5 Best Free Visio Viewers For Mac of 2024

If you’ve received a Visio file (usually with a .vsd or .vsdx extension) and are struggling to open it on a Mac, you’re not alone. Visio is a Microsoft tool designed for creating diagrams and flowcharts, but it’s exclusively available for Windows.

Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t developed a native Mac version of Visio although there are some amazing alternatives to Visio for Mac which can do everything that Microsoft’s tool can and cost much less.

However, if you’ve been sent a Visio file and you just want a quick and easy way to view it on your Mac, we’ve got you covered with the best free ways to do so including on M-series Apple Silicon Macs.

Online vs Offline Visio Viewers

We tested and reviewed a range of free and paid apps that allow you to open and even edit MS Visio files online and offline.

We found that there are two types of apps for opening Visio files:

• Desktop Viewers: These include apps such as OmniGraffle and VSDX Annotator which are desktop applications and require no internet connection to use. The advantage of these is that all data stays on your desktop and isn’t uploaded anywhere. The disadvantage is that they may not work with future updates to macOS and there’s also more likelihood of compatibility or technical issues.
• Online Viewers: These include apps such Microsoft Visio for the Web (formerly Visio Online) and Lucidchart and which work instantly in your browser and are therefore compatible with any version of macOS. However, these Cloud tools upload Visio files to their own servers in order to display them. Although these services guarantee confidentiality, you should be aware of this fact if you’re dealing with sensitive corporate Visio files or diagrams.

Which type is best for your depends on your budget, the level of privacy you require and how much functionality you need.

Here then are 5 easy ways to open Microsoft Visio files on a Mac.

1. OmniGraffle (Offline – Free)

If you don’t want to use an online solution, OmniGraffle offers an excellent free way of opening Visio files offline on your Mac desktop.

You can download the Standard version of OmniGraffle free from the Mac App Store and when the free trial expires you can continue to use it for free as a Visio viewer.

This makes it ideal to open Visio files that are saved on your Mac desktop and also allows you to get a feel for OmniGraffle if you ever decide you want to upgrade to the Pro version at some stage.

OmniGraffle works natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

You can check out our full review of OmniGraffle for more.

Pricing: Free for Visio viewing, $249.99 for full Visio file editing support

Pros:

• Free to view Visio files
• Designed exclusively for Macs
• Full version edits Visio files

Cons:

• Price for full version
• No VSDX file export support

2. Microsoft Visio For The Web (Online)

Microsoft Visio For The Web is a more basic version of Visio but can be used to open and view Visio files on a Mac for free including on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

All you need is a Microsoft 365 account (formerly Office 365) in order to view Visio files with it although the full version of Visio for the Web is only available to all paying customers on Business, Enterprise or Government Office 365 subscriptions.

Note that non-commercial Microsoft 365 (such as Microsoft Business Basic and Business Standard) don’t allow access to the Visio web app.

You can check here which Microsoft 365 subscription you currently have if you’re not sure.

Alternatively, Visio for the Web is available with Visio Plan 1 for $5.00/month or with both a web and Windows desktop app with Visio Plan 2 for $15.00/month.

Visio for the Web requires you to upload a VSDX file to a Microsoft OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online account first before you can view Visio files in your web browser.

You can Pan around Visio diagrams and Zoom in and out with the slider:

You can also view metadata of shapes by clicking on the shape and selecting Shape Info:

You can click on links within Visio diagrams. If you want to find a specific object or item in a diagram, you click on Find to search shape text, shape data and user defined cells:

If you want to share the Visio drawing with other users, just click on the Share symbol in the menu bar and you can send a link via email.

You can also perform basic edits or leave comments on the diagrams. However, if you need to do further editing, it takes you to the desktop version of Visio which isn’t available to Mac users.

Visio for the Web supports all browsers but Microsoft says it works best in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Firefox and Safari are supported but it doesn’t work quite as well in them.

You can see the Visio for the Web compatibility table below:

Note that the Microsoft Visio viewer app for iOS has been discontinued so Visio for the web is also the best way to view Visio files on mobile devices too.

For more you can check out our full review of Microsoft Viso For The Web.

Pricing: Subscription starts at $5 per user per month for Visio Online.

Pros:

• Official Microsoft support for Visio files
• Full editing and creation capabilities
• Works seamlessly with other Microsoft apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Cons:

• Requires a Microsoft 365 subscription with Visio Online access
• No offline use

3. Lucidchart Visio Viewer (Online – Free)

Lucidchart is a powerful online diagramming software that allows you to open Visio files for free.

You can instantly open Visio files on your Mac by using either the free Luicidchart Chrome extension or the Lucidchart Firefox add-on depending on which browser you’re using.

In our experience, the Chrome plugin seems to work better than the Firefox plugin so if you have problems with Firefox, try Chrome instead.

If you receive Visio files by email regularly, the Firefox and Chrome plugins are convenient as they automatically detect any attached Visio files in emails and open them directly on your Mac.

Lucidchart supports opening of VSD, VDX and VSDX formats including Visio 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 files. It also allows you to add comments, add embedded documents and see the revision history.

To open a Visio file in Lucidchart, simply Ctrl-click on the file and you’ll see an option to “Open in Lucidchart”.

The slight downside of the Lucidchart browser plugin is that it only works for Visio files that are stored online i.e. either sent to you by email or stored on the web.

Technically, it does not work for Visio files that are saved locally on your Mac’s hard drive although you can easily get round this by uploading the file to your email account and then sending it to yourself.

You can open Visio files on your Mac now with a free Lucidchart account.

