Visio Reviews

The solution is easy to set up.

The stability is okay. The performance is pretty good.

It's a very flexible solution. 

It requires a lot of skill to get into it. 

It requires more simplicity. You have two options. Either you go very simple, then it's quite a hurdle to get into it or you go very complex. It's a hurdle too. However, when you decide to go complex, then you know exactly what you're doing. Therefore, the gap between, let's say, a common user and an experienced user is large. For Draw.io, I can point anybody to Draw.io and they can just get in there and do whatever they want to do, and it works for them. Visio requires someone to be more experienced.

There's also a solution called TAG for writing documents, which is awesome. It's mainly used in universities, education areas, and big pharma. It's an awesome tool. It takes a lot of time to get in there, but when you are in there, you can do basically almost every kind of document without any issues. Visio is much more similar to this. There's complexity and yet you can do anything within it.

I'm not used to the new versions of Visio. There is a standard version. Always when I get in there, I get frustrated as I can't do the things that I like. The usability could be improved.

Stencils are always an issue, however, this depends on the vendors.

The stability can get iffy if you are doing very complex things. 

I've used the solution quite extensively during the last ten years. It's been a long time. 

The stability really depends on what you're using and what you're doing. When you get complex, you can get some crashes. I have never figured out why that is. It may happen when you have different cards or registers with a lot of things linked together and grouped. For standard usage, it's awesome. When you do more complex things, well, you might have issues.

I can't say a thing about scalability. 

I can't speak to technical support as I don't deal with them. We have in-house support and our in-house support is abysmal. What happens after them, I really can't say. If you call them to ask questions, they just say, "We have to look it up." And that's the last thing you hear. That, however, is an internal issue. It's nothing to do with the quality of the support in general.

We did not previously use a different solution. 

I do now use Draw.io a lot.

The implementation process is quite simple and straightforward. 

Deployment times vary. It depends on how you manage it. If you do a good management process, with document templates and everything, it takes a lot longer. We basically just made packages and rolled them there, using the variables. I'm not a package filler, however, for us, it was easy.

I can't speak to how many people now manage the solution as it is completely outsourced. We don't manage it ourselves. 

We handled the implementation in-house. We did not need to hire any consultants or integrators.

I can't speak to the cost of the solution. We are using just the standard licensing terms for an enterprise license agreement with Microsoft, where we basically have a lot of things in there. I don't think it's included in any Office Microsoft 365 licenses. We basically just have a subscription for every license we're using, however, I can't speak to pricing or terms. 

I have to let Visio go as most often it's too complex and it takes too much time. I'm rather using Draw.io, which is by far enough for almost everything I do expect if I am really drawing up complex cabling things in a building, for example.

I'm just an end-user. The company I work for is a customer. We don't have a special business relationship with Visio.

I'd give new users the same advice I do for every tool. Be really clear on what you want to achieve. Be really clear that when you do it and do it in a strategical and tactical way. Don't do a single deployment and don't just install it and let users do their thing. Agree on templates, stencils, et cetera, that you're using within the company, and keep it simple and crisp, as simple and crisp as possible.

After using the solution for ten years, I would rate it at an eight out of ten.

I use it for diagramming networks, racks, data centers, data flow applications, etc.

I am using its latest version. We have an M-365 membership, so we can access it in the cloud, but we download the application because it works better.

It is a useful tool to map data flows, network objects, and computer science technology and show to clients. It does what I need it to do. It's a tool I've used the longest, so I know it the best, and that's probably the claim to fame.

Sometimes, there is a little bit of a learning curve with it, especially while doing complex network diagrams and getting the lines to snap the way you want them and not overlap or be confusing. It would be great if there was a built-in tutorial. It is not that you can't YouTube, but it would be nice if they gave you some free training. I've been using it forever, but every now and then, I got to do something complicated with it and I wonder how do I do that again. Maybe they do have such information, and I don't know. I have not done research on it because a bunch of people work for me, and some of them are better at it than I am, so I just ask them to do this for me.

There are some applications that you can run in an environment, and they will run through, do auto-discovery, and map the network environment. It would be great to see something like that in Visio, but Microsoft probably doesn't want the hassle of having to deal with it because all the ones out there don't work that well anyway. In order to work well, you have to give them a ton of access to your routers and switches, and nobody wants to do that because it is a security issue.

