Best Mac Software For Drawing Graphs

A potentially invaluable tool for math students or engineers, Graph is a tightly focused Windows program that draws and analyzes two dimensional graphs, offering most of the features any.

When it comes to best free graphing software programs, you have plenty of tools for drawing and making any type of math and statistical graphs, charts and diagrams (such as line graph, bar and pie chart, histogram, scatter plot, box and whisker plot) at no costs.
The free software for data plotting and building graphs comes in 3 types:

  • on-premise chart makers for free download (for Mac, Windows, and Linux)
  • online chart and diagram makers
  • open-source programs.

In addition, you can find free and easy 3d graph software that allow creating professional charts for different uses in statistics, math, data science, marketing, etc.

Here is a list of the top free software to plot graphs in an easy and professional way.

1. Meta-chart.com

If you are searching for simple and absolutely easy to use online, free graphing software, Meta-chart.com can be your answer. All you need is data and you can start building charts and graphs from scratch.

Best Mac Software For Drawing Graphs Free

The best part is that you can design and share your charts online at no costs. The diagrams and graphs are created in minutes. No need to register to use the program. However, if you choose to register you can save and share your graphs with the world.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • A good number of possible types of graphs and charts – you can make line graphs, simple and multiple bar charts, pie charts, histograms, scatter plots, box and whisker plot, area charts, spline graphs, box and whisker plot, tally chart and etc.
  • You can enter data by hand or import spreadsheet files (CSV).
  • Very beautiful and visually appealing designs and graphs.
  • Absolutely easy to use online software to plot graphs.
  • Share for free your own charts and diagrams.
  • You can use normal or 3D chart type.

Website: www.meta-chart.com

2. Graph

Graph is for those who need an open-source and free download graphing software for Windows or Mac. It is one of the most popular freeware programs to draw mathematical and statistical graphs.

You can draw graphs of functions and do some mathematical calculations on the functions. The system has a variety of built-in functions, e.g. sin, cos, log, etc. You may choose color, width, and line style of the graphs.

Graph is a Windows application but can also be run on a Mac through Wine.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • Draw functions – you can plot standard functions, parametric and polar functions.
  • Draw relation – the program can show any equation and inequality.
  • Shadings that can be created with different styles and colors.
  • Point series and trendlines.
  • Interact with other programs such as a Windows Bitmap, Portable Network Graphics, JPEG, Windows Enhanced Metafile, Portable Document Format (PDF) and others.
  • You can create your own custom functions.
  • Animations showing what happens to a function.

Website: http://www.padowan.dk/

3. Infogr.am

Infogr.am is a spectacular free graphing software program accessible online. Actually, it is a paid online software with a free version. They can offer you ease of use and very creative graph templates.

You can build not only beautiful charts but also infographics, maps, and reports. It is a great tool for visualizing marketing data, online publishing, educational purposes, business reporting and etc.

Design options are immediately visible.

Key Benefits and Features of The Free Plan:

  • 35+ chart types including pie charts, bar and line graphs, column tables, area graphs, scatter plots, bubble plots, treemaps, financial graphs, and word clouds.
  • Publish your content – allows you to add data visualizations on your website with embeds.
  • Import data – you can import your spreadsheet files (CSV, XLSX) from your computer or cloud storage.
  • 2 map types – access to the World map and United States map.
  • 10 library size.
  • Simple and easy to use interface.

Website: https://infogram.com

4.Gnuplot

Gnuplot is a popular portable free graphing software program for download. It is widely used on many platforms, including MS Windows, Linux, Unix, and OSX. It also retains support for older systems such as VMS, Ultrix, OS/2, and MS-DOS. The source code is copyrighted but freely distributed.

It was created to help scientists and students to visualize data relationships and mathematical functions. However, now it supports a lot of non-interactive applications such as web scripting.

Gnuplot supports both 2D and 3D types of plots. Among the basic 2D plot styles are filled curves, error bars, histograms, bar graphs, step functions, multiple axis scales, circles, boxplots, and many others.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • Plotting 2D functions and data points in a variety of styles (points, lines, error bars).
  • Plotting 3D data points and surfaces in many styles (contour plot, mesh).
  • Algebraic Computation.
  • Data-driven model fitting.
  • Support for many operating systems, graphics file formats and output devices.

