Visio Reviews

My primary use case of this solution is for process mapping and a little for organizational charts. We are customers of Visio.

The solution has a fairly intuitive interface. When it comes to process mapping, the best thing about it is that it's already configured for swim lanes and for drag and drop and easy manipulation of the objects and connection lines. It makes it a very easy-to-use solution. In comparison, if you're using PowerPoint, you have to manually size things and then adjust the font and it's very tedious trying to get everything connected. In contrast, Visio is very fluid, very interactive, and designed with features that reduce the manual work for basic flowcharts.

As a user, it would be helpful if Visio was in a native format recognized by Microsoft Word products, but that's not the case.

We have been using this product for 20 years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. We're a global company although I'm not sure how many in the company use this product on a regular basis. 

The initial setup is straightforward and the solution is intuitive enough that you can begin using it immediately. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

I'm the business process manager and we are customers of Visio. 

The process modeling is a valuable feature for us.

The solution could include better modeling and an interface with workflow capability, better integration would make the Visio to Power Automate connection a lot better. I'd like to see a feature that would enable the creation of a library of process models that could be linked to roles within the organization.

I've been using this solution for ten years. 

The solution is very stable. 

I think licensing costs are reasonable. 

If you're looking for a business process modeling tool, there are other options out there designed with that in mind. Visio is a good general diagram tool, but not specifically for business process management.

I rate Visio eight out of 10. 

Our primary use case of this product is to create diagrams for the solutions I'm designing. Others may use it to provide graphical explanations of complex topics, or even for organizational charts. We have around 20 users in very different roles - IT, processing, design, or those in more technical roles. We are a customer of Visio and I'm a solution architect. 

Visio helps to depict what's on my mind, it flows between the different components that we're designing. Visio is very good at illustrating advanced topics which helps my team understand what I'm trying to get across

The valuable feature is the simplicity of drawing shapes and connecting them. It's very easy to customize and then group the activities so the solution offers a lot of flexibility. It really provides value. 

I'd like them to include more stencils for new technologies in the solution. There are plenty of stencils available on the web but it requires researching, downloading, and testing what works. There are some common ones such as when you're working with technologies like Microsoft but it takes me some time to download clip art and try to make them myself.

I would love to see an option to drill down collapsed sections of the diagrams as well as an option to navigate through different pages of diagrams, something that can be more easily summarized, and then go on to the details.

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

This is a stable solution and there's very little maintenance required. We have a software specialist in the company and that person takes care of all the laptops.

The initial setup is straightforward, it takes around half an hour. 

This is a very powerful and useful tool. You can create all types of diagrams and I consider it a must-know option.

I rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

What I like most about the solution is that It's quite easy to use. In our case we do not consider it in this exercise since we wish the components to be logical and not just to have the drawings in one diagram or another.

It is difficult for me to point to which areas of the solution need improvement as most of my people are using it and I have had little hands-on experience with it in the past few years. 

An issue I wish to see addressed is the ability to go beyond just drawings for separate systems to that of having logical architecture described on the price level. Certain disadvantages in the solution make this difficult. 

I would like to see Visio become some kind of enterprise architecture, which it is not. Instead, it serves as a BPM and UML tool at which, so I understand, it is quite good.

The solution addresses a different kind of removal system.

I have personally been using Visio for several years, although not professionally. I use it exclusively in an intuitive fashion and for drawing diagrams. 

The solution is stable. 

Of course the solution is scalable. This depends on how a person designs his infrastructure and if he makes use of his work solutions.

I have not had experience with technical support. 

While I don't recall the exact price I do recall that it was quite high.

My recommendation to others is that the solution should offer different tools. In line with the person's particular requirements he would need to make a choice. The pricing should be lower. What I do like about Visio is that it's quite intuitive in respect of the UI. In this regard it is similar to other Microsoft products. But, sometimes people need just the road to Tango, rendering the use of Visio unnecessary. It depends on the goal of what the person wishes to achieve. 

Taking into account that Visio is good enough and quite easy to use, but carries a higher than desired price, I would rate it as a nine out of ten. 

We mostly use this solution for process management and for diagram modeling. Functional diagrams or BPMN partition diagrams — that's all. Some nice drawings for presentations.

Almost all of our employees use bundled Microsoft products and because they have no administrative rights, they cannot install additional programs. We use Visio to present our diagrams to our employees as it's too complicated to explain how to use our services over and over. If we had a BPM platform and a diagram modeling solution, we would not use Visio.

Within our organization, there are roughly 100 people that use this solution.

I am not sure if our company has plans to keep using Visio — it's not up to me. If we were to stop using it, I wouldn't miss it.

To me, Visio doesn't really stand apart from similar solutions that I have used. When it first came out, it was quite a progressive product. As it's simply for drawing and painting diagrams, lines, flowcharts, the price is too high. I do not understand why this product is not included in the Microsoft Office package.

I personally wouldn't buy Visio even if it were 10 times cheaper because I only use it at work for diagram modeling; it's not a unique product anymore. 

It's both stable and flexible, but many features are complicated. The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated. It's not very easy to make diagrams the way I would like them to look.

It should be easier to convert to other vector graphic file formats. Auto error-correction features would also be a big help. If you have a diagram and you scroll your mouse too far, you'll lose your diagram. 

