Adapting to your teams’ needs

If you’re planning on migrating from Server to Cloud or Data Center, this is the time to consider your options and reevaluate the current tools you are using. Maybe you are paying a lot for an app that isn’t delivering enough value for you and your teams, or you have a legacy app lying around that is no longer used, and no one’s quite sure what it does… The key is you want apps in your toolset that are intuitive and adapt to the needs of your team, so that you’re not faced with having to create more and more workarounds to achieve exactly what you want.

In this final blogpost of our migration campaign, we look at the process of migrating from Gliffy to draw.io. We look at how easy it is to make the switch, and provide information on determining which app is right for you, specifically regarding how the two apps compare.

Migrating from Gliffy to draw.io is simple

Let’s face it, it’s often a pain to migrate from one system to another, whether that’s from Server to Cloud, or from one diagramming tool to a new one.

We understand this at draw.io, and with this in mind we’ve designed our Gliffy mass import tool to be as straightforward as possible. Our troubleshooting guide will see you right, plus, we’re always on hand to support if you have questions or run into any stumbling blocks.

If you have decided to migrate to draw.io from Gliffy, our mass migrator tool will convert all your diagrams in a few simple steps.

Pre-migration

Some key things to check, before you begin:

• Have the latest version of draw.io and Gliffy installed.
• Ensure the Administrator performing the migration has the necessary write permissions across all spaces beforehand.
• Perform the mass import in a test instance first!

During migration

Once you’re ready to migrate, it’s best to perform the actual migration outside of your company’s working hours, to keep diagram and Confluence page edits to a minimum during the process.

Post-migration

Once you have migrated, all of your data is preserved in Confluence. A new page version is created, with Gliffy macros replaced by draw.io macros containing the converted diagram. The original files are still attached to the Confluence page and remain unchanged, meaning even after migrating and converting your diagrams, the page revision history where the diagram is embedded is still preserved.

For a full step-by-step guide to follow as you’re migrating your diagrams, see our related post, Mass import from Gliffy to draw.io.

Which app is right for you?

When switching diagramming apps, you want to make sure that your decision to switch to draw.io is the right one.

We are known and trusted in the Atlassian Ecosystem as the number #1 diagramming app for Confluence and Jira. We are the top-reviewed Confluence app in the whole Marketplace, and in the current year 2024, we have over 68K installs of draw.io for Confluence Cloud (in contrast, Gliffy has less than a third of this, with just over 22K). We also offer a competitive price-performance ratio.

We are constantly innovating and updating:

• In addition to our diagram editor, customers can use our whiteboarding macro at no extra cost. This gives you the choice to diagram using the classic editor, or the whiteboard editor for a more streamlined interface. This is ideal for processes like brainstorming ideas, as well as Agile frameworks like check-ins, and Inspect and Adapt.
• Last year also saw the advent of:
  • Smart Templates, empowering users to generate custom diagramming templates using AI and machine learning. Specify your parameters and build custom diagrams in seconds: flowcharts, ERDs, Sequence Diagrams, and more.
  • Dark mode, enabling users to diagram the way that they want – to reduce strain on the eyes, save some battery, or simply for the aesthetics.

For an extensive comparison of draw.io and Gliffy that covers features and usability, see our guide here: Diagramming in Confluence – A comparison of the two leading diagramming apps draw.io and Gliffy.

As a consequence of this innovation, we have seen sustained growth. Recently Contegix assessed which apps have grown the most over the past month in order to, “…shine a light on products that more and more customers are finding value in while also acknowledging the outstanding vendors fueling this vibrant marketplace.”

The numbers speak for themselves:

Source: Contegix, Fastest Growing Paid Atlassian Marketplace Apps – February 2024.

What our users have to say

Last but certainly not least, we look at what our users say who made the switch from Gliffy to draw.io:

“We used Gilffy for 10+ years and as of January 2021 we decided move to draw.io. We migrate all our 6000+ Gliffy diagrams in our Confluence workspaces to draw.io and we are ready to go – very fast, smooth and transparent migration path. There is a number of reasons for this decision and we are happy that we are making this move. Its not just much more friendly pricing for large teams but also excellent support, rich features, stability and good performance with large diagrams what we are going to benefit from in the years to come.”

– Peter Kobes

“We were missing some important features when using Gliffy. To create diagrams that included our corporate identity font, we had to use Visio. Using two applications at the same time was too cumbersome and too expensive. So we looked for a solution where we could store our font, our icons and our company colors. To be considered, a replacement application had to perform more efficiently.”

