# draw.io

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/draw-io/

13 people recommended draw.io in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 12 months, in 13 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A free diagram editor people use for flowcharts and architecture diagrams because it is easy to start with and produces clean results. Critics find the UI and look and feel unappealing, and laying out ports and connections fiddly.

Summary written by Claude from 27 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 21 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well for LLM-generated diagrams (3 comments in the sample): "the best thing is installing drawio skill and make it generate one for you based on your description" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49863459)) "I'm finding a lot of utility in LLMs doing diagrams in tools like drawio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47076074)) "the best outcome I had was with drawio" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49744379))
- Easy to pick up and start (2 comments in the sample): "Some products are inherently easy to use like draw.io for example." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46490974)) "it works well enough and it's easy to make something that looks ok" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48649794))
- Embeds diagram XML inside PNG files (2 comments in the sample): "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" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49013043)) "Draw.io smuggles the XML in a PNG which I've always admired." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002677))
- Go-to choice over time (2 comments in the sample): "use draw.io or the like because I know it will be winning on the longer run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47790925)) "I just stick to draw.io now (aka diagrams.net" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47577014))

## What people warn about

- Clumsy to lay out and edit (2 comments in the sample): "it’s very difficult to lay out the ports consistently and have them flow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411277)) "I've struggled with draw.io for fixing it by my client's requests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50240734))
- Dated UI and look and feel (1 comment in the sample): "because it is web garbage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47497976))

## Other diagram tools people recommend

- [Mermaid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mermaid/): 72 recommend, 16 mixed, 42 criticize
- [Excalidraw](https://hackerapproved.com/p/excalidraw/): 41 recommend, 7 mixed, 8 criticize
- [SQL to ER diagram tool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-sql-to-er-diagram-tool/): 23 recommend, 4 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Monosketch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/monosketch/): 18 recommend, 5 mixed, 4 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "draw.io", https://hackerapproved.com/p/draw-io/ (13 recommend, 1 mixed, 7 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.