Microsoft Visio is a powerful piece of software, allowing IT professionals, business people, engineers, and others working in highly technical fields to map out and display complex information in the form of flowcharts, site plans, floor plans, diagrams and more.

Useful though all this is, the price point is well beyond what the average home user is willing to spend at $300 for the “Standard” version and $590 for the Pro version. (If you’re dead-set on using Visio, there is a potentially cheaper option where you can get Visio Pro for Office 365 for $13/month if you get an annual subscription or $15/month for a monthly commitment.)

However, if it does not have to be Visio specifically, but a flow chart type program, why pay at all when there are perfectly free and viable Visio alternatives available to you? Here are some top picks.

Four good alternatives:

--Best options--

• yEd Graph Editor - (Closest in functionality to Visio)

  • https://www.yworks.com/products/yed (Dowwnload)

  • https://www.yworks.com/products/yed-live (Online)

• LucidCharts (Imports/Exports visio)

  • https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/

-- Other options --

Gliffy - (14 day trial and then free w/ watermarked diagrams)

• https://www.gliffy.com/products/online/ (Online)

LibreOffice Draw -

• https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/draw/

• http://www.vrt.com.au/downloads/vrt-network-equipment (Extra shapes)