– Nina Breu, Senior Software Engineer

Weighing up the pros and cons

Ultimately, the apps you decide on need to work for you. When switching diagramming apps, it’s important to weigh up the factors for and against each tool, to make an informed decision on which app is going to benefit your teams the most in the long term.

draw.io stands out because:

• We hold the top position in the Atlassian marketplace, earning the trust of numerous users.
• We consistently innovate, e.g. introducing features like whiteboarding and Smart Templates.
• We offer the highest diagramming security and customer support.
• Users who have made the switch know and love draw.io, and have never looked back.

Once you’re ready to make the switch, our mass importer will quickly get all of your Gliffy diagrams converted to draw.io.

If you’re thinking of making a switch and want to compare, start your free 30-day trial today, and discover how draw.io’s enables teams to visualize the way they want.

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.

There comes a time when it’s time to diagram.

You may be a hungry new start-up with a great concept, or maybe a seasoned developer launching their own business determined to launch the next big thing. We wish you well.

You have the idea; now you need the tools

Among the many development tools you will need, diagramming is undoubtedly in the top three.

Atlassian Confluence and Jira

Atlassian has a powerful presence in the developer scene with Confluence and Jira. These are the industry-leading tools for developers and teams.
So it makes sense to seek a diagramming app that integrates seamlessly with both. There are many diagramming applications, but only draw.io and Gliffy offer complete integration within Confluence and Jira.

draw.io or Gliffy

Deciding on which one is not a decision to be taken lightly; it’s more than just the pricing, which is essential, but it´s the features and functionality that are the major drivers in any purchasing decision. The decisions you make now will affect:

• Your business workflows.
• Team training.
• Communication with customers (exchanging diagrams and live collaboration).
• Support.

So it is essential to get it right from the off.

draw.io offers more features and functionality than Gliffy

So let’s do a brief side-by-side comparison of the key features

For a more detailed comparison —> read here.

Real-time, live collaborative diagramming

Live real-time collaborative diagramming

Live collaborative diagramming within Confluence, draw.io Cloud users now can enjoy this incredibly powerful feature. You and your team, regardless of location, can collaborate on a diagram in real-time. Projects can evolve live during conference calls.

Launched in February 2022 at Team 22 in Las Vegas, it was a show stopper and one of the major attractions for developers, even for those using our competitor’s products.

Many attended our stall to inquire about our recently launched Whiteboard but were blown away by the live collaborative demo we were running.
We kept being asked, Is this live inside Confluence?

And all of this within the Cloud, offering all the advantages that the Atlassians Confluence Cloud brings.

Offering this functionality within Confluence was a significant feat of coding, but draw.io delivered.
In addition, it is more than just sharing. Users are offered a level of customization, such as the ability to hide their cursor (stealth mode, useful in blind tests) or to hide other users’ cursors on their display.

And every change is recorded; draw.io merges and synchronizes the diagram changes while you are editing. So you don’t even have to publish the diagram to Confluence to see everyone’s changes in the editor – draw.io saves and synchronizes automatically.

Gliffy freely admits they can´t offer real-time live collaboration. From their website: “Real-time” collaboration is not currently available.

The draw.io Board editor

Whiteboards

Again a recent innovation, whiteboards,  available not only for our Cloud users, but On-Prem and Data Center users can also access the Whiteboard editor.
The goal was to offer a simplified, streamlined diagramming tool similar to the traditional Whiteboard in many offices worldwide. It is opened in Confluence in seconds, allowing rapid diagramming during meetings, Retrospectives, or breakout sessions.

Simplified, streamlined, yet powerful, allowing access to all of the Diagram editor’s features.

Diagramming has never been so simple.

Tracking, Data Residency and Data Governance

Security

Both draw.io and Gliffy use industry-standard Encryption and Network Security, but only draw.io offers Data Residency and Governance.

Data Residency and Data Governance

Atlassian implemented Data Residency options for Confluence Cloud and Jira Cloud. This means that all of the primary data stored in your Confluence and/or Jira instance will reside on servers in your chosen region.
In short, draw.io matches the data residency settings and compliance of Confluence and Jira Cloud. Furthermore, you don’t have to do anything additional for draw.io once it is set for the host product.

draw.io and Gliffy are both part of the Cloud Fortified program, which is issued by Atlassian. The difference here is that we always set our own standards. The Cloud Fortified program requires Data Residency.
We even offer you even more with Data Governance and our lockdown feature, which limits the endpoints to your browser and Confluence Cloud.

