Products

Structurizr is a web-based tool to view and publish the diagrams, documentation, and architecture decision records defined within a workspace. It is available in a number of versions, covering different usage scenarios.

Which product?

The Structurizr tooling encourages the adoption of a "diagrams and documentation as code" approach, with everything being stored in source code control. So, with that in mind, the easiest way to get started with Structurizr is to use the Structurizr DSL in combination with Structurizr Lite, both of which are free. See the documentation for more, but the basic steps are:

1. Create a directory.
2. Write a workspace.dsl file inside the directory.
3. Start Structurizr Lite, pointing it to the directory.
4. Open your web browser to view the diagrams/documentation.

If you commit this directory to source code control, along with a script to start Structurizr Lite, everybody on your team has easy access to that same set of diagrams and documentation whenever they need it.

The Structurizr cloud service and on-premises installation are useful for those situations when everybody on your team isn't able to run Structurizr Lite, or you need to share the diagrams/documentation with people outside of your team. They both provide anonymous and authenticated role-based access, along with features such as client-side encryption for an additional layer of security over your confidential information. Workspaces can be auto-synced from Structurizr Lite, and tools like the Structurizr CLI can be used to publish a workspace via the web API provided by the cloud service and on-premises installation.

How many workspaces do we need?

The easiest way to think about the Structurizr cloud service (and the on-premises installation) is that it provides a way to "publish" a workspace via a unique URL, so that people can view diagrams and read documentation contained within that workspace, via that unique URL.

See Structurizr - Workspaces for some recommendations and guidance on what to include in a workspace. If you're building 20 software systems, and you'd like the diagrams/documentation to be available immediately for anybody to read, a subscription with 20 workspaces will allow you to do that. If you have 20 software systems, but 5 of those are retired or in long-term maintenance, and you don't need the diagrams/documentation for those 5 software systems available on-demand, then perhaps a subscription with 15 workspaces will suffice. You could perhaps add a couple more workspaces, and use these to publish the diagrams/documentation for short term use, perhaps if they are needed for a short-term project. The workspace export/import feature provides a way to quickly duplicate or reuse a workspace for another purpose.

If you have 20 software systems and the diagrams/documentation is only needed by the software development teams, perhaps you don't need a subscription at all, and can instead make use of Structurizr Lite - a free Docker-based version of the tooling that developers can start up whenever they need to view the diagrams/documentation.

To answer the question of how many workspaces need to be included in your subscription - it really depends how many "software systems" you want to document, how you partition those software systems across workspaces, and whether you need on-demand access to all of the diagrams and documentation contained within those workspaces.

Comparison

	Lite (open source)	Cloud (free account)	Cloud (paid subscription)	On-premises (open source)
Workspaces A workspace is the wrapper for your software architecture model, views and supplementary documentation.	1	1 (API and storage limitations apply)	5+	1+
Workspace scope Workspace scope and content validation (strict vs relaxed).	Strict or relaxed	Strict only	Strict or relaxed	Strict or relaxed
Sharing link Share your workspace using a read-only URL.
Role-based access Share your workspace with team members, using role-based security.
Restrict access by IP address Configure allowed IP addresses for extra security.
Client-side encryption Encrypt workspaces before uploading via the cloud API, and decrypt them in your browser using your own passphrase (example).
Workspace locking Workspace locking to avoid concurrent updates.
Workspace versioning Recent versions of your workspace are retained.		3
Full-text search Search for diagrams and documentation across all workspaces.
Diagrams C4 model diagrams (core and supplementary).		10
Diagram reviews A visual diagram review tool.
Documentation Lightweight supplementary documentation using Markdown or AsciiDoc to complement the software architecture diagrams.
Decision log Supplement the architecture model with a log of the key decisions (e.g. architecture decision records).
Explorations Alternative, automatic visualisations that can be used to explore the software architecture model.
Health checks Supplement your deployment models with HTTP-based health checks to get an "at a glance" view of the health of your software systems.
Exporting diagrams (PNG and SVG) Export diagrams (and their key/legend) to PNG and SVG files.
Exporting documentation (HTML) Export documentation to a single HTML page.
iframe embed Embed diagrams and explorations in web pages using a HTML iframe.
Image embed Embed diagrams in web pages using an automatically generated PNG image.
Notion Embed live architecture diagrams into Notion pages.
Slack Perform a full-text search across a workspace using a slash command.
Integration with LDAP and SAML 2.0 Integrate Structurizr with your identity provider.
Priority support Priority support (Monday to Friday; UK time).	With paid support package		1-2 working days based upon subscription size	With paid support package