The top 10 Cloud Infrastructure Diagramming Tools

Cloud diagramming tools have been around for quite some time now. They are making a complicated topic such as cloud infrastructure easier to understand and visualize. Most certainly, you are already familiar with tools like Draw.io, Visio and Lucidchart that were launched more than 10 years ago. Unfortunately they are limited to documentation and collaboration purposes.

In the meantime, the cloud market has evolved a lot with many new cloud providers (OVH, Digital Ocean, Linode, Scaleway, OCI…), new APIs to query cloud console, new APIs to query prices, IaC became a standard, providers have opened more regions…

It opens opportunities for better diagramming software with other purposes that only producing a static cloud infrastructure image!

Modern diagramming tools can and should be dynamic like cloud infrastructure. They should be able to communicate with cloud platforms to import and export cloud resources, they should provide estimation of cloud costs prior to deployment, they should be multi-cloud and abstract the complexity brought by cloud providers and finally they should be compatible with IaC.

That’s why with my two co-founders, we have built Holori, the next gen diagramming tool. In this article we will go through the best diagramming tools while staying as objective as possible. You will see, I say nice things about the competition.

1. Holori

Holori diagramming software allows you to create stunning multi-cloud diagrams. It is currently compatible with AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba, OVH and Scaleway.

The DNA behind this tool is to properly plan and estimate cloud infrastructure before deploying it. Holori provides recommendations on how to optimize your architecture to proactively reduce cloud costs. The tool also shows how much an equivalent architecture would cost at another cloud provider. Between architectural recommendations and cloud benchmarking, users can save up to 70% over what they would have provisioned on their own.

Holori also helps you deploy your infra with terraform or through direct provisioning, making it possible for users to deploy an infrastructure at a provider they don’t master.

Last but not least, Holori is able to import your existing infrastructure directly from your cloud providers’ console. This way, users can visualize their infra and identify potential anomalies or unused resources.

Pros:

• Cost estimation of each resource and of the overall architecture
• Cloud cost comparison between cloud providers
• Provision infrastructure directly from the diagram
• Compatible with many cloud providers

Cons:

• Can’t be used to create any other diagram apart from cloud diagrams
• Some features are missing because the tool is still in Beta

Pricing

Holori comes with a free forever plan with some quotas restrictions. The next plan is at 49$/month/user.

2. Diagrams.net (Draw.io)

Probably the most known flowchart tool. Formerly known as Draw.io, this is an online flowchart tool based on an open source project. The tool can be used to draw cloud architecture diagrams but it’s not its sole purpose as it can be used to draw relationship diagrams, system component diagrams, network diagrams, and so on. It’s pretty versatile but not the best for cloud architecture diagramming as the end result remains a picture.

Pros:

• No need to login
• Can be used to create various types of diagrams
• Can be integrated with many storage platforms

Cons:

• Interface is not very user friendly
• At the end of the day, Draw.io’s output is an image !
• No cloud cost estimation, no import nor visualization of your cloud infrastructure
• No possibility to deploy your architecture

Pricing

Free license for personal use. Start at 15$/month for 20 users and Confluence integration.

3. Hava.io

Hava helps you generate diagrams of your existing infrastructure and network topology. The tool is compatible with AWS, Azure and GCP. Users can view security groups, route tables, resource information, subnets… With its auto sync feature, the tool is able to update the infrastructure on a daily basis reflecting the changes that may have been performed

Pros:

• Cloud specific tool.
• Importing existing AWS, GCP & Azure infrastructure is nice.

Cons:

• For a complete experience, Hava.io is not sufficient. You need to use other tools to edit diagrams.
• Interface is not easy to use
• No possibility to deploy infrastructure

Price:

Hava come with a 2 weeks free trial version. After this, user is downgraded to a free version that is limited to one data source. Then the upper plan is 59$/month for 5 data sources.

4.Lucidchart & Lucidscale

If you are a heavy Draw.io user, you won’t get lost using Lucidchart. The software just looks so similar both in UI and UX. Writing this article, I have both software opened and when switching tabs… I can tell you it’s confusing.

Anyway, Lucidchart is another good flowchart software. It is widely used for mind mapping and non-technical architecture designs. As an alternative, you can also use it for cloud infrastructure diagrams but there is no intelligence at all. The output remains a picture.

One particular cool feature of Lucidchart is the live collaboration feature which is ideal for teamwork.