I have been using this solution for 15 years.

Its stability is excellent. It is a very stable application.

It is basically a client application, and it has one to one ratio in terms of the application being installed on the client. So, I'm not sure how it scales.

We have 15 users. All are technical architects and engineers. Its usage is moderate. It is just an as-needed tool, but everybody in our two teams needs it.

I never had to contact Visio's technical support.

If I did, it was a long time ago. Sometimes, we use PowerPoint for simple diagrams. Obviously, it's not nearly as powerful, but in a pinch, it works.

It is pretty basic, but I've been using it for 15 years. So, you get some stencils, and you build some templates.

We probably have an M-365 E3 license.

It had the same struggles the entire time it has been around. It is a good tool, but it got a little bit of a learning curve. Sometimes, you got to figure out how to make the line snap correctly so it is not really confusing, but it is a valuable tool. People want to use it.

I would rate it an eight out of ten. It is a really good application for what it does. I'm sure there are one or two other solutions out there that are pretty good, but I don't have a lot of exposure to them.

I use it for high-level detailed and high-level conceptual drawings for leadership. I also use it for small drawings when I'm doing documentation, policy creation, or building some kind of a spec.

It is installed on my personal machine. In terms of the version, my Office suite is 19, so I assume the Visio version is whatever is packaged with Office 19 suite.

It improved the way our organization functioned years ago, but right now, people are trying to find other ways to do what they're doing in Visio because the tool is stagnant and really not moving. It hasn't for years. They've added features but really not much. They're more pulling those into higher-level tools such as Azure Development Studio and things like that.

What I like about it is that the templates are easily findable and usable, and they are usually created for other software packages. It seems to be pretty much widely adopted in the industry. 

It is a visualization tool, so database visualization is pretty static in it. They haven't moved the ERDs very well. They haven't adopted any real visualization like what you have in Hackolade for JSON or other data patterns. It has none of that. If you go onto broader patterns, you can actually label and integrate with a data set, if you want, for Visio, but it's very clunky and very difficult for me to assign that to another user. I can't assign it to a junior or a documenter. They really haven't cleaned up and made their tools simpler to use when linking to data, which is primarily what you're trying to do.

The versioning has always been a bit messy. You can't have a state of how it is to how it was without having two drawings. You can layer, but layers don't work very well for the most part. They just haven't progressed the tool. The tool isn't keeping up with the architecture that people are forced to do. So, more and more people around here are abandoning it and moving to alternate tools. It is now being used for just basic drawings. It is no longer an enterprise-quality development or documentation tool. It can be, but you'd have to work pretty hard at it.

It doesn't have autosave features with respect to the way some of the other Office tools have it. It is pretty clunky if your machine crashes or gets shut down because of a low battery or something like that. To make sure that the changes persist, you need to look at the last version of it. It has still got on-premise features, and it still has that same paradigm of clicking "save", and you better keep clicking "save" to make sure it doesn't get corrupted. It is very old school for cloud tools. Any Office tool, Google tool, or Apple tool is going to save all your work because it's basically updating via messages, but that's not how Visio works. It is very old school. They just aren't spending any money on it.

I'd love them to get back to being able to do true data flow diagrams that are easy to use and that actually can be pulled from data lineage. In lineage diagrams, you can pull the data and actually reflect them in the right drawing. There is a little bit of that going on in some of the drawings but not much. I want to be able to do database design documents, if necessary. I've got people doing those. I'd like to do network drawings with multiple layers in a simpler way and to the point where the layers have displays of viewpoints as most systems do. 

I have been using this solution for 10 to 15 years.

It is very stable, but there are no autosave features in it.

There is no scalability to it. It is on your machine. You could put files into Teams and somewhat scale through Teams, but it is not scalable. You don't have the ability to have team cooperation and repositories. You can do repositories, but it doesn't have any of the features that allow you to regulate and have all the things you'd have or expect in any enterprise quality development tool or design tool. It doesn't have any of those features. You have to broaden the suite and buy about nine other Microsoft things to somehow attempt to get those features.