We also allow you to customize your settings. To learn more, read our blog post on Data Governance.

Third-party suppliers and vendors

We don’t believe in tracking, so you won’t find tracking codes or pixels in our apps. Gliffy tracks usage in their apps. Ask your compliance officers for their opinions on tracking.

What is drawn in draw.io stays within draw.io with positively no access allowed to any third-party vendors.

Elegant, flexible, and powerful

Features and functionality

draw.io can be as simple and elegant or as powerful and complex as required.
It’s an app that everyone can instantly feel at home with, from new employees to seasoned developers.

Do you want to create interactive diagrams with button navigation? Or mathematical formulas? How about having multiple pages in your diagram to outsource sub-processes and easily link them? Or would you instead like to create the entire diagram directly via SQL or CSV and display the code as a diagram?

First with revision history, first with the shape picker tool, we introduced the concept of connectors, constantly innovating.

You get all this as standard with draw.io and much, much more.

The continuing evolution of draw.io
As software development evolves, so do we.

Our product support and sense of community

Got a problem? Contact us. Our customer support is second to none, and depending on the issue, there is every chance you will be speaking directly with one of the draw.io founders.

draw.io thrives on feedback. We have a vast international community on our GitHub repository. It’s where developers can ask questions, request features, and hang out.

You see, for some companies diagramming is a business model; for us, it’s our passion.

Marketplace popularity

As this article is being written, draw.io for Confluence is approaching three times the number of installs compared to Gliffy. And not only that, we have more positive reviews than Gliffy, our reviews are all 4-star (the max), and Gliffy’s reviews average at 3.5-stars.

Early in 2022, we passed the 50,000 installs mark. Today as this article is being written, we are closing on 60,000 installs. Right now, we are at 56,490.
This growth rate is spectacular and speaks volumes about the product as more and more businesses move to draw.io

Thinking of migrating

Are you currently using Gliffy on Confluence Server? Then you are probably well aware that you will have to move to Confluence Cloud or Data Center before 2024

Warning!

With Gliffy, you will lose the links in your diagrams.

Please read Gliffy’s own guide on migration issues!
(https://www.gliffy.com/resources/cloud-migration-guide).

In addition, there is a high risk of Gliffy embedded diagrams crashing. Would you like to manually rework 10% of your 2,000 diagrams?

We have a solution

Simply migrate to draw.io while you are still on Confluence Server (you can run the migration in trial mode, so you don’t even have to pay more).

draw.io offers a smooth migration plan. It doesn’t matter if you like to move from Server to Data Center, from Cloud to Data Center, from Data Center to Cloud, etc. Your migration will be completed in seconds.

Then after the migration to draw.io, move to Data Center or Cloud, simple, painless, and stress-free.

draw.io’s pricing is exceptionally competitive

Draw.io vs Gliffy pricing

We thought we would leave the best to last.

Regardless of your deployment, you will find draw.io’s pricing extremely inviting.

draw.io offers more functionality, more use cases, class-leading security, whiteboards, and, for our Cloud users, real-time interactive collaborative diagramming.
We beat Gliffy in every metric, but our pricing structure goes right to the heart of draw.io’s DNA.

draw.io was designed to be a powerful, flexible diagramming app for developers, but it also had to be affordable.

Perhaps another factor is that draw.io is privately-owned. In contrast, Gliffy has shareholders and needs to deliver quarterly dividends to its stockholders as well as servicing its day-to-day running costs.

That’s the difference, one is a business driven by passion, and the other is purely a business.

But see for yourself, go onto the Atlassian marketplace and price a fixed number of installs of draw.io compared with the same number of installs of Gliffy.

Atlassian Marketplace

A verbal contract is not worth the paper it’s written on

This well-known British legal adage implies that verbal statements and reassurances are nice but are worthless. So while some sales teams perhaps are understandably quite enthusiastic about their product, we feel it is best to do your own research or due diligence.

Both applications offer a 30-day free trial. Or are free for up to ten users in Confluence.

We recommend you take both apps for a test drive, compare features, and then after a period of evaluation, contact our sales team.

We look forward to welcoming you to the draw.io community.

