SmartDraw API
SmartDraw's Open API is a client-side JavaScript SDK that emits VSON diagram markup, not a hosted REST service. There are no endpoints for reading or updating stored diagrams, no OAuth or API key flow, and no webhooks. The SDK downloads free under MPL 2.0, without technical support.
Frequently asked questions
SmartDraw scores A on the API Report Card. SmartDraw's Open API is a client-side JavaScript SDK that emits VSON diagram markup, not a hosted REST service. There are no endpoints for reading or updating stored diagrams, no OAuth or API key flow, and no webhooks. The SDK downloads free under MPL 2.0, without technical support.
SmartDraw has a workable official integration path. Most engineering teams can build against it directly. Open API: self-serve, documented, with SDKs
SmartDraw is a diagramming, whiteboarding, and data visualization platform developed by SmartDraw Software, LLC (San Diego, CA; shipping since 1994).
Horizontal enterprise productivity / visual collaboration SaaS. Cloud architecture diagrams imported live from AWS and Azure accounts. Network diagrams, rack diagrams, data flow diagrams. UML, ERD, and class diagrams (including auto-generation from GitHub source).
Medium. SmartDraw is a recognizable third-tier diagramming brand behind Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart, and draw.io / diagrams.net, but ahead of niche desktop tools like ConceptDraw and yEd.
User-authored diagrams (flowcharts, org charts, network/cloud architecture, ERDs, UML, floor plans, BPMN, swim lanes, mind maps, Gantt charts). Shape/element graph data (nodes, edges, text, custom shape data) expressed as VSON.
Founded 1994. SmartDraw shipped as a Windows desktop product for two decades before adding the browser-based SmartDraw Cloud (app.smartdraw.com) as the modern primary surface.
The Open API is fundamentally a client-side JavaScript SDK that emits VSON markup, not a hosted REST/CRUD API, there are no documented endpoints for listing, fetching, or updating diagrams stored in SmartDraw Cloud. SmartDraw explicitly states they 'do not offer technical support for the SDK', developers are on their own. Full sourced list under Sources below.
Common alternatives include Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart (Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite), draw.io / diagrams.net, Miro, Creately, Wondershare EdrawMax. Graded alternatives appear under "More from the report card" below.
Grades measure one thing: can a customer's engineering team get their own data out programmatically? We check six things (whether a real API exists, how access is gated, data coverage, auth quality, docs and developer experience, and stability) and roll them into a letter grade. Grades get re-verified, and they only move on evidence.