In my line of work, I need to create a lot of graphics and flow diagrams. I work with system processes and flows, and I am also an IT trainer and Tech Writer. My go-to tool? THIS ONE!

I've been using this tool I think since more than 5 years ago.

This tool is even one of the very few open-source tools that my company is recommending for our daily work. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ingo S.

Head of Product

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/4/2021

"The only graph editor (known to me) that separates logic from design"

5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

When I create graphs, I want to create nodes and connect them first, without caring too much about design yet. When I am done, I like to move things around to make the graph more visually appealing. yEd caters precisely to my needs by separating the mathematical graph (nodes, edges) from the graphical representation attached to these entities.

In particular, yEd does _not_ allow for edges to exist without connections to nodes. In other editors (draw,io, Visio, ...), an edge might look like it was connected to a node visually, but it is actually free-floating. This quirk rules out any subsequent automated analysis.

Finally, yEd does a tremendous job at laying out graphs with a plethora of tweakable algorithms.

All in all, I am about thrice as productive with yEd than with all other graph editors I know. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

The user interface is meant for power users like myself. Also, it has some quirks. Creating workflows with swim lanes can be tedious, since the current version lacks some logic that links User feedback and feature requests are collected on yWorks' forums, but it can take many years for a much-requested feature to be considered for implementation. Then again, yEd is a free tool! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Samuel B.

Technician

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

7/27/2021

"My favorite tool for graphing"

5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

yEd graph editor is so easy to use, so intuitive, and so helpful. I use it in conjunction with some other developer tools, and it really makes it so easy to utilize all of the data that I want to. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

yEd can be very slow at times, especially at startup. There are so many benefits to this program that any slowness or bugs are of no concern. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering yEd Graph Editor:

I would definitely recommend making some sample graphs before starting on making graphs that you are going to be using with other programs. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, depending on the user especially considering all of the available tools and functions available to the user. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is yEd Graph Editor solving and how is that benefiting you?

yEd is the best method for creating, sharing, and utilizing graphs. For nearly every use case that I've needed graphing for, yEd has been able to serve my needs. Like I said earlier, I use yEd with some other programs that use and interpret the graphical data and what I'm able to do in yEd gives me all of those abilities that I need to. It is so easy to add data to yEd graph elements and to really get into the underlying data that I need to. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Brighton M.

Co-Founder

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

11/2/2020

"Best Free Graph Editor I have used for designing architecture diagrams and flow charts"

5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

Simple and easy to use, The design is straight forward for anyone who is new to the application to quickly get app to speed. It also generated great quality images. Its offer multiple layout options that cater for most needs for designs of technical documents like Swim lanes and flow chats and tree maps. The options to export to multiple formats also make this a great tool as you can export to a pdf for easy printing of png and other image formats that can be easily embedded into different document formats. The pallet for yEd comes with most images required for designed including servers , representations for databased and standard representations used for designing flow chats. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

I do not have major issues that i can note of that i may dislike about the application, on the minor issues , i believe the colour pallets for changing colours for object can be improved to make it more usable. The can also introduce previews to changes made in the preferences editor to make it faster when making changes to your personal preferences. Introduction of standard option for dark mode will be a great addition to the application.Making background changes to colour to get dark mode effect is not user friendly to most users as it takes time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering yEd Graph Editor:

If you are into technology services this is a great tool for providing quality design diagrams as part of your documentation for your clients. You will get high quality diagrams and get to deliver the documentation faster due to the ease of use of the software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is yEd Graph Editor solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use yEd for designing application design diagrams and flow diagrams for technical solutions that we will be working with.Examples are System architecture designs , database designs and process flow diagrams Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Giuseppe B.

oranges producer

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2/12/2020

"Very good free software for graphics and diagrams"

5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

yED helps you to design software (UML symbols, flow charts), but in general to schematize tour projects.

It is very easy to use with a nice and user friendly interface.

It is cross-platform too (it is written in Java). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

It is hard to find something not good in this software. Maybe the symbol library could be more rich. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Brandon H.

Performance Nutrition

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/6/2019

"Diagram your sales funnels, campaigns, business structures, and more with ease"

4.5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

I've been using this software for over 5 years now. Even though it's not entirely considered a mindmap software, it's completely free, simple to use, and can handle the task with hundreds of icons and options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

There's not really much to dislike about this software. Some may not like the icons that are provided with the software, but it's not much else to complain about. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering yEd Graph Editor:

Just dive in and try it out because it's a narrow learning curve. It's really an easy software to pick up and use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is yEd Graph Editor solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use it as a mind mapping software. The main benefit is that it keeps my plans and thoughts organized and in an easily shareable format. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Dennis P.

Director, Corporate Programming

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/7/2019

"Great free graph editor!"

5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

The thing I like the best about it is that it can handle all the graphing I do for work from simple flow diagrams to complex relationship diagrams. Object placement and editing is very easy and uses standard left, center, right, top, bottom alignment. Can add custom objects. Can print as poster (multi-page mosaic). Useful icon-based controls. Lines, user controllable curves (I really like these)... and a lot of other stuff I haven't even gotten to using. (Oh, and it's free!) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

Some of the controls are a bit quirky at first, but as you get acclimated it is less bothersome. Specific dislikes: Chart title is set at print-time and must be set every time you print (You can skip the title and use a graph object to do the same thing.) Right click to pan (other systems allow use of left click though it makes sense later why they did that). Left click drops another object on the page (takes a little getting used to.) Must de-select all objects before drawing lines (again, makes sense after you use the tool a lot, but you trip over this fairly often). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering yEd Graph Editor:

Its free... no risk... use it on a couple projects before you decide. Controls and settings take getting used to (as with anything). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is yEd Graph Editor solving and how is that benefiting you?

Flow Diagrams for program logic and business analysis. Relationship diagrams. Entity maps. Diagrams for meetings. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Amit S.

Research Scientist

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

11/13/2018

"Look more professional with your graphs! "

4.5/5

What do you like best about yEd Graph Editor?

yEd graph editor is a very essential tools to draw your own block diagrams and graphs. As a computer science personnel, I personally use different block diagram and flow chart to explain different algorithm. yEd provides easy customized blocks to draw your block diagrams. You can also add different logos such as user, computer, workstations, etc. easily in yEd. It is a very useful software for drawing and building scientific figures. Another best thing of this product is that it is completely open source and free. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about yEd Graph Editor?

The overall experience with yEd is very satisfactory. One small problem that one might face is that, sometimes the line graphs seems broken. Also this only supports the image files (not .eps and .pdf). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering yEd Graph Editor:

The overall assessment of this product is good. But as a research professional, I want to add some recommendation for this product. First of all, while writing peer-reviewed scientific papers, it is recommended to use .pdf or .eps file to maintain the resolution. yEd can find it useful to add these file extensions. Also, yEd should add importing option to import different pictures in the system. Another good way to improve this software to add customized drawing option where users can draw their own preferred figures and shapes with eas. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is yEd Graph Editor solving and how is that benefiting you?

The main purpose of using yEd is to draw different flow charts and block diagrams for research purpose. I also use yEd for figures which is used in peer-reviewed scientific publications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.