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Been using Visio at work to do flowcharts, and I'm liking how easy it is to do overall, notably creating and linking shapes.

I'm trying to find something for Linux that works the same way, or at least is as easy to use. In a sense, something that flows as easily, where I don't have to put in extra time adding lines, fighting with the ability to put in text*, etc.

I've tried Dia, OpenOffice.org Draw and Kivio, but none of them are quite what I'm looking for. I could use UML and sequence diagrams, but I prefer the look and feel of flow carts for basic logic charting.

So, question is: What programs are available that work on Linux that would let me easily make flow charts?

* I'm pretty sure this is just because of the version of Dia I'm using. Fedora 12, default repos, going to install Ubuntu 10.10 soon, see if that helps

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9 Answers 9

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LibreOffice Draw can be used for the task.

This page provides some directions

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  • You recommend LibreOffice Draw, but then include a link to use LibreOffice Impress....
    – barrypicker
    Commented Mar 1, 2019 at 18:04
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    Just rechecked and the included link instructions are valid for the LibreOffice Draw, although the URL states "/Impress/Creating_a_Flowchart" as you correctly noted. I could not spot a corresponding page for LibreOffice Draw in their wiki.
    – Verve
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 13:38
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I use Dia, which is also open-source.

Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio,' though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to a number of formats, including EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG, and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages).

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  • 17
    Dia was really great... 10 years ago. But now it looks exactly the same, and is just so out of date to use comparing to Visio...
    – Grzenio
    Commented Nov 27, 2012 at 12:00
  • I've never used Visio, but it does have a script to generate code/flowcharts based on flowcharts/code. That's pretty cool. You can write your own Python plugin-scripts for it as well.
    – ryanjdillon
    Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 10:39
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You may want to try yEd. Compared to Dia, it has more features (like automatic layout), and a modern user interface (although it could be better).

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  • 14
    For those that care: yEd is not free and open source software.
    – edam
    Commented Oct 14, 2015 at 15:05
  • Yes, I have yEd for free and it is great - super simple, and keeps my angles in 90 degrees, as they suppose to be. I have the only problem - how to export my flowchart in real size?
    – maycca
    Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 21:31
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I had to make some flowcharts just recently, I used Lucidchart.

There is a free version and it is possible to make quite a complex flowchart before you hit the limit. Well, give it a try. It can't be more cross-platform or easier than a web service. :)

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    In case it's not clear from the answer, Lucidchart is free as in beer, not as in speech, i.e. it's not open source.
    – Sparhawk
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 4:44
  • Indeed, it is only free to use (to limited extent). LibreOffice Draw can be used as Verve suggested, though I found Lucidchart to be a lot more handy.
    – Apache
    Commented Nov 26, 2017 at 12:39
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I stumbled on this question (quite old) just now while doing a quick search for a flowchart software.

When no one gave a good solution I tried the Ubuntu Software Center; the only one I could find is the "Calligra Flow" which is part of the Calligra Office Suite (which I believe is a new office suite or at least i recently heard about!).

I can't tell you about it, but it seems good. I am installing it my self right now (note that it requires quite a lot of packages with a total 259MB installation size, which is rather large!).

To install it use the package name calligraflow.

Hope this helps you or anyone else.

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  • When I first posted this, Calligra didn't exist (it forked from KOffice in 2010, not sure what month), so it wasn't something to look at. I've heard of Calligra Flow since then, and been meaning to check it out. Thanks for reminding me!
    – Tarka
    Commented Dec 27, 2012 at 7:06
  • you're welcome.:) btw if u you happen to use Mathematica, you could use it too: reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/tutorial/… I guess ill use mathematica instead
    – user10853
    Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 9:14
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It's not free, but Flying Logic can do nice flow charts.

enter image description here

I'm also a fan of XMind which does have a free version. It's more mind mapping than flow charts, but if you try hard enough you can make it look like a flow chart.

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  • That topic is removed.
    – hasanghaforian
    Commented Mar 5, 2016 at 10:48
  • I added a direct link. Thanks for letting me know.
    – Matthew Lock
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 3:32
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Umbrello is great if you use kde 4.x

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A great solution that is web based is Lucidchart. It works on all platforms and is integrated with google drive. It also enable real time collaboration. I highly recommend it

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If you like Visio so much why not just use it. I have Microsoft Office 2010 and Visio, they work just fine in Ubuntu. I think many people forget that wine is no longer in an experimental/unstable phase (that was like over a decade ago!) and can more windows apps work with it than ones that don't, in my personal experience, 80% of all my windows apps work fine, some ever better, under Linux... and office is no exception :) Hope that helps and for the record, Dia and Draw are okay but they, like all programs you know nothing about, will be awkward to learn and cut into your precious time...this is why keeping your familiars around is so important. Don't reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.

hope this helps you and others too (PS: wine version i use is 1.5.28 but I've been using office since version 1.5.25--it may work with earlier ones too like 1.4 I'm not sure. Ubuntu version 12.04 LTS)

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