Discover how others feel about draw.io

draw.io has just celebrated over 50,000 installs in Confluence. That’s almost three times as many as our nearest competitor.

So to each and every one of you – a huge thank you.

No other Marketplace app has more installs than draw.io, no other app has more reviews, and we are one of the few who hold the sought-after four-star ratings on the entire Atlassian marketplace.

Back in the day

draw.io has taken a long journey since 2001. Our founders and head engineers, Gaudenz and David, sought a solution that differed from the diagramming tools available at that time. The existing tools were either relatively crude or incredibly complex and expensive. Instead, they wanted to bring an easy way of diagramming to everybody…and they succeeded. Today, draw.io is a global product serving millions of users around the globe.

draw.io leads others follow

2016

First to offer full Diagram versioning in Confluence, full Integrated revision history.

Integrated revision history (not available in Gliffy)

First, with multipage diagrams, all dynamically linked, complex diagrams can be spread over multiple pages facilitating big picture overviews to granular, fine detail inspection.

Multipage diagrams

Introduced the Scratchpad, rapid custom shapes storage promoting faster workflows.

Scratchpad

2017

Introduced the concept of Connectors to diagramming. Connectors are a tremendously powerful addition to diagramming. Allowing shapes and their associated connecting lines to track/remain attached when editing.

Connectors

First, with Page anchors and multiple means of linking content within Confluence. The ability to insert drawings and images into Confluence and assign links to these images.

Page Anchors

Another first, Interactive diagrams, the ability to control the appearance of a diagram during presentations in real-time by using selectable layers.

Interactive diagrams

Security, draw.io introduced GDPR compliance in 2018 and operates a continual revision and improvement policy.

GDPR

2019

First, with diagram merge edits inside Confluence Server, if two or more people are working on the same diagram remotely, draw.io saves all changes, and combined with revision history, we have your back. No more accidental deletes.

Merge edits

2020

Customer Focus our continual pursuit of client satisfaction by demonstrating new and unusual Use Cases to provide our customers with fresh ideas and inspiration.
One example is our recent blog and whitepaper on “Taking diagrams into the company.”

Diagrams in HR & onboarding

Tables relaunch, our continual policy of revision and improvement. We completely revised our table tool.

draw.io tables

2021

Data Governance, your data, you decide. draw.io offers complete flexibility and control over exactly where your data is stored.

Data Governance.

Whiteboarding macro (embedded in the base product.)

The Board editor

2022 and beyond

The Board editor, its life story has only just begun.
Coming soon real-time collaborative editing.

And in the pipeline, much much more.

The timeline above is just a summary of draw.io’s achievements in just six short years. We have not only caught up with our competition but have overtaken them in both power, functionality, and number of users.

It’s our level of customization offering bespoke libraries and the ability to edit and create your own. No other application out there can match us.

Your concerns for security, privacy, and Data Governance are also ours. We understand the importance you place on data privacy by going beyond Atlassian’s requirements and what our competitors can deliver.

But ultimately, it’s our worldwide community of users who drive us on. We thrive on our feedback via Github. Perhaps you have a feature request or query, then visit our Github repository and say your piece. We love our communities feedback and actively act on suggestions and new feature requests.
draw.io Github feedback here

draw.io is genuinely is a developer’s tool. We enable you to do more, code more, helping to make the world a better place.

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!
Happy diagramming!

The Atlassian Marketplace is booming. Since 2018, instances have grown a whopping 99% to 1.6M. There are nearly 4000 third-party apps available on the marketplace overall, making it increasingly hard to know which apps can provide your company the most value. For example, what’s the best diagramming app?

At Blended Perspective, their Marketplace Analytic Research Service (MARS) makes them uniquely situated to help narrow your choices to the best of the best. They collect data covering all facets of the Marketplace including instances, growth, product, platform, license, price, reviews, and more. And recently, they turned their attention to diagramming.

Spoiler alert: draw.io came out on top.

The numbers

Blended Perspective’s analysis begins with some head-turning numbers that showcase draw.io’s popularity, sales, and impressive growth in the Atlassian Marketplace.

As their article points out, draw.io is the largest diagramming application on the marketplace with over 40,000 active installs. It’s also the fastest-growing. In 2021 alone, draw.io for Confluence ballooned at an impressive 10% growth rate.

Its nearest competitor’s growth rate was 2%.

Fasten your seatbelts

What’s fueling that meteoric rise? Well, one factor singled out by Blended Perspective’s research is something they like to call “Velocity.” Simply put, Velocity quantifies the frequency of new releases or app updates over a given period of time.

