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Adobe Express vs Lucidchart

Adobe Express and Lucidchart are both design tools tools. Adobe Express is aimed at creators and small businesses, while Lucidchart is aimed at small businesses and enterprise. Lucidchart costs less, from $9/mo versus $9.99/mo for Adobe Express. Both have a free plan.

Adobe Express

Adobe's template-based design app for social posts, flyers and video

Lucidchart

Diagramming app for flowcharts, org charts and cloud architecture

PricingFreemium · $10Freemium · $9
Starting price$9.99/mo$9/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial30 days—
Built forCreators, Small businesses, Freelancers, EnterpriseSmall businesses, Enterprise, Developers
Platformsweb, ios, androidweb, ios, android
CountryUS · 2021US · 2010
Rating——

Choose Adobe Express if

Marketers and small businesses that need quick branded social and print content, especially inside Adobe Creative Cloud.

  • Generous free plan from a trusted design vendor
  • Firefly models trained on licensed content for commercial use
  • Smooth handoff with Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat

Look elsewhere if: Teams needing the largest template library and docs suite or professional UI design (Canva, Figma).

Choose Lucidchart if

Engineering, IT, product and operations teams that need accurate, data-linked diagrams embedded in their documentation tools.

  • Excellent for structured technical and process diagrams
  • Strong Atlassian, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 integrations
  • Data-linked diagrams stay current without manual edits

Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting freeform brainstorming boards or UI design (Miro, Figma, Whimsical).

Adobe Express vs Lucidchart pricing

Adobe Express

  • Free$0Core templates and tools, 5 GB storage, limited AI generations
  • Premium$9.99/mo250 generative credits/mo, premium assets, brand kits
  • Firefly Pro$19.99/moExpress Premium + 4,000 credits, Photoshop web and mobile
  • Teams$7.99/license/moAnnual plan, min 2 seats; first-year discount offered

Lucidchart

  • Free$03 editable documents, limited objects per document
  • Individual$9/moBilled annually; unlimited documents, premium templates
  • Team$10/user/moBilled annually; 3-user minimum, collaboration and admin
  • EnterpriseCustomSSO, advanced security, data governance, Lucid Suite

Adobe Express · Key features

  • Large template library for social, print, video and presentations
  • Firefly text-to-image, generative fill and text effects
  • One-click quick actions: remove background, resize, convert files
  • Video editor with captions, animations and background removal
  • Brand kits with logos, colors and fonts on Premium
  • Content scheduler for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and more

Cons

  • Smaller template and stock library than Canva
  • Generative credits run out quickly on Premium
  • Multi-page documents and whiteboards are weaker than Canva

Lucidchart · Key features

  • Shape libraries for flowcharts, BPMN, UML, ERD and network diagrams
  • AWS, Azure and Google Cloud architecture shapes
  • Org charts generated automatically from CSV employee data
  • Data linking from Google Sheets or Excel with conditional formatting
  • Lucid AI that drafts diagrams from a text prompt
  • Visio import and export plus SQL import for ERDs

Cons

  • Free plan is capped at three editable documents
  • Team plan requires at least three paid users
  • Freeform whiteboarding is weaker than Miro

Adobe Express vs Lucidchart: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Adobe Express or Lucidchart?

Lucidchart starts at $9/mo and Adobe Express at $9.99/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Adobe Express and Lucidchart have a free plan?

Yes, both Adobe Express and Lucidchart have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?