Its usage is declining. We used to have about 150 users. Now, we probably only have about 50 or 60 users. We're buying tools that knock out some of the edges of what Visio would do. Enterprise architecture is really no longer done in Visio. It is done a little bit, but for the most part, we use other tools for it. Although it can make the boxes, it can't really work a process in enterprise architecture. It is not a development or life cycle management tool.

I've never been able to queue up technical support on it. We don't allow our internal people to directly communicate with technical support. It goes through an internal layer.

It is easy to set up. It is also easy to add libraries to it.

I know you can pick it up in retail for under a thousand per person. You can also pick it up for cheaper than that. Microsoft has about 7,000 licensing models, and you get certain percentages off specific licensing. If you're a partner, you get specific numbers of licenses with the partnership price.

Visio was owned not by Microsoft. It was its own company way back, and it was actually moving very well. It had ERDs and was actually developing very well. Microsoft bought it. They picked it apart and started moving those tools into other things and downgraded the tool. I don't think it has met the level of expertise and the level of technical proficiency that it had 15 years ago. It was downgraded, pure and simple. A lot of those pieces are used in other things now.

I would advise others that just don't try to make it more than what it is. Find a tool that is enterprise-worthy if you're trying to move to that level, but don't try to make it into an enterprise tool.

I would rate it a six out of 10.

I use the solution to make graphs and schemas for infrastructure, application, and documentation.

We need proper documentation. The tool helps us during the project initiation to visualize things.

I have used it for so long that it is the product that I can work my best with. It has a lot of features compared to other competitors. The product provides a lot of flexibility in writing graphs and customizing them. It has a lot of stencils that we can use to make it seamless. I haven't seen that in other products.

The solution is pretty expensive. It could be cheaper.

I have been using the solution for 20 years.

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability a six out of ten. I do not need to scale it much.

I do not contact support for Visio. I contact them for SQL Server. Sometimes, the knowledge of the people I talk to is not that good. Sometimes it's great, and sometimes it's not that good. It depends on the person who takes the case.

Neutral

I used draw.io in the past, but it was fairly limited compared to Visio. It didn't have a lot of functionality compared to Visio.

The setup is pretty easy. We just have to install the tool. We do not have to do a lot of configuration. It would be somewhat different in a business setup, though.

I have a Microsoft 365 license.

I prefer Visio. I have been working on it for a long time. It is a hassle to learn another tool. I will recommend the product to others. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I use Visio when I'm writing a client report in Microsoft Word, and I want to put in a simple graphic to supplement the text or better explain something. Visio's graphics are not complicated. They're quick and easy to create, so I use them mainly for what I would call static graphics, like simple charts and diagrams.

Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and essential illustrations to use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients manually.

One of the most valuable features is the online support from Microsoft. Whenever I'm stuck with a problem, I can contact customer support. They will almost certainly get back to me within a reasonable time frame. They're good with that.

It is easy to use online tutorials and training videos provided by Microsoft and elsewhere, such as on YouTube. So, if I want to create a new diagram, add some shapes, or increase the weight of a connection from one object to another in my graph, I can easily find out how to do that.

Another aspect that I enjoy is the seamless online integration. For example, there's the ability to download all sorts of extras like different shapes, stencils, objects, etc., for free directly from Microsoft into Visio. Also, I like that you can drag and drop online pictures straight from the Web into Visio.

There could be better integration between Visio and Word, especially when it comes to importing graphics from one to the other. Visio's graphics don't seem to play well with other applications. Sometimes I move a business process graphic to a Word document. It doesn't copy the picture correctly, or it leaves some of the connectors off. Or it puts the wrong one in or changes the font for no apparent reason. That's a pain in the neck, and it's one of my biggest complaints about Visio.

Moreover, when I connect a caption to a drawing and move the drawing, sometimes the caption gets left behind. And if you shrink the size of a drawing, I'd like Visio to scale the font automatically. Small details like this would significantly improve the product.

