{"slug": "draw-io", "name": "draw.io", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 2.809, "rising": 0.67, "first": "2025-12-28", "latest": "2026-09-17", "why": "We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "compare": 2, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["draw.io"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795960752, "item_id": 49747547, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747547", "by": "briangray", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "excerpt": "Similar story. We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "context": "", "use_case": "diagrams and whiteboarding", "switched_from": "Microsoft Visio", "story": "I hate you Microsoft"}, {"id": 784208688, "item_id": 49013043, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49013043", "by": "oijkuij", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For a long time I've used draw.io for making diagrams, and found it clever", "excerpt": "I love it! I will absolutely be trying this out and following along. For a long time I've used draw.io for making diagrams, and found it clever that you can effectively save your document as an iframe blob of editor + file (though in their case, the editor is not stored in the file, a web connection is required to load the editor codebase. I've wished that could be the primary use case and this is basically what I'd ", "context": "", "use_case": "making diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["diagrams and whiteboarding", "diagrams", "making diagrams", "engineering diagrams", "blog diagrams", "network diagrams"], "compared": [{"slug": "excalidraw", "name": "Excalidraw", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746986", "title": "I hate you Microsoft", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49084324", "title": "Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008211", "title": "Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48569894", "title": "Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47571376", "title": "I use excalidraw to manage my diagrams for my blog", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46402475", "title": "Show HN: PatchMyGear \u2013 a living map for your studio gear (cables and checklist)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 795960752, "item_id": 49747547, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49747547", "by": "briangray", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "excerpt": "Similar story. We moved to DrawIO desktop. I now also use it as a replacement for whiteboarding and have it open in most meetings.", "context": "", "use_case": "diagrams and whiteboarding", "switched_from": "Microsoft Visio", "story": "I hate you Microsoft"}, {"id": 786497650, "item_id": 49156103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156103", "by": "olooney", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "am really good at using draw.io (now app.diagrams.net)", "excerpt": "I've taken a lot of notes and done a lot of \"scratchpad thinking\" over the last 20 years, something I started in college but really got into in grad school. I've tried Evernote, OneNote, Obsidian. I've tried little journal apps on my phone. I wrote my own little \"microblog\" in Django to make it easy to collect and annotate links, quotes, snippets, and images from around the internet. And what I always keep coming bac", "context": "", "use_case": "diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "Note-Taking and Personal Knowledge Management"}, {"id": 784208688, "item_id": 49013043, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49013043", "by": "oijkuij", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For a long time I've used draw.io for making diagrams, and found it clever", "excerpt": "I love it! I will absolutely be trying this out and following along. For a long time I've used draw.io for making diagrams, and found it clever that you can effectively save your document as an iframe blob of editor + file (though in their case, the editor is not stored in the file, a web connection is required to load the editor codebase. I've wished that could be the primary use case and this is basically what I'd ", "context": "", "use_case": "making diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)"}, {"id": 777263808, "item_id": 48578988, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48578988", "by": "jackyinger", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to make beautiful drawings in diagramming software (draw.io and the lil). But man, it took a lot of time.", "excerpt": "I draw a lot to figure out engineering details. I used to make beautiful drawings in diagramming software (draw.io and the lil). But man, it took a lot of time. Now I scribble on printer paper unless it\u2019s something I plan to share.", "context": "", "use_case": "engineering diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why thinking out loud with someone beats thinking alone"}, {"id": 761146305, "item_id": 47571644, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47571644", "by": "gethly", "date": "2026-03-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "it is better than draw.io that I used to use before", "excerpt": "Same. I started using it for Gethly blog. It's not perfect, some things make me crazy but overall it is better than draw.io that I used to use before. Excalidraw also has these great styles that just feel right :)", "context": "", "use_case": "blog diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "I use excalidraw to manage my diagrams for my blog"}, {"id": 742580433, "item_id": 46411277, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411277", "by": "networkdude", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Visio, draw.io, or dia do the logical layer nicely but it\u2019s very difficult to lay out the ports consistently", "excerpt": "Not an audio guy but a network guy. This looks like a really nice tool for doing physical diagrams to include port information. Normally the tools I use for this like Visio, draw.io, or dia do the logical layer nicely but it\u2019s very difficult to lay out the ports consistently and have them flow. If others have better options for doing physical layer drawings I\u2019d love any tips! :)", "context": "network engineer", "use_case": "network diagrams", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: PatchMyGear \u2013 a living map for your studio gear (cables and checklist)"}]}