Getting Diagrams

Where and how can I get Diagrams? How much does it cost?

Diagrams is available on the Mac App Store and comes with a free trial that gives you access to all features for 5 days. To unlock the full version of the app at any point during or after the trial period, you’ll need to make an in-app purchase for $19.99. This price applies to customers in the US, and it may vary based on your geographic region. To view the price in your local currency, please refer to the purchase screen within the app.

If you prefer a subscription-based billing option, you can alternatively get Diagrams via Setapp, a service that gives you access to more than 200 high-quality Mac apps starting at $8.99/month. For detailed information about pricing, please visit Setapp’s pricing page.

How does the trial work?

When you download Diagrams from the Mac App Store and launch it for the first time, you’re presented with the option to start a free 5-day trial. During this period, you’ll get access to all the app’s features. Only the days you launch the app are counted toward the limit, so you should have enough time to find out whether the app suits your needs.

After the trial expires, the app switches to a read-only mode. You’ll still be able to open and view your documents, but you’ll no longer be able to edit them. To restore access to all features, you’ll need to unlock the full version through an in-app purchase within the app’s interface.

The trial behavior isn’t the same as a free trial period of a subscription. In the case of Diagrams, you don’t start a subscription when starting a trial, so you won’t automatically be charged when the trial ends. Additionally, there’s no need to cancel a subscription if you decide not to continue using Diagrams.

I bought Diagrams on the Mac App Store before. Do I need to worry about in-app purchases?

With version 2.3, Diagrams switched its business model from an upfront purchase to an in-app purchase. If you bought Diagrams on the Mac App Store, your purchase will grant you access to all its features, and you’ll keep getting new updates from the store as usual.

What version of macOS is required to run Diagrams?

Diagrams requires macOS 12 Monterey or later.

I’m a student. Can I get a discount?

Currently, we don’t offer individual student discounts. With the switch to in-app purchases, there are now tools available for us to implement student pricing, so we might consider it. Let us know if this is something you’d be interested in. In the meantime, you might benefit from Setapp’s educational discount.

Is volume licensing for businesses or schools available?

Unfortunately, the recent switch from an upfront purchase to an in-app purchase doesn’t allow us to keep offering support for volume licensing. However, if you purchased Diagrams through Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager before, you’ll be able to continue using the app without any limitations.

Is there a beta program I can participate in?

Yes, there is. If you’d like to help us with testing and get early access to new features, you can learn all about it here.

Features

What kind of diagrams are supported?

Diagrams supports the creation of structured diagrams, visualized on a two-dimensional canvas. Their primary purpose is to depict structures and processes. This includes flowcharts, software architecture diagrams, state and activity diagrams, organizational charts, and much more. Diagrams is not suited for creating line or bar charts for visualizing numeric data.

What is a structured diagram exactly?

Structured diagrams are graph-based diagrams consisting of elements and the relationships between them.

Wait, there’s no inspector in the sidebar to change the formatting of the canvas selection. Why is that?

Diagrams follows a semantic approach, meaning that every element and relationship is associated with a type. Each type describes meaning on an abstract level and appearance on a material level. Types are stored in a palette that’s part of every document. When you create a new document, you select the initial palette. Later, you can customize it and reuse the types throughout the diagram. To learn more about palettes, please refer to this blog post.

Where does Diagrams store data?

Diagrams is a document-based application. Every diagram you create is stored as a document file on your disk. You can synchronize your documents across multiple Macs using iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or any other cloud service.

Which export formats are supported?

Diagrams supports exporting to PDF and PNG format. Depending on the demand of users, we’ll consider adding support for additional export formats, like SVG, Visio, dot (Graphviz), and raw graph representation. However, there are no concrete plans yet.

Which import formats are supported?

Currently, there is no import functionality available. Due to the specific model used by Diagrams for representing diagram contents, it’s very difficult technically to import documents created with more generic diagramming tools that support arbitrary contents.

Can I import images or use icons in my diagrams?

Right now, Diagrams doesn’t support images or icons. However, you can include emojis anywhere you use text. Emojis will display correctly even when exporting your diagram.

Does Diagrams support grouping or swim lanes?

There is no grouping or swim lanes functionality at this point.

Is Diagrams feature-complete?

With Diagrams 1.0, we laid the foundation and focused on canvas editing. While the initial version was limited to a single fixed palette, Diagrams 2.0 gave you full control over the palette in your documents and let you customize your element and relationship types.

We still think there’s a long way to go to become a truly first-class diagramming application for Mac, and we'll continue improving. You can learn about recently implemented features in the release notes. Feel free to send us any ideas or feature requests on our support page.

Can I use Diagrams in my language?

Diagrams is currently available in English, German, and Chinese (Simplified). Is your language missing? Please let us know.

Future Plans

Will there be a version of Diagrams for another platform (iOS, Web, Windows)?

We currently don’t have any plans to bring Diagrams to another platform. However, there’s a chance we may shift our focus in that direction in the future.

I’d like to use Diagrams on my iPad. Are there really no plans to develop a companion app for iPadOS?

To be completely honest, we entertained this idea for a bit, as we’d love to see Diagrams on the iPad as well. However, we currently don’t have the capacity to design and develop an iPadOS version. For the time being, we’ll focus on improving the Mac version and enhancing it with new features.

Privacy

Do you track me when I’m using the app?

Currently, we employ basic analytics in the app to learn about usage patterns. While shaping the core of Diagrams, this helps us focus our development on the features you work with the most. We care about privacy, so the collected data is anonymous and doesn’t contain any of your document’s contents. To learn more, please visit our specific privacy policy for app usage.

Help and Support

Is there a user manual available?

We’re working on it. In the meantime, you can check out our Quick Tips collection and the blog post about the logic behind palettes, which were introduced in Diagrams 2.0. If you have any specific questions, please get in touch with us.

I’ve found a bug, or I’m missing a particular feature. Where can I report it?

Please send us a message.

Where can I find the latest news about Diagrams?

To get updates about Diagrams and its continuing development, subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Twitter.