SmartDraw Reviews

Pros
Can create your mind maps and complex flowchart of any kind with ease. Using it on office desktop and well integrated with Microsoft office suit. Also compatible with google docs which is very helpful

Cons
So i didn't find anything and i will strongly recommend this for pm and business analyst activities.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
SmartDraw is a very complete plication for all types of diagrams that you need, has great virtues with respect to Visio that can be considered the number one in the market or at least used, when you need to diagram a project from the basic algorithm to the more complex gantt diagrams , this tool is very useful, it makes you much easier in work (in my experience much easier to use than Visio) the connection between diagrams is simpler, since finishing a diagram makes it much easier to do the following, has a wide range of options and templates that help you in the creation process, contributing to the development of diagrams for systems that you are going to develop, a very useful tool for projects where you need to correctly capture what you want to develop, use it, try it for yourself.

Cons
Its main against is the price, the full version is very expensive although it allows you to enjoy the desktop version and its cost is very high, I think you should download it to compete more in the market. The speed of the online version sometimes fluctuates negatively, it is a mistake that must be corrected.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
Great software for flow charts and process maps. Used extensively for 3 years under a one time license.

Cons
Was only available for Windows at time of last use, since then it has moved to a subscription, web-based platform which is a significant cost considering other better-value or free softwares that can do the same.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 3/10

Pros
Smart Draw is relatively easy to use. It has all the various kinds of charts and graphs on its website you can imagine.

Cons
Smart Draw does not have any negative features. I used it to teach Quality Improvement concepts. It was great!

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
I has little to say for Pros: because it is just as easy to draw boxes without having this program. I learned every feature and applied all of the program's features. It is likely that you could get a beginning design to give to someone, as a simple floor plan, if that is what you need. But be sure to print it to preserve your work after each little change.

Cons
Customer service is practically nil and there is no "help" or troubleshooting. If you try to contact them for support, you have to wait and see if they will send you an email the next day - and they usually won't. If you get the email, it does not remotely address the trouble or offer to talk you through it if their "solution" or instruction is not on point. Really disappointing. There is no auto save unless you are working in the Cloud for this program. Further, it constantly just stops and closes itself - and dumps all of your work during that session, even if you have been saving! So, then the hours of work are permanently lost - no kidding, EVEN if you pushed save. If you use it, you must remember to save, save, save - after each little line or inclusion and then print. Then close the program before its instability causes it to just close itself as to the design you are working on. If you don't close it down, you will lose all of your work. Then - get this - when you reopen a file after it has decided to shut down, it says that there is a recovered work file and asks if you want to open it and recover it. If you say "yes" the program shuts down again, over and over and over. It is so unstable that it can't hold up to the tasks it claims to be performing with its features, such as layers, measurements, inserting photos, etc.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 1/10

Pros
This software not only helps you draw but has other activities you can plan,organize any kind of project you want to build.I got the free trial and it is great.it is good as a starter for a first timer that desires to create activities for work,school,club,organization.

Cons
the free trial is limited,but it is worth learning the basics of creating document,forms,and lots of projects that you are going.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Program was a little easier to use then some other programs. Wasnt overly difficult

Cons
Not as good features that other programs offer. expecially if your a advance person in design

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Powerful but easy to use platform with numerous applications across industries.

Cons
Complexity - which is a factor of how robust the software is, so it’s not really a criticism.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The software offers a great assortment of templates, including charts and graphs, that I quickly develop and use for client proposals. The results are always sharp and professional looking.

Cons
The only drawback is that the software works with my Windows Desktop computer but I can not use the software on my Mac.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Intuitive for the most part. No training necessary. Easy to move section around to redirect workflow. Can insert photos and hyperlinks and tables, change colors and the shape of boxes.

Cons
Couldn't figure out how to take an existing workflow and flip it from a vertical format to a horizontal format. Free version was worthless.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Where this software really shines for our business is its ease of use for submittal drawings when bidding and creating contracts for jobs. It allows us to empower our salesmen to create their own submittals without the expense or training needed for some of the more "professional" suites. This means for smaller projects we do not need to tie up our senior estimators, leaving their time free and better spent with CAD. What this means is that for job cost, we are able to use lower wage employees to perform simpler tasks and not eat into the margins of a job from utilizing higher paid engineers.

Cons
It can be a bit finicky in trying to get it to do exactly what you want it to do. Its ease of use sometimes means that you are fighting those very elements that make it easy to make it do what you want it to do. Snap to grids and the like, while toggle-able, provide an annoyance when they should "just work".

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It's very easy to draw up a basic house floor plan.

Cons
Limited symbol options specific to interior design. If you use too many JPEG images within the file the system struggles to convert to PDF. (which isn't the case with my other design software). Often glitches when opening files and/or is very slow to open existing documents.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
With SmartDraw, I can create visual documents in an easy way, in addition to streamline the work, smartDraw has templates that come with a library of shapes and symbols, which I can use with just drag them to the worksheet. I can add textures and photos to further improve the document.

Cons
-Consume abundant resources, and its installation is so slow that it becomes tedious waiting until fully charged.

Rating breakdown

Pros
Very easy to draw flowcharts. Easily import and export visio. Available at cheap price and can easily replace visio i believe which is much costlier. One can use its rich library of colours. Templates help alot to quickly built mocks.

