One of the best mind-mapping tools on the market

Lucidchart is easy to use out of the box, has tons of features making it useful in basically every use case I can imagine. No cheap customer lock-in. You can easily export your projects and switch to another tool.

Pros

Abundance of features, which makes this software so versatile. You can basically use it for every task and project. I mainly use it for mind-mapping and brainstorming, but it's also equally useful for taking notes, story-boarding, gathering ideas, presenting, drawing graphs, schemes and organisational charts, Gantt timelines, or even team building (it works great as an online whiteboard). What I really love is ease of use and multitude of features. Every time I wish I could do something, it turns out it's possible. Seems like developers really thought about everything and listen closely to their users and use cases. Also, you don't really feel that the software is locking you in--you can export your projects to similar software/platforms, e.g. Visio.

Cons

Getting to know some features takes time and energy, documentation and tool tips have some space for improvement. Also, licencing model could be more friendly for small companies or people who use it as backup/auxiliary software only (en entry level paid subscription model).

Makes Process Mapping Fun

It's been a great tool for our team over the years to help colleagues put their ideas and processes into visual form.

Pros

Lucidchart has some incredible functionality that makes it easy to not only prepare a great flowchart to go into documentation but also to layer in relevant information based on the party that needs to see it as well as allowing the user to present the materials easily to a group of people or to share the work with others.

Cons

At present there aren't many complaints. Minor issues with formatting shapes often come up, but that's primarily when I want to treat Lucidchart like a design tool such as InDesign rather than using it for creating process maps and doing other diagramming work that doesn't need the level of detail that ID or Photoshop provide.

Got charged over $350 for a single month after my free trial elapsed

Terrible. I feel angry and used.

Pros

It works. You can make a chart and they have a lot of options.

Cons

I hopped on lucid chart to make a few slides for the class I was teaching. I got about 30 minutes in before the paywall hit. I had already sunk a bunch of time into my diagram and wouldn't be able to use it if I didn't sign up for the free trial. The website says you'll be charged about $9/month per person. The class came and went. I was busy and soon forgot about the trial. When I checked my credit card statement I saw a charge for about $360 dollars. The charged me $90 per person for a team of 5 people, without me ever having done anything extra to specify this. This is just the defaults. Costly mistake. I'm super angry. I don't bring in a lot, and simply wanting a good slide for class turned this into a many hundred dollar mistake.

Workflow illustration

It did take a while to get used to using Lucidchart... it's not super intuitive. But once you get the hang of it, it's not bad. There are many features I don't believe I'm using, as I use it in a simplistic form to create workflow charts. I like the professional look of the objects and charts, and ability to customize. It's also great that an education account is available. I would recommend it over other flowchart tools I've used!

Pros

I like how customizable it is to change the shapes, colors, gradient, etc. in order to make the flow chart look more professional or match branding colors. It has a much more professional look than other similar tools I've used, and I very much appreciate the ability to share and collaborate.

Cons

I wish a chart could be shared with others who do not have a Lucidchart account, but I've only been able to share with colleagues who have accounts as well. Alternatively I send a PDF of the chart to others for feedback (it works, but just slower and not as efficient). I've also had trouble in moving objects without moving the items they are linked to (there may be a way to change this, but I haven't found it yet).

Easy to use and powerful diagramming tool.

Lucidchart is my goto for complex network diagrams, system workflow diagrams, process workflows, data flow diagrams, API call flow sequence diagrams, system component diagrams. I have used it for years and don't see any reason to switch to another product. I would highly recommend this product.

Pros

1) Super easy to get started with simple registration options. 2) Very flexible sharing and collaboration options. 3) Multi-edit a document in real time with other users. 4) Easily lock down access to documents. 5) Many predefined industry standard documents to start from 6) Large list of export diagram export options. Examples, PDF, PNG...

Cons

1) At times the shape locator tool on the left hand side can be confusing depending on the document type you are working on, for example if you are working on a DFD diagram, the shapes directly related to the diagram should always be visible first after which other shape groups should be searchable.