Best Flowchart Software (Online or Offline, Preferrably free)?

Question

I would like to hear from some of you veteran programmers out there about your preference for flowchart software, so if you wouldn't mind saying what you use for your programs, and why?

Thanks, I'm a beginning programmer in my second class.

Answer 1

If on a Mac try Omni Graffle http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/OmniGraffle/. It's easy to use and you can create nice looking charts.

Answer 2

I've used dia for a while.

EDIT: I know students usually like free stuff. Here's some more that I've played witha little but not nearly as much as dia.

yEd - I think this is a showcase for their graph rendering engine. Nice graphs, but I find it a little slow and pokey. I think it's a showcase for their graph rendering engine that they sell in custom solutions. I think it's Java based, even was web launch!

InSight - used to be free, but looks like they've moved to a free-trial model. Very nice looking, but also rather slow. I think it's .NET based.

Answer 3

My favourite is Flying Logic as you can group elements in large documents and expand and collapse the groups, so you can deal with huge flowcharts easily.

You can also use Flying Logic for it's primary purpose as a logical reasoning tool.

Answer 4

I really like www.gliffy.com. Good for collaboration. Keeps revision history. Simple interface.

Answer 5

Microsoft Visio is an unbelieable tool for flowcharting. I use version 2007 for database design, web site maps, business workflows etc. It has many templates you can use out of the box which make you look good ;) You get a 30 day free trial.

Thanks, Tony. www.webcloudsolutions.net

Answer 6

For me, one of the best is lucidchart (www.lucidchart.com)

Answer 7

I've tried out SlickPlan (www.slickplan.com) and it's not too bad. It's all web interface but I wish it had more features. It's really best for just website flow charts.