Cons
When I used i didn't find multiple user facility.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Easy to navigate and ease of use. It took me a few clicks and I was able to find all kinds of things I needed to work on my projects. One of the requirements for my business was to submit a blueprint and I was told I need an Architect for that but I was also told that if I can draw and provide details in my drawings, it will be accepted so I purchased SmartDraw although I have no knowledge how to use it. It was easy...really.

Cons
It didn't have some of the drawings I needed so I have to improvise. This took me a little time come up with the desired drawing of object I needed; but it still worked.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I tried Smartdraw for the first time in 2016 and I was impressed by the ease of use ; I understood the major workings around this program in a matter of days.I have used Smart draw for Gantt style charting , simple drawings ,including floor drawings when I moved to my new home a while back. Smartdraw provides users with a variety of modules ,making it a program which can be leveraged by different professionals in different career fields.

Cons
Smartdraw doesn't allow for remote collaboration like what I have come to expect from months of recently embracing Lucidchart. I have also found out that when creating Gantt charts with this program , I am limited in the number of coloumns I am allowed to use.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
SmartDraw has tons of images to support visual documentation. It's great way to share knowledge with others using this solution. I use SmartDraw to create: process maps, easy mindmaps, data flows and creative mix of ideas. Sometimes there is good opportunity to export document as image file and put to MS Excel and add contextual values to present bigger picture of business in easy to understand way (complex but easy to see relations).

Cons
I'd like to see more options in mindmapping area, to be able to manage task information in advanced way.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
SmartDraw comes with many types of templates that include flow charts, bar graphs and charts. If you do not find a template that you like, you can create a customized template that suits your project, Photos, and images. Add photos and images to the document with the import to lump sum, copy and paste the commands. You can also import images and photos from your digital camera, and then manipulate them inside SmartDraw until you have the effect you want. Each template comes with a library of shapes and symbols, to use these shapes and symbols, simply drag them to your worksheet and place them where you want. You can add textures and photos to further improve the document. It works well with programs such as Microsoft Office, Visio, Microsoft Project, SharePoint, and PowerPoint. And so you can export the mind map to any of these programs to be able to share. You can export the file with just one click of your mouse. The following graphics formats available to you: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and GIF. Export the file to the web or send it anywhere in the world

Cons
It consumes abundant resources if your machine is slow it can become tedious to work, besides its installation is slow

Rating breakdown

Pros
The interphase is awesome, and you have no limits using this software you can a simple diagram showing a workflow or you can do a complex net design for established a network in an office building, you can even design plans of houses or do 3D models for engineering processes.

Cons
It is really expensive, if your are going to buy it be sure of spend that amount of monet in one software, the best option is use the online version.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Helpful Smart Panel feature. Good integration options. It is very Easy to use. It has a desktop and online version that allows you to work in any place, it is very useful. Smart Draw is a very complete application for all types of diagrams that you need.

Cons
Weak collaboration features. It is very expensive you asked me. The speed of the online version sometimes fluctuates negatively.

Rating breakdown

Pros
There are lots of templates to start with, which makes it a lot easier to get started with this software. I like the integration with popular tools such as Trello and Jira. I also like the easy export to PDF. It's a great feature I use a lot.

Cons
There's definitely a learning curve before one can confidently use this software. I often find that zooming in doesn't work as smoothly as I'd expect.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
Ease of manipulation of floor plans, handy clip arts. User friendly, can move groups of objects together. 3D modeling is something we rarely use, but it was easy to learn to do.

Cons
I don't care for the cloud based option and it seems like this is what it is migrating to. I prefer to save copies to my hard drive. I was unable to open previous files unless I upgraded software as well. That isn't right.

Rating breakdown

Pros
Well organized and very easy to move data to other Microsoft Office applications (including Microsoft Project) or Adobe .pdf. There are also some great graphics and geographic maps in the library for use with presentations, flyers, floorplans, etc.

Cons
In the Gantt chart, there is a limited number of columns that can be used.

Rating breakdown

Pros
My absolute favorite thing about SmartDraw is the simple drag and drop to build out anything from mind maps to flowcharts and more. An especially good investment for anyone needing to make their ideas clear and points understood in a powerful way.

Cons
The design of the dashboard could be better. It is a bit boring for all that it does. The layout would be better if I had the whole screen and the options to drag and drop were at the top.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Relatively inexpensive, somewhat easy use

Cons
Lost count...tried using SmartDraw to create a floor plan for a house we are building and so far have a list of about 2-3 dozen issues and it keeps growing. I have encountered each issue multiple times on different computers with different operating systems so I know it is the program. Issues range from minor issues like I try to expand walls or measure lines with a click and drag of a mouse and the wall or measure lines jumps from 3 foot in length to 45 foot in length or longer or I try to copy and paste a door and a wall gets pasted to major and the most frustrating issues like locking up every 10 - 15 minutes or after a I save a file then reopen it later, doors and windows have moved, room measure lines in some places have moved (even locking objects does not fix this). They sent me an updated version, but it did not help. Then they wanted me to disable user account controls even though it could cause security issues because they know it creates a lot of false positives, nice.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 0/10