You can also check out our full review of Lucidchart.

Pricing: Free plan available, with premium plans starting at $7.95 per month for individuals for Visio editing capabilities.

Pros:

• No need to download any software
• Free version available with basic features
• Real-time collaboration for teams

Cons:

• Limited features in the free plan
• Advanced tools require a paid subscription

4. VSDX Annotator (Offline)

VSDX Annotator is a desktop VSD viewer which allows you to open, preview and convert Visio files offline on a Mac. It also allows some basic annotation of Visio documents although it doesn’t allow you to create new Visio files.

VSDX Annotator supports VSD, VDX and VSDX flowcharts, diagrams, schemes and drawings. There are also 12 annotation tools which allow you to add notes, callouts, comments, blocks and graphics files.

Among other features of VSDX Annotator are the ability to hide or show layers, shape data and hyperlinks, convert VSD, VDX, and VSDX documents to PDF for sending via email or printing.

VSDX Annotator renders Visio diagrams very well and files are reproduced exactly as you would see them in Microsoft Visio.

There are several useful viewing options such as tools to view documents with embedded OLE-objects, EMF- and WMF-metafiles and objects that are outside page boundaries or gradient-filled objects.

You can also see the original dimension units if you need to.

The developer of VSDX Annotator Nektony also make VSD Viewer For macOS (see below) the difference being that VSDX Annotator is newer and allows basic annotation of Visio files on a Mac.

If you’re torn between the two, you might as well go for VSDX Annotator as although it costs more, the annotation tools can be useful and the interface is newer than VSD Viewer.

Overall, if you regularly just need to open Visio files on your Mac and send a few comments or observations to colleagues or clients, VSDX Annotator is ideal.

Pricing: Full version with Visio editing features available for $22.99. Free trial available.

Pros:

• Works offline
• No need for a virtual machine or additional software
• Supports basic annotation of Visio drawings

Cons:

• No editing capabilities in the free version
• Limited editing features even in full version
• Doesn’t allow you to create new Visio files

5. VSD Viewer For macOS (Offline)

VSD Viewer For macOS is a more basic version of VSDX Animator from the same developer Nektony.

The main difference between them is that VSDX Annotator allows you to annotate and comment on Visio files while VSD Viewer is purely for opening Visio diagrams on Mac.

The full version of Nektony VSD Viewer for Mac costs $14.99 from the Mac App Store but it does offer a free trial.

With it you can open VSD, VDX and VSDX files on Mac plus stencils in VSDM, VDW, VSSX, VSSM, VSX or VSS format – basically anything created in MS Visio 2000 onwards.

To open a Visio file using VSD Viewer for Mac, you simply double-click on the .VSD file to open it.

You can switch layers using VSD Viewer, preview Shape Data, zoom in and out, export to PDF (very useful for sharing Visio diagrams with others), view documents with OLE objects, EMF and WMF embedded meta files and much more.

For those that need to share Visio data in meetings without always having to ask CAD designers for different layers or files, VSD Viewer is extremely useful.

The good thing as well is that VSD Viewer doesn’t store your Visio files online anywhere – everything is stored on your Mac for better security if you’re dealing with confidential designs and data.

You may occasionally experience formatting issues when you open Visio files which you can fix by going to Preferences and selecting “Render Metafiles with Transparent Backgrounds”.

The slightly frustrating this is there’s no way to search Visio files using VSD Viewer but otherwise, if you don’t need to annotate or comment on drawings, it’s an excellent way to read Visio files on Mac.

There’s also a companion Nektony VSD Viewer app for iPhone/iPad and Android which offers almost all of the functionality of the Mac version but because of processing power limitations, can be considerably slower.

Pros:

• Works offline
• No need for a Windows VM or additional software
• Easy to use for simple viewing

Cons:

• No editing capabilities in the free version
• Limited features for advanced diagrams

Pricing: Free version for viewing, with a premium version available for additional features at $14.99.

Visio Viewer Comparison Table

Software	VSDX Import Support	Compatibility	Editing Capabilities	Export Options	Collaboration Features
Microsoft Visio For The Web	Yes	Web-based, works across platforms	Limited editing capabilities, Basic shape modification, Text editing	Export to various formats including PDF, PNG, SVG, and more	Real-time collaboration, Comments, Sharing and Permissions, Co-authoring
Lucidchart Visio Viewer	Yes	Web-based, works across platforms	View-only	Export to various formats including PDF, PNG, JPEG, and more	Real-time collaboration, Comments, Sharing and Permissions
Omnigraffle	Yes	macOS and iOS	Advanced editing capabilities, Extensive shape modification, Layers support	Export to various formats including PDF, PNG, SVG, and more	Collaboration through Omnigraffle for Teams
VSDX Annotator	Yes	macOS	Basic annotation capabilities, Limited shape modification	Export to PDF	Limited collaboration features
VSD Viewer For macOS	Yes	macOS	View-only	Export to PDF	Limited collaboration features

FAQ

Can I run Visio on a Mac?

If only the real thing will do, you can also run Visio on a Mac by installing Windows. Alternatively, if you’ve got an older Intel Mac you can use Boot Camp to install Windows and Visio.

Can I edit Visio files on a Mac?

Yes, tools like OmniGraffle, Lucidchart and Microsoft 365 Online allow you to edit Visio files if you pay for them. However, for complex diagrams, there are better alternatives to Visio for Mac such as SmartDraw.

Is Microsoft Visio available for Mac?

No, Microsoft hasn’t released a version of Visio for macOS. However, you can use the web-based version of Visio through Microsoft 365 on a Mac.