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Draft1 vs Lucidchart

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Draft1 starts at $24, Lucidchart at $7.95. Both have a free tier. Both ship a public API.

Draft1Turns plain English, Terraform or a SQL schema into an editable draw.io diagram in about 20 secondsLucidchartBrowser diagramming for flowcharts, org charts and architecture, with data-linked shapes and AI generation.

Side by side

FactDraft1Lucidchart
CategoryDiagramming & WhiteboardsDiagramming & Whiteboards
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$24 month$7.95 seat_month
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, iOS, Android, API
CompanyDraft1Lucid Software Inc.
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Draft1

The useful decision here is the output format: a draw.io file you can keep editing, not a PNG you have to regenerate every time something changes. Accepting Terraform, docker-compose and SQL as input means the diagram can be derived from the actual infrastructure rather than someone's memory of it. The documented API with a PATCH endpoint for iterating in plain English makes it viable as a docs-pipeline step rather than a one-off toy.

Pros

  • Accepts Terraform, docker-compose and SQL as input, not only prose
  • Output opens in draw.io and stays editable rather than being a flat picture
  • Covers ER, UML, Kubernetes, network, cloud, flowchart and database diagram types
  • Documented REST API with key auth, an OpenAPI spec and an endpoint for iterating on an existing diagram

Cons

  • Quotas count prompts, so failed attempts and refinements cost the same as successes
  • Only three free diagrams before a card is needed
  • Collaboration and GitHub version control are held back for the $99 per user Enterprise tier
  • No company registration number published, only a Paris street address in the terms

Lucidchart

The default choice for team diagramming: data-linked shapes and layers handle diagrams that outgrow a whiteboard tool, and the integration list means the diagram ends up where the work already happens. Per-seat pricing with a three-user minimum on Team makes it expensive for small groups, and Lucid keeps moving the product's URLs around.

Pros

  • Data-linked shapes with conditional formatting
  • Layers for managing dense diagrams
  • Lucid AI generates and summarises diagrams from prompts
  • Over 100 integrations including Jira, Confluence, Slack and AWS

Cons

  • Free tier caps editable documents to a handful
  • Team plan carries a three-seat minimum
  • Per-seat pricing, and published figures differ across Lucid's own pages

Which one fits

Choose Draft1 if you need

  • Engineers who need architecture diagrams from Terraform or docker-compose they already have
  • Teams keeping diagrams in docs that must stay editable in draw.io
  • Anyone automating documentation generation through an API

Choose Lucidchart if you need

  • Engineering and ops teams documenting systems
  • Org charts driven from an HR spreadsheet
  • Companies already on Jira, Confluence or Teams

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