Website: http://www.gnuplot.info/

5. Desmos

Desmos is a next-generation online graphing calculator for all students and teachers for no cost. It has a spectacular number of features and capabilities.
The program allows you to graph functions, explore transformations, plot data, evaluate equations, and much more —all for free. You can explore equations, make and share full-color graphs.

Desmos is an incredibly powerful graph making tool. It also supports a virtual keyboard with commonly used mathematical symbols. You can also use the physical keyboard.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • Powerful graph settings to configure the graph according to your requirement.
  • Derivates and differential calculus with just a few keystrokes: d/dx.
  • Function notation to make connections between expressions, tables, and other mathematical objects.
  • Inequalities to automatically shade above or below lines and curves.
  • Many statistical capabilities such as investigating the shape, center, and spread of data sets, running linear regression models, making and drawing statistical charts such as line graph, bar charts, scatter plots and many others and etc.
  • Integrals, plotting points, polar graphing and many many other features.

Website: https://www.desmos.com/

6. Orange

Orange is an open-source machine learning, statistical and data visualization tool for novice and professionals. It features visual programming, data analysis, and interactive data visualization. In addition, it can also be used as a Python library.

You can fall in love with this tool that allows you to make business decisions without spending a long time analyzing and comparing numbers.

Orange is ideal for data visualization and has it all: a range of types of graphs, statistical distributions, heatmaps, decision trees, hierarchical clustering, linear projections, box plot, scatter plots and many many others.

It is a free download. software for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • You can perform simple data analysis with clever data visualization.
  • A wide variety of visualization widgets such as scatter plot, box plot, histogram, model-specific visualizations like dendrogram, silhouette plot, and etc.
  • Visual programming and graphic user interface that allows you to focus on exploratory data analysis instead of coding.
  • Used at schools, universities and in professional training courses across the world.
  • Various add-ons are available within Orange to mine data.

Website: https://orange.biolab.si/

7. GeoGebra

GeoGebra is among the best open-source and free graphing software for all levels of education that combines spreadsheets, graphing, geometry, algebra, statistics, maths, and calculus in one easy-to-use tool.
GeoGebra is a leading provider of mathematics software, supporting science, statistics, technology, engineering, and mathematics education worldwide.

You can easily solve equations, create constructions, graph functions, analyze data, and explore 3D math! You can use the program online or download it on your computer.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • Very easy-to-use interface with many powerful features.
  • Provides a wide variety of different views for mathematical objects: algebra view, graphics view, a spreadsheet view, 3D graphics view, CAS view, probability calculator view and etc.
  • Available in many languages for our millions of users around the world.
  • Direct input of different equations and coordinates.
  • You can use it free online or download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Website: https://www.geogebra.org

8. AmCharts

AmCharts is also one of the impressive free graphing software tools that can surprise you with its simplicity. This advanced charting tool can suit any data visualization needs.

Best Mac Software For Drawing Graphs

Their charting solutions include line chart, area, box and whisker plot, column, bar, waterfall, Mekko, cylinder, trapezoid, candlestick, stacked (regular, 100% or 3D) and many other types of graphs.

In addition, AmCharts has both online and offline capabilities.

Key Benefits and Features:

  • Advanced serial charts to display complex data visualizations. The software combines various graph types on a single chart.
  • Superior time-based scales.
  • Micro-charts and sparklines.
  • Functional tool that has interactive capabilities, export options, and loads external data.
  • Responsive and mobile-friendly program.
  • Highly configurable and flexible, rich in annotation options. Supports themes & CSS styling.
  • Multi-lingual – nearly 30 languages bundled with the product.

Website: https://www.amcharts.com

Want more free graphing software programs?

Here is a list of other good solutions at no price:

9. Mondrian – a general-purpose statistical data-visualization software. It features outstanding interactive visualization techniques for data of almost any kind.