Lucidscale is a new product offering from Lucid. The tool is made for Cloud architects, cloud consultants, IT managers and DevOps to visualize their existing AWS, Azure and GCP infrastructure. The import works smoothly !

Once the infrastructure is imported, the user can filter the resources and save views. To edit the diagram you need to leave Lucidscale and switch to Lucidchart which is annoying.

Pros:

• A robust tool to draw a wide range of diagrams
• Can interface with several apps and services
• Import infrastructure from AWS, GCP, Azure
• Good for team collaboration

Cons

• Cloud diagram templates only available in premium on Lucidchart
• No cloud cost estimation
• User can’t deploy and manage infrastructure

Pricing

• Lucidscale comes with a 14 day trial period. After this, the individual license starts at 1899$ per year.
• Lucidchart comes with a Free forever version that has quota restrictions.

5. Cloudcraft

Cloudcraft is an AWS specific cloud diagramming tool which enables you to model your AWS environment. You can create a new project from scratch or import an existing AWS environment to iterate on your design.

It also has features such as online diagram sharing and editing, cost estimation and live monitoring with Cloudwatch integration. Overall it is a good tool if you only want to work with a single cloud provider that is AWS.

Pros:

• 3D view is beautiful
• Interface is user friendly
• Possibility to import and visualize AWS infrastructure

Cons:

• Cloudcraft works only for AWS
• Cost estimation for AWS is wrong and far from being accurate

Pricing

Cloudcraft offers a free forever version with limited space on the grid. The next plan is 49$/month/user.

6. Visio

Visio is a jack of all trades and master of none. Because it can be used to make many types of diagrams, flowchart, pie charts, network diagrams etc. You name it and Visio has it. It is best for graphics and diagramming representation. That’s why it is a popular choice for enterprise across all industries. But if you are a cloud architect and want to build cloud diagrams only, this is the tool you should avoid because it requires many set up before being operational.

Pros:

• One stop tool for any type of graphical or representational diagram
• Exist on Desktop and internet browser

Cons:

• UI/UX is horrible
• Not included in Microsoft office and a user needs to purchase it separately.
• It is a generic drawing tool so cloud cost estimation, cloud import or deployment is not possible.

7. Cloudockit

Cloudockit is a cloud specific diagramming tool. Like Hava.io, Cloudockit doesn’t let you create or edit diagrams. It only let you import your architecture from AWS, GCP or Azure. To edit the diagram you need to use Visio which interfaces well with Cloudockit. Another good aspect from Cloudockit is the documentation generation. You may use given documentation templates or build yours.

Pros:

• Import Azure, GCP and AWS infrastructure
• Generate documentation

Cons:

• User experience is awful. I was lost using the software.
• Not a unified experience between import and edit
• No cost estimation, no possibility to provision infrastructure

8. Brainboard

Brainboard lets you design AWS, GCP, Azure and Scaleway cloud architecture. Overall they are going towards the same direction as us at Holori. Except that they are not providing any cost estimation. The software can receive terraform as an input and export terraform as an output. They can also import resources from Azure. The user interface is clean but the user experience is sincerely awful given the lags in the software.

Pros:

• UI is nice
• Terraform import & export
• Import cloud resources from Azure

Cons:

• No cloud cost estimation
• The software is very laggy with some interactions taking more than 3 second to load

Price:

There is a free trial version for 21 days. After this, the license costs 99$/month/user.

9. Cloudmaker

Cloudmaker is a cloud specific architecture diagram tool. I was impressed by how beautiful the software was! In terms of user experience, there are minor issues but overall it’s way better than many other software.

Cloudmaker is only compatible with Azure. What set them apart is the possibility to provision Azure resources directly from the diagramming tool.

Pros:

• Very nice UI/UX
• Deploy from the diagram

Cons:

• Work only for Azure
• No cost estimation
• No possibility to import infra

Pricing

Cloudmaker come with a free trial version. Then it’s 90$ user/month.

10. Mindgrammer

Interesting tool for people who prefer to code diagrams rather than drawing. It works with Python Code and is quite fast to get started. It is compatible with AWS, Azure, GCP, Alibaba and Oracle. The project is free and open source with more than 26k stars on GitHub.

Which cloud diagramming tool should you choose?

If you are only looking for drawing cloud architecture, Draw.io is still a good option because it’s free.

As soon as you are looking for more advanced features such as visualizing existing infrastructure, estimating the infrastructure cost or turning your diagram into a live infrastructure then I believe Holori will get you covered perfectly !

You can sign up and start using Holori for free here!