In their own words, “In 2020/21, Draw.io shows 45 releases, versus 11 for Gliffy. We assume this conveys investment in bug fixes and improvements and therefore in this regard Draw.io is excelling.”

Easy on the checkbook

And when it comes to price, draw.io is also the top diagramming app. draw.io’s solution for Data Center comes in slightly lower than Gliffy. But most importantly, considering the booming growth of Atlassian’s cloud platform, draw.io for Confluence Cloud is significantly cheaper than Gliffy. And that makes for massive savings for you.

The proof is in the pudding

But there are factors that are even more important to you. For example, an extensive feature set, secure handling of your data, or which solution is more intuitive and easier to learn?

Blended Perspective outlines multiple ways in which draw.io outstrips its top diagramming app competitors in terms of power features and ease of use, including:

• Abundant templates to save you and your teams countless hours
• The ability to personalize those templates with customized corporate designs, colors, and logos
• A larger shape library right out of the box
• Extensive, user-friendly importing and exporting capabilities
• The ability to include multiple pages in the same diagram

And the list goes on…

Security

The most important question, of course, is what about security? BP’s article ends on a reassuring note for anyone concerned about the security of their valuable data.

draw.io’s cloud users, they point out, have access to all diagrams in their own instance. There’s never a need to connect to draw.io’s servers. draw.io diagrams are attachments on pages and issues, and this means that your data is only transferred between Atlassian servers and the user’s browsers.

Other solutions, however, require you to store your diagrams on their servers. That means you don’t have full control over your data. Some may even load external JavaScript sources that can call Confluence Cloud API endpoints with the same authorization as the currently logged-in user (learn more here).

What’s the takeaway?

Well, the biggest takeaway here is that you don’t have to just take our word for it. The many ways in which draw.io can make your diagramming life better, easier, and more cost-effective are easy to see for anyone who takes the time to compare.

So, thanks Blended Perspective! And, if you want to see their analysis for yourself, check it out right here! And for our own take on things, check out our feature page and a friendly side-by-side comparison to aid your decision-making process.

Now, what are you waiting for?

Visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos, visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming, or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!

Creating a flowchart

One of the most useful of all diagrams is the humble flowchart. We’ve all seen them. You’ve most likely used them. A flowchart is one of the easiest and most effective ways to visualize how to get from A to B (and all the steps in between).

Want to see how draw.io can help you with that? Here you go:

Creating a mindmap

The basic concept of mindmaps goes as far back as Porphyry of Tyros (look it up) in the 3rd century A.D. It’s a great way to organize information and visualize connections between words, concepts, and images around a central thought, theme, or topic.

…and like any form of visualization, it’s easier with draw.io:

Cross-functional flowchart tables

Now that you’ve mastered the basic flowchart, it’s time to explore the world of cross-functional tables. In addition to the A-to-B depiction created in a basic flowchart, the cross-functional flowchart takes things one step further. By making use of a table format, it doesn’t just show what happens. You can also see who makes it happen each step of the way.

It works like this:

Connectors

Diagramming isn’t just about shapes and images, though. Connectors are the glue that holds it all together, and there are countless ways to customize your connectors in draw.io and easily put them where you need them to really make those flowcharts flow. So many ways, in fact, that we’ve got an entire playlist of quick, informative videos to walk you through it all.

You’ll find them all here.

Linking

Sometimes the topic of your diagram can be complex. Complex diagrams can become unwieldy and overwhelm viewers with information overload. So, how do you tame those large diagrams and present those masses of information in a way that’s both easy to follow and non-migraine-inducing?

Links.

Clickable links in draw.io can keep the amount of information on the screen at any given time to a minimum. Your diagram can span multiple pages, and with a simple click of the mouse, your viewers can be guided through every twist, turn, and cul de sac of your information highway. They get the big picture without having it blasted into their brains all at once.

Here’s a little playlist to show you how it’s done.

Custom libraries

Custom libraries are a great way to keep the shapes you use on a regular basis all together and easily accessible. Do you often use shapes or images unique to your corporate style or color scheme? Custom libraries can hold those as well. Our final video selection show you how to easily keep everything you need close at hand so you never have to waste time searching or repeatedly importing images for your draw.io diagrams:

Still have questions? Visit our YouTube Channel, or book a free demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!