Aesthetically speaking, the graphics can be a bit crude and simplistic. The graphics are sufficient for most purposes, though dated in their appearance. Visio is a static program that tries to keep things simple for most users. However, I would appreciate it if Microsoft made an allowance for at least slightly more complicated graphics. As they are now, they do not inspire or motivate interest in the subject. People don't look at the graphics and say, "Wow, that's a great graphic." They look at it and say, "Uh-huh, move on. Next!" It's a lot of the sameness.

I would also love to see Visio with a more intuitive and reliable data linking feature. I shouldn't have to program or develop any complicated code. Just press a button, connect to the spreadsheet, and update it. For me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You should trust your application so that when you need it to link, it links. It would help to know that Visio is using the latest data, mainly because you don't want to embarrass yourself in front of a customer with wrong or outdated data especially when you have a time crunch and have little time to verify if an application worked as you wish it would.

I like dynamic programs. I want to take inputs from other places and have the application automatically update my chart and know that it's correct. And not only do I want it updated, but I wish to document updates, so I can see what updates were selected and used. So, if the document references a spreadsheet or an Access database, it shows where the data came from, what version it is, and the date. If you're doing a nice bar chart in Visio and you want all the bells and whistles, you can see the source material and revision of the chart so that you don't have to go back and say, "Is this right?"

I want to create my objects and my object library more easily. I think you can do some of that, but it's not that simple. I haven't had a lot of experience creating objects, but when I did tried, it was awkward.

The support is okay, though not super great; I wouldn't expect it to be. Visio is not a program where you need a lot of hand-holding for most tasks. It's quite suitable for those who want to drag and drop, so support isn't too crucial, though there is room for improvement.

I have been using Visio since it first came out in the early 1990s.  It hasn't improved much in that time.

It's very stable. I have never had a crash in Visio ever.

For my use case, there's not much need to scale it up in any meaningful sense. When I'm writing a proposal or preparing a report for a client, I try only to put in a sufficient number or well-considered graphics to get my point across.

I typically create my graphics and place them in a Word document. And then I hope they stay together as I move things around during the editing and review processes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. So, in terms of scalability and accuracy, Microsoft could improve integration and consistency between their Office applications.

I haven't had to use technical support very often at all over the years. I might have used it only once or twice in the past twenty-something years. I'd rate the support I received as a five out of ten. Not too good, not too bad. Thankfully, they've gotten rid of a lot of the need for that kind of tech support by putting better help and documentation online.

Microsoft offers training videos online that teach the basics of Visio well enough. I can also go on YouTube if there's something unique or unusual that I need to do. Frequently, somebody's already done it, and I can quickly learn how they did it.

Suppose you do want technical support. In that case, Microsoft has a reasonably active Visio user group. However, it's not real-time help, and you may have to wait a little while for a response. If you want somebody to help you live, you're going to have to pay a third-party company for that kind of support. I don't use Visio so much that it's worth going that route.

Neutral

I used a similar solution to Visio many years ago, designed for business flowcharts and business processing. The company that built the software went out of business.

It's easy to get started with mocking-up simple flow charts and diagrams. Still, it can get very complicated when setting out anything a bit more detailed—especially when getting titles, labels, and font sizes to match up. Suppose you want to make a custom organizational chart or a product line chart with all the details and specifications. In that case, I suspect you'll need to set aside some time to learn the user interface more thoroughly.

In-house.  

I haven't actually calculated an ROI, but I would approximate that I save at least two hours' time of cumulative manual effort for each graphic built with Visio.

The licensing process is a breeze. Buy the license and download the application from Microsoft. Enter the license key in Visio to activate the software.

No.  I've used Visio for many years.  It does what we need it to do and is good enough for the simple graphics we use, but perhaps, we could improve our graphics if we had a more dynamic and creative graphics application.

I like to call Visio a program for the graphically impaired. I use it because I hate spending lots of time preparing graphics, especially when our clients don't spend a lot of time studying them. I would recommend skipping any fancier alternatives unless your business demands it. Most people might benefit from adding quality visuals to their documents but don't have design skills. In that case, I recommend using Visio instead.

As long as you don't have excessive expectations, it will do what you need it to do and do it for a reasonable cost.

I would rate Visio an eight out of ten.

We use the application for process mapping through architecture. It helps visualize the activities and interactions between 3,000 different systems on the network.

