Pricing
Real work starts at $15 a month.
The Studio and the Sketch canvas are free forever — every engine, every template, and 3 saved figures in each. Open every workstation, take the figure cap off, and bring your own AI key for $15 / month on Starter. Add hosted AI and small-team live sessions for $29 / month on Plus, or take the cap off collaboration — unlimited sessions, voice, shared team libraries — for $59 / month on Ultra. Billed monthly, or prepay the year — Starter $12, Plus $25, Ultra $49 a month, billed annually. Cancel anytime. Enterprise adds SSO, audit and dedicated tenancy at GA.
AI starts on Starter: bring a key from any of eight providers and it runs unmetered. Hosted AI on Plus is 200 points a month — a real number, not an asterisked “unlimited”. Free has no AI, hosted or your own.
Monthly plans are charged every month. Free is $0 and Enterprise is quoted — neither has a billing cycle to choose.
Free
The Studio and the Sketch canvas, free forever — every engine, every template. Single-player, with limits you'll feel on real work.
- The Studio — every engine that opens on the universal canvas, plus FlowScript, no cap on how much you draw
- The whole 5,012-template catalogue, every category — except the ones written for the Starter workstations
- The Sketch canvas — pens, shapes, frames, arrows, a starter wireframe set
- The other 7 workstations (Study · Evidence · Lab · Weave · Science · Figure · BPMN) start on Starter
- No AI on Free — your own API key starts on Starter, hosted AI points on Plus
- Keep 3 saved figures per studio, and 3 projects in the cloud Library
- PNG / SVG / PDF export of every Studio engine, including multi-figure PDF bundles; Lab, BPMN and Weave figures export as a marked preview
- Local storage · share via permalink
- Solo only — live sessions, comments and shared projects start on Plus
Starter
All 9 workstations and unlimited solo work. No hosted AI, no collaboration.
- All 9 workstations: Studio · Study · Evidence · Lab · Weave · Science · Figure · BPMN · Sketch
- The full Sketch pro kit: all 111 wireframes, presentation mode, version history
- Unlimited saved figures
- TikZ / LaTeX export — an AI conversion, on your own AI key
- Clean PNG / SVG / PDF exports and render-API output of Lab, BPMN and Weave figures
- All 110 engines + FlowScript fully unlocked
- Your own AI key starts here — 8 providers, unmetered (fair-use ceiling; hosted points start on Plus)
- Cloud sync across devices — on Free too, but here with no 3-project ceiling
- Version history
- Priority email support
- Single-player — collaboration starts on Plus
Plus
Starter, plus 200 AI points a month and live sessions for a small team.
- Everything in Starter
- 200 AI points / month — 1 pt per AI call · agent run 8 · deep run 47; a hard allowance (not unlimited)
- Buy extra points anytime — top-up packs from $5, never expire
- Architect mode (multi-step AI) on hosted points
- flowss Lab Agent — block-scoped edits, on hosted points
- Auto-fix loop (render → AI → re-render), on hosted points
- Team spaces with member roles
- Live sessions up to 3 people, guests on any plan, with canvas comments
- Voice, screenshare and shared team libraries are Ultra
Ultra
Everything flowss does, with real-time collaboration off the leash.
- Everything in Plus
- 600 AI points / month — 3× the Plus allowance
- Unlimited live sessions — no cap on who joins
- Voice + screenshare in every live session
- Workspace component libraries shared with your whole team
- Live cursors + threaded comments in public Sketch, Weave and Science sessions; cross-studio handoffs within your own workspace
- Priority support
Enterprise
Ultra, plus a named CSM — and SSO, SCIM, audit log, residency and dedicated tenancy at GA.
- Everything in Ultra
- SAML 2.0 SSO + SCIM provisioning at GA
- Google / Microsoft SSO at GA
- Audit log export to your SIEM at GA
- EU / US data residency at GA
- Dedicated single-tenant deployment at GA
- On-premise option for regulated industries at GA
- Named CSM; custom DPA and SLA at GA
Full feature matrix
Every difference, spelled out.