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10. LabPlot– a KDE-application for interactive graphing and analysis of scientific data. It provides an easy way to create, manage and edit plots and to perform data analysis. Available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

11. MathGV a free open source mathematical function graphing software program for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

12. Euler Math Toolbox– a simple math program combining numerical and symbolic tools in one free package. The program runs on Windows 7, 8 or 10, 32-bit or 64-bit.

13. MagicPlot Student – modern software for plotting graphs for students. Lightweight app for data analysis, plotting, and nonlinear fitting. Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Unix-like platforms.

14. Meta-calculator.com– free online graphing software that allows you to graph any equation, find its intersections, create a table of values and etc.

15. Mathway– provides students with the tools they need to understand and solve their math problems.

If you are a fan of the free software solution, our post best 10 best free mind mapping software tools can be of use for you.

What is your favorite free graphing software program? Share your thoughts on the field below.

If you’re looking for CAD software for Mac, you’re not without options. We’ve found some standout Mac and cloud-based CAD platforms for you.

You’re likely to hit a wall if you’re searching for computer-aided design (CAD) software designed for Mac. There are plenty of CAD software options for Windows—you’ll see many of them in our list of the top AutoCAD alternatives—but only a handful offer support for Mac.

And, if you think you’ll bypass the issue by using a cloud-based CAD tool, you’ll quickly find that CAD vendors haven’t embraced the cloud as much as other types of software vendors have, so the offerings are still largely on-premise. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle for IT Evolution (full content available to Gartner clients), cloud-native CAD applications still have five to 10 years before they reach mainstream adoption.

Best free mac drawing program

Best Free Mac Drawing Software

But fear not, Mac users. We’ve done some digging and have put together this list of the top-rated CAD software for Mac. Read more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.

5 Best CAD Software for Mac (presented alphabetically)

Jump to:


  • CorelCAD

  • FreeCAD

  • Fusion 360

  • LibreCAD

  • Onshape

1. CorelCAD

CorelCAD offers 2D drafting and 3D design capabilities, such as the drawing constraints feature for creating different geometric shapes faster and the push and pull feature for 3D direct modeling.

3D modeling in CorelCAD (Source)

Common user feedback trends

Based on analyses of user reviews on Capterra, here’s an overview of the areas of CorelCAD they like best, as well as those they feel could use improvement.

What users like:

  • The short learning curve: Users mention that the tool is easy to use and beginners don’t have to spend a lot of time learning it.
  • Compatibility with multiple file types: Users like the fact that the tool is compatible with DWG, PDF, ACIS, DXF, STL, CDR, and other file formats.

What users think could be improved:

  • Software reliability issues: Some users mention that the software tends to crash at times.
  • Better dimension functionality: Some users would like a better dimensioning feature for more accurate drawings of angles and proportions.

Who can use CorelCAD

CorelCAD can be used by construction businesses for collaborative editing on multiple devices. It offers native iOS applications, which makes it easy for field crews to add annotations in graphics and share files using their iPhones and iPads. Additionally, the tool allows team members to leave recorded messages and instructions for colleagues embedded in the graphics using a voice note tool.

2. FreeCAD

FreeCAD is an open source CAD tool that works on Mac as well as Windows and Linux. It reads many common file formats such as STEP, IGES, STL, SVG, DXF, OBJ, IFC, and DAE.

It offers different modules, including a drawing sheets module that converts 3D models into 2D views, a rendering module that can export 3D objects, and an architecture module for a BIM-like workflow.

3D model of a building in FreeCAD (Source)

Common user feedback trends

Based on analysis of user reviews on Capterra, here’s an overview of the areas of FreeCAD they like best, as well as those they feel could use improvement.

What users like:

  • Feature-richness for a free tool: Users mention that, although it’s free, the tool comes with a full set of features.
  • Reliability: Users mention that the tool does not demand a lot of CPU power and works well on devices with low RAM.

What users think could be improved:

  • Steep learning curve: Users mention that the tool is not the most user-friendly solution and can be difficult for beginners to learn.
  • Dependent on community for updates: Users mention that modules ignored by the community tend to become outdated quickly.

Who can use FreeCAD

FreeCAD appears to be best for hobbyists and home users. It’s also good for users who don’t have a high budget for software but still want to tinker with CAD modeling.