The product efficiently visualizes various business processes, including building and networking architecture. It is quite intuitive, and there is a lot of training documentation available. We can import an Excel Spreadsheet with all the essential data, and Visio can build the diagram using it.

In terms of features, it could provide more automation to display data flowing through architecture. It should give a real-time data update.

We have been using Visio for 20 years.

It is a stable application.

We have 30 Visio users in our organization, but soon, we will roll out the product for about 200 users. It is scalable.

I take help from our internal IT staff in case of technical issues. If they need further assistance, they approach Visio’s technical support team.

I have used Draw.io before. It is free software and designs diagrams quickly. However, it has very limited functionality and is not suitable for enterprises. I would recommend Visio for working on business processes on a day-to-day basis.

The product is easy to deploy and maintain. It takes a few minutes to complete the process and requires one admin executive to work on it. It received automated updates.

The product is inexpensive if you already have Microsoft products in your environment. The license encompasses all the required services.

I recommend Visio to others and rate it a ten out of ten.

Visio is used as a diagramming software for ITM.

Visio is a very easy tool in general, making it easy for anyone to understand.

Visio is a very good product.

The export and import functionality from Visio to other tools and the import and export functionality from other tools to Visio are areas with shortcomings. Widening the export and import functionality of Visio will be a great improvement.

I have been using Visio for twenty years. I am using the solution's latest version.

Visio is a very stable product.

It is used to buy a single user at a time because it is meant to be client-side software, so scalability does not apply to it.

For my company, we have around one hundred licenses.

I don't know what the license cost is, but we are not planning to extend the usage of the solution in our company.

I had previously used Sparx Enterprise Architect. Every company has its own standards, which is why you use what is meant for the company, provided by the company, which is not a big deal.

Visio's setup phase was very straightforward and easy. I bought a license to use Visio at my home.

An hour at the most was needed to deploy the solution.

One needs just to purchase the license and download it from the internet as a part of the deployment process.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

The installation phase of Visio was carried out in-house.

I never calculated the ROI, but Visio provides me with far better than what I am paying.

My company does pay toward the licensing costs of Visio. It is a cheap product based on my experience, and since I purchased Visio for my own use.

To those planning to use it, I would say that it is the simplest tool.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We primarily use Visio for creating business process diagrams and flowcharts.

Drawing flowcharts is the most valuable feature of Visio.

Visio can be more user-friendly.

I would like to have a drag-and-drop option within Visio.

I have been using Visio for many years across various versions.

Visio is stable.

I believe Visio is scalable.

We have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft that includes premier support service.

Our IT department completed the initial setup and deployment, which was straightforward.

The implementation was completed in-house.

Visio is included with our Microsoft enterprise license.

I give Visio a nine out of ten.

We have over 300 users.

I recommend Visio.

I use the solution for process mapping and improvement.

The solution is user-friendly.

The performance sometimes lags and has room for improvement.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for a few years.

The solution is stable.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment took under 15 minutes by following the documentation.

The implementation was completed in-house.

We pay annually for the Visio license and it is expensive.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

Visio is user-friendly and I recommend the solution to others.

This tool is mainly used by our engineers for network layout designs, to either document what's being deployed for a customer or to put together a proposal. We use it as a tool to graphically depict the network we're proposing to the customers showing what it will look like and which components will be included. We are customers of Visio and I'm the product director with sector security. 

The solution has many readily available shapes and icons. Visio is a kind of industry-standard to some extent. Many companies have icon sets that can be imported into Visio and then used for network graphics or to specifically show a manufacturer's product model number. It's very useful. Visio has always been a pretty good product with continual updates. There will often be new features you didn't know you needed but once they're included, you can't imagine being without them. They're on the right track as far as I'm concerned.

If you get large networks where you're trying to detect everything in the network and you get lots of minute details, the drawings can get too large to send via email. You have to put it in cloud storage for people to access it. That's a byproduct of having a large, very complex graphic.

I've never had any problem with stability and all of them. 

I've never heard of any concerns regarding scalability. 

Our own internal IT department deals with any support issues.

Sometimes if you have to import icon or figure sets, it can be a little bit challenging. For the most part, it's pretty straightforward. 

I rate this solution 10 out of 10.