| Feature | Free | Starter | Plus | Ultra | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | |||||
| Engines (incl. FlowScript) | 110 | 110 | 110 | 110 | 110 |
| Templates | 5,012 | 5,012 | 5,012 | 5,012 | 5,012 |
| Workstations (Studio · Study · Weave · Lab · BPMN · Science · Figure · Sketch · Evidence) | Studio + Sketch | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Saved figures | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Drag-and-drop Weave canvas | |||||
| Sketch mode + motion | Core canvas | ||||
| Science Studio (Bio · Chem · Phys · Math) | |||||
| FlowScript /lab editable canvas | |||||
| 34k+ icons offline + Iconify search online | |||||
| Sketch wireframe kit (111 presets) · presentation mode · history | Starter set | ||||
| Sketch boards (multi-document) · SVG vector export · connectors with labels | |||||
| BPMN workspace: tabs, simulation v2, process analytics, mining, handbook export | |||||
| Study decks (spaced repetition) · daily review · assessments | |||||
| Figure workbench: rows → clean · analyse · chart · journal export | |||||
| Library: full-text search · tags & saved views · trash & restore · backup file | |||||
| AI | |||||
| Hosted AI points (1 pt per AI call · agent run 8 · deep run 47) | — | — | 200 / mo | 600 / mo | 600 / mo |
| Buy extra point packs ($5 / 100 · $20 / 500) | |||||
| BYO AI key — 8 providers incl. Google, DeepSeek, Qwen — unmetered (fair-use ceiling) | |||||
| Photo → engine recognition | BYOK | ||||
| Advanced Photo → engine (clean-up, alternates, render repair) | |||||
| Architect mode (multi-step) | BYOK | ||||
| flowss Lab Agent (block-scoped) | BYOK | ||||
| Auto-fix render loop | BYOK | ||||
| Diagram Intelligence (cycles, deadlocks, lint) | |||||
| Voice dictation in prompts | |||||
| Evidence (research) | |||||
| Evidence graph studio | |||||
| Citation-grounded extraction + verification | BYOK | ||||
| flowss Evidence Agent (grounded Ask) | BYOK | ||||
| GRADE certainty + Summary of Findings | |||||
| Contradictions, gaps & leave-one-out robustness | |||||
| Causal DAG, mechanism & temporal analysis | |||||
| PRISMA screening + inter-rater agreement | |||||
| BibTeX / RIS / CSV / JSON export | |||||
| Saved living projects + re-synthesis | |||||
| API & embed | |||||
| Headless render API (SVG / PNG) — 60 renders/day on every plan, with a session or an API key | With a free API key — 60/day; Lab/BPMN/Weave engines need Starter | ||||
| Public API — generate · diff · analyze | |||||
| Public API — diagram (AI generation) | BYOK | ||||
| Embed SDK + live embeds — flowss credit always shown on paid-studio engines | |||||
| Living diagrams — drift checks on demand, on a schedule & in CI | |||||
| Export | |||||
| PNG / SVG | Free-studio engines; Lab/BPMN/Weave figures as a marked preview | ||||
| Free-studio engines | |||||
| TikZ / LaTeX | BYOK | ||||
| JSON source | |||||
| Multi-figure PDF bundle | Free-studio engines | ||||
| Journal style presets | |||||
| Storage | |||||
| Local browser storage | |||||
| Cloud sync across devices | |||||
| Version history + diff | Studio timeline | ||||
| Collaboration | |||||
| Public permalinks (hash-encoded) | |||||
| Live co-editing sessions you host (guests on any plan) | Up to 3 people | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||
| Live cursors + presence in public live sessions | |||||
| Canvas + document comments | |||||
| Voice + screenshare in public live sessions | |||||
| Workspace component libraries | |||||
| Shared cloud projects | |||||
| Shared team spaces + RBAC | |||||
| Identity | |||||
| Google / Microsoft SSO | At GA | ||||
| SAML 2.0 SSO + SCIM provisioning | At GA | ||||
| Role-based access control | |||||
| Governance | |||||
| Audit log → SIEM export | At GA | ||||
| Data residency (EU / US) | At GA | ||||
| Dedicated single-tenant deploy | At GA | ||||
| On-premise option | At GA | ||||
| Custom DPA + security review | At GA | ||||
| Support | |||||
| Community + GitHub issues | |||||
| Priority email support | |||||
| Named CSM | |||||
| 99.9 % SLA | At GA | ||||
Tier availability:Free — live todayStarter · Plus · Ultra — live today Yearly billing — live for Starter · Plus · UltraEnterprise — contact today, deploy at GA Hosted AI — live today
API access needs an account. The public v1 endpoints (diagram · generate · diff · analyze) and the render API are rate-limited per key owner; the render API takes a signed-in session or an API key and has no anonymous allowance.
Exports follow your plan. The Studio is free and opens every engine, including Lab (FlowScript), BPMN and Weave figures. On Free those figures export as a marked preview PNG; Starter and up export them clean as PNG, SVG and PDF. Every other engine exports clean on every plan.
Need more AI than your plan includes?
Top-up packs are a one-time payment on any plan that carries an allowance. They are spent only after the monthly allowance is gone, and they never expire — so a heavy month does not become a subscription you did not want. Bringing your own API key is unmetered, on Starter and up.