FreeCAD could also be a good choice for businesses on a budget looking for a free and open-source option.

3. Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is a CAD tool from Autodesk with design functionalities such as sketching and 3D modeling. It also supports project management with features such as task management, document management, and collaborative image editing.

Document management in Fusion 360 (Source)

Common user feedback trends

Based on analysis of user reviews on Capterra, here’s an overview of the areas of Fusion 360 they like best, as well as those they feel could use improvement.

What users like:

  • Comprehensive design features: User mention that the tool offers all the functionalities necessary for 2D and 3D designing.
  • Availability of training resources: Users like the fact that the tool comes with ample documentation and tutorials.

What users think could be improved:

  • System crashes: Users mention that the tool tends to crash, especially when designing and rendering large files.
  • Steep learning curve: Users mention that it can take a lot of time to learn the advanced functionalities of the tool.

Who can use Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is part of the Autodesk ecosystem designed for the AEC industry. This makes the tool suitable for construction businesses that are already using, or intend to use, other Autodesk solutions. Using a software vendor that offers multiple solutions will especially benefit larger businesses that invariably need software that can scale with their growing requirements.

4. LibreCAD

LibreCAD is an open source CAD tool that supports Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. The tool comes with 2D drawing features such as a snap tool, dimensioning, and annotations. It also supports multiple file imports and exports.

2D drawing in LibreCAD (Source)

Common user feedback trends

Based on analysis of user reviews on Capterra, here’s an overview of the areas of LibreCAD they like best, as well as those they feel could use improvement.

What users like:

  • Ease of use: Users mention that the tool offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
  • Lots of tutorials: Users like the fact that there are ample video tutorials that help them get started with the tool.

What users think could be improved:

  • Software speed: Users mention that the software tends to lag, especially when trying to print designs.
  • Add support for 3D design: Users would like to see functionalities for creating 3D designs.

Who can use LibreCAD

LibreCAD is an exclusively 2D CAD tool for drawing and designing blueprints of buildings, layouts of parks, and the like. As a free tool, the solution can be used by small and midsize businesses across different industries, including manufacturing, engineering, architecture, and construction.

5. Onshape

Onshape is a cloud-only CAD solution that comes with features such as document management with version control, collaborative design creation/editing capabilities, and reporting dashboards to understand project status.

Importing documents in Onshape (Source)

Common user feedback trends

Based on analysis of user reviews on Capterra, here’s an overview of the areas of Onshape they like best, as well as those they feel could use improvement.

What users like:

  • Document version control: Users like the document management features of the tool, such as version history.
  • Intuitive interface: Users mention that the tool comes with an intuitive interface for easy image editing.

What users think could be improved:

  • Performance issues: Some users mention that the tool does not function well on non-Chrome browsers and has file loading issues.
  • Lack of features: Users mention that the tool should improve certain features such as 2D drawing and 3D surfacing.

Who can use Onshape

As a fully-cloud based tool, Onshape is ideal for businesses that need to manage design documents collaboratively with multiple stakeholders. The tool’s collaboration functionalities include document sharing, document editing, comments, and file downloads in multiple CAD formats, such as Parasolid, ACIS, STEP, and IGES.

Next steps

Free Drawing Software For Mac

This report offers a mix of Mac CAD solutions—from free tools that can help you with basic 2D drawing to advanced solutions offering extensive 3D modeling functionalities.

If these tools don’t meet your needs, expand your search and check out more options. To help you, we’ve created a CAD software comparison page where you can explore products using different filters, such as features offered and pricing options.

If you’re looking to understand the CAD software market better, we also recommend that you read the articles listed below:

Methodology

To be shortlisted, products had to fulfill the following criteria:

  • Products had to be compatible with Mac and offer core CAD software capabilities, such as:
    • 2D drawing or 3D modeling features
    • Collaborative editing of drawings
  • Products needed a minimum of 20 user reviews on Capterra (published in the last two years).
  • Products had to have a high overall rating (an average of at least 4 out of 5 on Capterra).

Note: The content in this piece that provides opinions and points of view expressed by users. It does not represent the views of Capterra.

Looking for Construction Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Construction Management software solutions.