I have been using Visio for nearly two years. 

Visio is stable.

We contact them from time to time. I am satisfied with them.

My boss signed a decision and an IT support unit installed Visio. It only took a couple of minutes. There were absolutely no problems regarding the installation of the product.

Personally, I think the price of this solution is too high. I need this product for my work. I have also bought Office 365 for myself, for my personal office. But if I want to work at home, I can't use Visio due to the price.

No. But currently, we are in the process of studying other business process management solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics. 

In the near future, I would like to see an updated product with diagram usage in BPM systems.

I would recommend Visio to other companies if money is not a problem. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight.

The most valuable features are that the user experience is simple, and it's customizable. You can customize it and connect it to data.

It has also many features that allow it to integrate Visio with SharePoint, which might be very useful in many applications.

In earlier versions, there was better database modeling. The database modeling has deteriorated significantly in the more current versions.

In Version 2000, the database modeling was pretty decent. Since then, it has deteriorated and a lot of the functionality has disappeared from Visio.

I have been using Visio for five years.

I am working with the latest version.

Now it is stable. In the past, it wasn't perfectly stable. with richer functionality, at least for the databases, but right now it's pretty stable.

The scalability has limitations. It could not model large sets of entities. 200 is probably a reasonable limit.

The initial setup is easy. It took a maximum of 15 minutes to deploy but it can be less. 

Yesterday when I installed it, it only took five minutes.

It's cheaper than other solutions.

I would recommend this solution as a starting point and as a benchmark to evaluate other tools because it is much cheaper. Also for starting modeling, database modeling, other UML, as well as other templates for modeling and business process modeling.

It integrates well with SharePoint.

It's a good tool to start working with and to use it as a benchmark with some more expensive tools. If those tools don't provide more features than Visio then they are not worth investing in.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Without this product, I would struggle to do my work. That is as a business analyst. I use it to develop all of my processes.

I have no issues with Visio from an end-user perspective. It is our environment. It's not utilized by too many users, about three or four end-users every week now.

I enjoy the fact that I can go into detail with Visio. In shared communications, I can inspect for any fault in my processes. That's what I enjoy the most.

Transferring data was one of the issues that I expected Visio to have resolved. I use the older version. I'm not sure if the later versions have already addressed some of the issues.  

To improve Visio, make it easier to transfer into other Microsoft products. For example, if I copy a Visio diagram into Word. If I open it in the Word version, it doesn't work so well. 

Visio's stability is the best I've ever used. I compare it with other tools that are out there. There's some competing software that has a lot of features. I am very happy with the stability of this application.

I'm sure Visio is very scalable. From my personal use, I've had absolutely no issues with scalability. I'm able to go on and develop complex processes. 

I haven't, fortunately, had to engage with Visio's technical support.

Some people prefer to use Flow. Some people prefer to use Draw.io. I also used Draw.io a little bit and found it tedious to use. It is not as user-friendly and I found my way back to using Visio.

The installation was straightforward.

It was a couple of in-house IT guys that came over to do the installation.

I would tell somebody considering this solution to understand why you want to use the product in the first place and have a clear understanding of what your goals are. What would you like to achieve with having that product? Ensure that the goals are measurable, then implement.

I would rate Visio a seven or an eight. 

I find the library of shapes very helpful. I do appreciate that shapes are tied to various templates because it makes it easier/quicker to complete a diagram when the type of diagram you choose automatically loads the shapes that are tied to it. I frequently load additional shapes into the program to keep my diagrams fresh and promote a certain type of individuality to my designs.

We have used this solution since 2009.

The first thing that comes to mind is the layering feature of the software. It is not easy to work with and definitely needs some revisions to help users modify/control the layers easier. Even after all the years I have used this software program, I still have issues with the layering aspect and features. The reason it’s not a 10, is because when I first began learning how to use this program, I found it very difficult and not very user-friendly. I have not used the newer versions of Visio, so I am not too sure if the newer versions are any more user-friendly than prior versions. Hopefully, they are.

There were issues with stability. When attempting to have more than three diagrams open at a time, the system frequently crashes; however, I have never experience a crash with only one diagram open.

There were some scalability issues. While new shapes can be added, there is still the issue with compatibility problems with other versions of the Visio software.

Not too sure. I have never contacted tech support for this product.

I did not use a different solution. I used Adobe Photoshop for other needs that are sometimes similar, but for diagramming MS Visio is the best.

Initially, the program looks very similar to other Microsoft Office products, however once you get into the program, it is difficult to understand where to start. I tried using the software without training, in the beginning, and only became frustrated at not understanding how to use the program. However, with a moderate amount of training, creating basic 1-layer diagrams becomes fun and easy.

I obtained this software when I was attending the University of Phoenix, so with the student discount I think I paid $10, back in 2009-2010. I still have and use the same version because the software is a bit pricey and the version I have works well for my needs. I would advise others to try to get discounted pricing through educational institutions, if possible.

I did not evaluate other options. The software was originally needed for completing my college assignments.

I would recommend first determining the needs of the company and what the expectations are for the software. I would then view basic training videos available, to truly see if their needs aligns with the features and outputs of the software program.