Most process mapping tools can draw a map. Far fewer can tell you what the process costs or where the time goes, and that's what a small business needs to know. So we've ranked these ten on how well they help you understand a process, then on price and how easy they are to use.
We make UpScale, so we've put it first. Prices were checked on 10 October 2026, are per user and exclude VAT. They change, so check before you buy.
The ranking
| Tool | Price | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  UpScale | Included for our clients | Finding where work queues, and testing a change before you make it |
| 2 |  Bizagi Modeler | Free | The best free option if you want to analyse a process |
| 3 |  Lucidchart | Free (3 documents), then £9–£10 a month | Easy, shareable diagrams |
| 4 |  Microsoft Visio | £3.80–£11.50 a month | Businesses already on Microsoft 365 |
| 5 |  draw.io | Free | Drawing maps at no cost |
| 6 |  Miro | Free (3 boards), then $8–$20 a month | Mapping workshops with the team |
| 7 |  Camunda Modeler | Free | Developers building automated processes |
| 8 |  Nintex Process Manager | On quote | Process libraries in larger organisations |
| 9 |  SAP Signavio | On quote, roughly £1,250–£7,750 a year | Large companies, especially SAP users |
| 10 |  ARIS | On quote, from about €100 a month | Large companies with process teams |
Features compared
| Tool | BPMN | Swimlanes | Step costs | Totals | Simulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UpScale | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bizagi Modeler | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lucidchart | ✓ | ✓ | Partly | Partly | – |
| Microsoft Visio | Plan 2 | ✓ | ✓ | Partly | – |
| draw.io | ✓ | ✓ | Partly | – | – |
| Miro | Business plan | ✓ | – | – | – |
| Camunda Modeler | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | – |
"Step costs" means each step can hold its time and cost. "Totals" means the tool adds them up. "Partly" means you can attach data to shapes and, in Lucidchart and Visio, set up your own sums, but the tool won't analyse the process for you. The enterprise suites (8 to 10) do all of this and more, at a much higher price.
Which tools analyse the map?
Drawing a map and analysing it are different jobs. Analysis means the software works something out from the map: the total time or cost, where work will queue, or what happens if you change a step. Here's what each tool calculates on its own.
| Tool | What it works out |
|---|---|
| UpScale | Hours and cost a month, how busy each team is, where work will queue and for how long, the bottleneck, the steps most worth automating, a simulation of a month's work with what-ifs, and the hours and money a proposed change saves |
| Bizagi Modeler | A simulation that runs cases through the map with times, staff, costs and working calendars, then reports cycle time, waiting time, staff use and cost, and compares what-if scenarios |
| Lucidchart | Nothing automatic, but you can write formulas, for example adding up the time on every step before a point in the flow |
| Microsoft Visio | Checks a BPMN diagram against the standard's rules, and reports on data stored in shapes. Simulation needs a third-party add-in |
| draw.io | Nothing. It's a drawing tool |
| Miro | AI suggestions about bottlenecks and improvements, written by AI rather than calculated |
| Camunda Modeler | An animated walk-through of the paths through a map. Measured analysis only for processes run on Camunda's own software |
| Nintex Process Manager | AI that drafts maps and procedures from descriptions or documents. We found no simulation |
| SAP Signavio | Simulation of cost, cycle time and staff use with what-if scenarios, and process mining (a separate product) that rebuilds the real process from system data |
| ARIS | Simulation, process mining that compares the real process with the designed one, and KPI analysis |
Four of the ten run a true simulation: UpScale, Bizagi (which is free) and the two enterprise suites. A simulation is only as good as its inputs. Beyond each step's time and volume, UpScale asks for three: how many people can work on it, how often it's redone, and how much its time varies. It also works out the queues straight from those figures, so you can see the bottleneck before you run anything.
1. UpScale
Our own software, built into the UpScale platform. We use it for every map we make, and our clients use it in their portal at no extra charge. Each step records its time, waiting time, how often it runs, its cost and the system it's done in, plus how many people can work on it, how often it's redone and how much its time varies.
From those figures it works out what the process costs, how busy each team is, where work will queue and for how long, and which step is the bottleneck. It ranks the steps most worth automating. A simulation runs a month of the work through the map twenty times and plays it on the map, so you can watch the queues form. Add a person, raise the volume or automate a step, and it compares the result with the first run. It also sets the current process beside a proposed one, in hours and money, by team and by system.
A sub-process can open its own detailed map, and its figures roll up. An AI assistant can draft a map from documents, photos of a whiteboard or notes. Maps import and export as BPMN 2.0, and export as PNG and PDF.
It isn't sold on its own. It comes with our process mapping service.
2. Bizagi Modeler
A free desktop app for BPMN 2.0, and the strongest free choice if you want numbers. Its simulation lets you set times, resources and costs and see how the process performs, including what-if scenarios. It's built for analysts, so expect a learning curve, and the free version is for single users.
3. Lucidchart
Probably the easiest tool here to pick up and share. It has BPMN 2.0 and swimlane shapes, and you can link shapes to data. It won't total time or cost for you. The free plan allows three documents; Individual is £9 a month and Team £10 a user a month, both billed annually.
4. Microsoft Visio
A safe choice if your business already runs on Microsoft 365. Plan 1 (£3.80 a month) covers swimlane flowcharts and data on shapes. Plan 2 (£11.50 a month) adds BPMN 2.0, the desktop app and two-way links to Excel data. The desktop app can report on shape data, but it won't analyse a process for you.
5. draw.io
Free, with no limits on documents or shapes, and BPMN and swimlane shapes included. It saves to your own computer or cloud storage. It's a drawing tool only, so keep the numbers in a spreadsheet alongside it.
6. Miro
An online whiteboard that works well for mapping workshops with a team. BPMN shapes come with the Business plan ($20 a member a month, billed yearly); Starter is $8. It isn't built to hold or total the numbers for each step, so the map often gets redrawn elsewhere.
7. Camunda Modeler
Free and open source, and very good at BPMN 2.0. It's designed for developers building processes that software runs, not for analysing how a team works.
8. Nintex Process Manager
Formerly Promapp. Built for keeping a library of documented procedures across a larger organisation, with owners, approvals and change notifications. It uses its own simple notation, with BPMN 2.0 as an option. Pricing is on quote, with annual base fees in the tens of thousands on UK government listings.
9. SAP Signavio
A full enterprise suite: BPMN modelling, simulation, collaboration and, as a separate product, process mining. Priced on quote. UK government listings show roughly £1,250 to £7,750 per user a year, with a minimum of ten users.
10. ARIS
One of the longest-established enterprise process platforms, with modelling, simulation and process mining, licensed separately. Third-party listings start at about €100 per user a month. Reviewers describe it as capable but expensive.
Which should you choose?
If you're mapping your first process, start on a whiteboard, draw it up in draw.io and keep the numbers in a spreadsheet. If you want the software to do the analysis and you have time to learn it, try Bizagi Modeler. If your team needs something they'll open without training, Lucidchart or Visio.
If you'd rather we mapped the process and did the analysis for you, that's what our process mapping service does. For what a finished map looks like, see our process map examples.
Prices from each provider's own pricing page where published (Lucidchart, Microsoft, Miro) and otherwise from UK government G-Cloud listings and Capterra, checked 10 October 2026.
