We see them every day. Those clever, neat little corporate drawings. Bringing documents to life with pictures that speak a thousand words. Trouble is, they cost an awful lot of money, too.

Yes, I’m talking about Visio. And I bet many will point to this as a great Microsoft invention. Sorry, guys, they didn’t write it.

Microsoft acquired Visio in a stock swap from Aldus spin-off ShapeWare back in 2000 ensuring that if we wanted to draw, we would pay for the privilege. But what if you don’t want to spend £500 or want to use your drawings to collaborate with partners?

What if you want drawing Software as a Service - well, may I present Gliffy…

Drawing a line under expensive software

Visio used to be a great piece of software for your desktop. I say used to be, because it morphed from a handy little drawing suite to a cumbersome piece of Microsoft bloatware. Visio actually takes up more space than a standard Windows XP install.

But you know, that isn’t the main problem. The problem is the cost. Visio Professional costs around £500. Now I don’t know the figures, but I doubt that everyone’s paid that. I think a lot of people who should know better are using pirated versions.

So what do you do. Pay a lot for a single, non-shareable copy of Visio or break the law?

Well here’s the real solution. You go buy a subscription to Gliffy.

Gliffy provides the nearest thing to Visio, but through your browser. Yes, its a cloud application, folks. It has all the familiar shapes for charts, floor plans and of course, network diagrams. Its intuitive and Visio-like in operation.

But unlike desktop-bound Visio, your pictures can be published online and shared with your partners, clients or colleagues. And you even get versioning!

The network diagram shown below I produced in just a few minutes using standard elements to give you an idea of what Gliffy can do.

The beauty of Gliffy is its browser based, so you’re not tied to a specific desktop. If you’re working on a project, away from your office or not even with your own workstation, you get the same full and complete access as you would back at base.

Speed of operation

Some time ago, I wrote about Buzzword, an on-line, managed word processing solution from Adobe. Like Buzzword, Gliffy is Flash-based, so there is none of the frustrating movement latency associated with jerky, Citrix-like screen scraping.

I was surprised with the high quality of Gliffy. Many version 1 applications are bug-laden and we have to suspend judgement until bugs are fixed and options appear. But not Gliffy.

As a seasoned Visio user, I wasn’t expecting Gliffy to do so much. I was wrong. Gliffy is powerful, easy to use and feature packed. I love the versioning controls. Really useful!

In fact, operationally, I don’t really have any issues with Gliffy. Alright, I accept that as its web-based, you don’t have the luxury of right-clicking objects to change their properties or to copy and paste, but using the edit menu is no big chore.

Any gripes or criticisms?

Well, just a couple. I’d like to see some application skinning. Gliffy’s native blue-green colour is OK, but for companies buying a license it would be good to change the background and frame colours to suit corporate brand image.

The free version stores drawings insecurely and has some advertising. The “nag” screens are low rent, reminding me of old shareware applications. I understand the logic behind this, but it may well lower people’s perception of what is ultimately a quality application.

I would like to see an “auto-align” option rather than just “Snap to”, which doesn’t seem to be too effective. This would ensure that when a line of components is drawn, they can be lined up horizontally or vertically better. Fixing this manually is a time consuming process and can make or break any quality drawing.

Costs and subscriptions

Everyone gets an initial 30 day free trial of the full product, dropping back to a restricted version at the end of the trial period.

Gliffy offers two versions. The Basic option is free but retains all the drawing options, including a limited sharing ability and an unlimited number of diagrams. Image storage facilities are restricted, as you’d expect. You get 2Mb of space for that.

Drawings carry Gliffy branding as an encouragement to upgrade to the subscription-based option, which I think many will go for.

Gliffy Premium is the subscription-based option and loses the nag screens and advertising, bringing in SSL security and email-based support. You get folder and user management to help you manage access.

Twelve months ago, the cost for a single user license of $5.00 a month would have seemed very cheap. But today, that seems a little expensive, particularly as Buzzword is fully featured and free for a single user.

$5 gets you managed, shared documents stored securely in a private https form. I guess compared to Visio, Gliffy is really cheap. Funny how expectations change.

There’s a scale of charges for corporate users, starting at $25 a month for 10 users and moving up to 1000 user version at $1,750. I feel many Gliffy converts will fall into the 1 to 5 user zone, meaning that they’ll have to bite the bullet and go for the 10 user option, which is unfortunate. A 5-user pack would be welcomed, I think.

All in all – good or bad?

Well I’d have to say Gliffy is excellent. Compared to Visio, it does what the vast majority of people would expect. Its easy, snappy to use and the sharing facilities are great.

The down-sides are few and centre on pricing, which could do with a bit more flexibility. Gliffy should consider that many freelancers will introduce Gliffy to corporates and they should be encouraged with a free single and low-cost 5-user option. So would I use it?

Yes, I would! Go try it yourself. You get 30 days for free, so what have you got to lose?

http://www.gliffy.com