plugin. Excalidraw+ adds saved scenes, folders, comments and PDF or PPTX export for $6 per user a month billed yearly, or $7 billed monthly.
Best for: Developers and tech leads sketching architecture during a call.
Pricing:
- Free: full editor, one saved scene in Excalidraw+, unlimited collaborators, 10 AI requests a day
- Plus: $6 per user a month billed yearly, or $7 billed monthly; 14-day trial
Watch out for:
- The free Excalidraw+ account keeps a single scene, per the Excalidraw+ pricing page, so a library of diagrams needs Plus or local .excalidraw files.
- There are no data-linked shapes, org chart import or formal notation checks.
Official site: Excalidraw.
Gliffy
Gliffy fits teams whose diagrams belong in Confluence anyway. The app adds a diagram macro to pages, so a process map or architecture drawing is edited where the documentation lives, under Confluence permissions.
On the Gliffy pricing page, Gliffy Diagrams for Confluence Cloud is free for up to 10 users with no time limit, then $3.80 per user a month for 11 to 100 users, billed annually through the Atlassian Marketplace.
Best for: Atlassian shops that want diagrams embedded in Confluence pages.
Pricing:
- Confluence Cloud: free up to 10 users; $3.80 per user a month for 11 to 100 users, billed annually
- Zero Egress edition: from $2.80 per user a month
- Data Center: perpetual licences priced on the Atlassian Marketplace
- 30-day evaluation
Watch out for:
- Outside Confluence it is a weaker choice. Gliffy Online pricing is on request.
- The per-user price applies to every Confluence user on the site, not only the people who draw.
Official site: Gliffy.
How to choose
| If you need | Pick |
|---|---|
| The closest one-to-one replacement for Creately diagrams | Lucidchart |
| Unlimited diagrams for free, on desktop or web | draw.io |
| A whiteboard for retros and workshops | Miro |
| Clean wireframes and user flows | Whimsical |
| .vsdx files and Microsoft 365 sign-in | Microsoft Visio |
| A quick sketch shared by link, no account | Excalidraw |
| Diagrams that live in Confluence pages | Gliffy |
When to stay with Creately
Creately is still cheap for what it does. At $5 per editor a month billed yearly, Pro undercuts Lucidchart, Miro and Whimsical, and it adds things they lack, such as people-data org charts in Atlas and AI-built genograms for clinical teams. If those data-connected maps are why you use it, stay. For mind mapping alone, our Xmind alternatives list lighter tools.
Frequently asked questions
Is Creately free?
Yes, there is a free plan with no time limit. Each diagram is capped at 45 shapes, data sources are imported once rather than kept in sync, and advanced features show only as previews. Paid use starts with Pro at $5 per editor a month on yearly billing.
What is Creately used for?
Mostly flowcharts, org charts, mind maps, process maps and planning boards. The company now also markets data-linked workspaces: Atlas for org charts fed by people data, Process for operations maps and Clinical Maps for genograms and care plans.
What is the best free alternative to Creately?
draw.io, because it has no shape or document limit and runs offline on Windows, Mac and Linux. Excalidraw is the faster choice for rough sketches, and Lucidchart's free plan works if three diagrams are enough.
Is Creately better than Lucidchart?
Creately is cheaper per editor and adds data-connected org charts. Lucidchart has the larger shape library, deeper integrations with Google Workspace, Microsoft and Atlassian, and a bigger free shape allowance per document. Teams that mainly draw technical diagrams tend to prefer Lucidchart.