One-time payment. Purchased points never expire and are spent after your monthly allowance.
flowss against the field
Sixteen tools, on the things that actually decide a purchase. Every competitor's name links to its own page so you can check any cell in one click, prices are vendor list prices read August 2026, and there is a section at the bottom listing where these tools beat us — because a comparison the author wins forty times out of forty is an advertisement, not a comparison.
| Capability | flowssDiagram platform | LucidchartVisual diagramming suite | MiroCollaborative whiteboard | FigJamWhiteboard, inside Figma | WhimsicalFlowcharts, wireframes, docs | ExcalidrawHand-drawn-style canvas | draw.ioFree general diagramming | MermaidText-to-diagram library | Mermaid ChartHosted Mermaid editor | PlantUMLText-to-UML renderer | GraphvizGraph layout engine | D2Modern diagram language | VisioMicrosoft's diagram tool | CreatelyVisual workspace | GliffyAtlassian-native diagrams | EraserDocs-and-diagrams for engineers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you can actually drawMost tools are one notation family with a shape library bolted on. This is the row that decides whether you need a second subscription. | ||||||||||||||||
| Diagram notations supportedA flowchart tool that cannot draw a sequence diagram sends you somewhere else the first week. | 110 engines | Broad shape libraries | Shapes + templates | Shapes + templates | 4 doc types | Freeform shapes | Broad shape libraries | ~20 diagram types | ~20 diagram types | ~15 UML + C4 | Graph layouts | Graph + sequence | Broad stencil sets | Broad shape libraries | Broad shape libraries | ~8 diagram types |
| Freeform whiteboard alongside the structured diagramsThinking is messy before it is a diagram. Two tools for one thought is where the friction is. | Yes | PartlyLucidspark is a separate product | Yes | Yes | PartlyBoards, not a full canvas | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | PartlyCanvas mode |
| BPMN 2.0 process modelling with token simulationDrawing a process is not modelling one. Simulation is what finds the deadlock before production does. | YesPlay tab, token-level | PartlyBPMN shapes, no simulation | PartlyBPMN shape pack | No | No | No | PartlyBPMN shapes, no simulation | No | No | No | No | No | PartlyBPMN stencils, no simulation | PartlyBPMN shapes | No | No |
| Scientific and lab figures — molecules, anatomy, circuits, pedigreesA generic shape library will let you draw a wrong benzene ring and never tell you. | YesDeterministic verifiers | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Evidence synthesis — meta-analysis, PRISMA, GRADEFor anyone doing a systematic review, this is otherwise a separate £1,000 desktop package. | YesReal random-effects models | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Publication figures at a journal's real column widthReviewers reject figures for artwork rules, not for content. | YesPreflight against publisher rules | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Turn a diagram into a study deck with spaced repetitionDiagrams are how people learn systems. Nothing else closes that loop. | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Chart straight from a dataset, values verified against the rowsA chart typed by hand from a spreadsheet is a chart with a typo in it. | YesDrift check on refresh | PartlyData-linked shapes | PartlyTable widgets | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| How it works underneathThe part that decides whether your diagrams survive the tool. Text you own outlives any vendor; a proprietary binary does not. | ||||||||||||||||
| Diagram-as-code — the document is plain text you ownText diffs in a pull request. A canvas file does not. | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | PartlyXML, but not written by hand | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Edit the SAME document visually and as textEvery other tool makes you pick, then locks the choice in. | YesClick any element, edit either side | No | No | No | No | No | PartlyXML round-trip, not live | No | PartlyVisual editor on some types | No | No | No | No | No | No | PartlyTwo-way on its own syntax |
| Renders in your browser, with no server round tripSpeed, and whether your source leaves the machine to become a picture. | PartlyMost of 110; PlantUML and Kroki engines are relayed | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | YesIt is a browser library | No | NoJava renderer, server-side | PartlyVia a wasm build | PartlyCLI, or wasm | No | No | No | No |
| Open source, self-hostableThe strongest guarantee a tool can offer: it cannot be taken away. | NoHosted product | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Headless render API for CI and docs buildsDiagrams that regenerate from source in a pipeline never go stale. | Yes | PartlyEnterprise API | PartlyBoard API, not render | No | No | No | No | Yes | PartlyOn paid plans | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Version history you can restore fromThe feature nobody values until the afternoon they need it. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | PartlyLocal only | PartlyDepends where the file lives | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with no networkAeroplanes, hospitals, secure sites. | NoSign-in is required | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| AI that does somethingNearly every tool shipped an AI button in the last two years. What separates them is whether it edits your document or just hands you a picture. | ||||||||||||||||
| Describe it, get a real editable diagram | Yes | Yes | Yes | PartlyFigJam AI, template-led | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Photograph a whiteboard, get editable sourceThe meeting-room-to-document step everyone still does by hand. | YesInto any of 110 engines | PartlyImport as image | PartlySticky-note capture only | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| AI edits the SOURCE, so you can read the diffAn AI that redraws your canvas is an AI you cannot review. | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Bring your own model key — pay the provider, not usUnmetered AI, at cost, on a key you control and can revoke. | Yes8 providers, Starter and up | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Checks the AI's output rather than trusting itThe difference between a tool and a demo. | YesRender loop, unit checks, drift | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Getting your work back outThe rows a buyer reads last and regrets not reading first. | ||||||||||||||||
| SVG, PNG and PDF export | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LaTeX / TikZ outputFor anyone submitting to a journal that wants vector source. | YesEvery engine | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Export the whole library as one plain filePortability you can verify, rather than an export button per document. | Yes | PartlyPer document | PartlyPer board | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Import from the others | Yesdraw.io, SQL, DBML, Mermaid, images | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Works after you stop payingWhat actually happens to your diagrams when the card expires. | PartlyFree tier keeps 3 figures per studio; export is unrestricted | PartlyRead-only or export-only | PartlyRead-only or export-only | PartlyRead-only or export-only | PartlyRead-only or export-only | YesOpen source | YesOpen source | YesOpen source | PartlyRead-only or export-only | YesOpen source | YesOpen source | YesOpen source | PartlyPerpetual licence available | PartlyRead-only or export-only | PartlyRead-only or export-only | PartlyRead-only or export-only |
| What it costsCompetitor figures are vendor list prices, read from the pages linked in the header row and checked August 2026. Bands rather than exact numbers, because list prices move and a stale figure is worse than an honest range — click any name to verify. | ||||||||||||||||
| Free tier | Studio + Sketch, 3 figures each | 3 editable documents | 3 editable boards | 3 files | Limited items | Unlimited, open source | Unlimited, free | Unlimited, open source | Limited diagrams | Unlimited, open source | Unlimited, open source | Unlimited, open source | Viewer only | Limited items | Trial only | Limited files |
| Entry paid plan, per seat per month | $12–15 | ~$8–10 | ~$10 | ~$3–5 | ~$10 | ~$6 (Plus) | Free | Free | ~$7–10 | Free | Free | Free | ~$5–6 | ~$5–8 | ~$6–8 | ~$10–15 |
| One subscription covers every capability aboveThe real comparison: matching flowss means paying for three or four of these at once. | YesAll 9 workstations | NoChart, Spark and Scale price separately | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| No minimum seat countSeveral tools' team plans start at three seats whether you have three people or one. | Yes | NoTeam plans start at 3 seats | — | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | — | — | Yes |
Where these tools beat us
Every one of these is real. If the row that matters to you is on this list, buy the other thing — we would rather lose the sale than the argument.
- Excalidraw, draw.io, Mermaid, PlantUML, Graphviz, D2They are open source. You can self-host them, read every line, and keep using them if the company behind them disappears. We are a hosted product and cannot offer that.
- draw.io and ExcalidrawGenuinely free, with no document cap and no account. If you need a flowchart this afternoon and nothing else, they are the right answer and we will not pretend otherwise.
- Miro and FigJamBetter at a live workshop with twenty people — timers, voting, sticky-note clustering, and the muscle memory a lot of teams already have. Our live sessions are for small groups working on a document.
- Figma / FigJamIf your diagrams live next to your product design, being in the same file as the designs beats anything we can offer.
- VisioDeep Microsoft 365 integration, a perpetual licence option, and stencil sets for industries we do not cover. In a Microsoft shop that often decides it.
- GliffyNative inside Confluence and Jira. If your documentation lives there, a diagram that edits in place is worth more than extra engines.
- LucidchartA larger org-chart and data-linked-shape toolkit, and enterprise procurement paperwork we do not have yet — SOC 2, an established security review, a named account team.
No single tool above covers what flowss covers, and most of them are not trying to. The honest summary is this: if you need one notation and nothing else, several of these are cheaper and two are free forever. If your work spans diagrams, whiteboards, process models, scientific figures, publication artwork and evidence synthesis — and you would rather not run four subscriptions and four exports to move one idea between them — that is the gap this was built for.
Competitor names and marks are the property of their owners and are used here for identification only. Prices are vendor list prices for comparable individual or entry team plans, read August 2026; they change, regional and annual terms differ, and the linked pages are authoritative over anything written here. Spot something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.