Patchify vs Visio for AV documentation

What does Visio do well for AV?

• Price: Visio Plan 1 is $5 per user per month and Plan 2 is $15, both on an annual subscription. Visio in Microsoft 365 comes with commercial Microsoft 365 plans at no extra charge.
• Shapes: Plan 2 lists 250,000+ shapes, and custom shapes with programmability.
• Desktop and offline: Plan 2 includes the desktop app with offline and local file support.
• CAD and data: Plan 2 lists AutoCAD file support, data graphics and data connectivity with two-way sync.
• Shared files: clients and consultants who use Visio can open your drawings.

What do AV stencils leave to you?

In Visio a device is a shape and a cable is a line. The drawing does not know that a port is an SDI output or that a line joins two ports, so the work around it stays manual:

• Cable numbers are typed by hand and renumbered by hand.
• The cable schedule is a separate spreadsheet that has to be kept in step with the drawing.
• Nothing stops a line from an HDMI output to an SDI input.
• Rack elevations and labels are separate drawings.

In Patchify each device comes from the library with its ports and signal types. Drawing a cable sets its number, its signal and its row in the cable schedule, and a cable between incompatible signals is refused unless you allow it. See AV diagram software for a worked example.

How do the prices compare? (checked 9 October 2026)

Visio costs less per person. What Patchify adds for the price is the AV-specific output: the cable schedule, racks, patch panels, labels and a bill of materials from one drawing.

Can I bring existing Visio drawings across?

Patchify does not import Visio files. Moving a job across means placing the devices from the library and drawing the cables again. These help:

• Import a kit list from Excel or CSV to get the devices into the project.
• Search the gear library first; build any missing device once and reuse it.
• Start new jobs in Patchify and keep finished ones in Visio.

When should you stay on Visio?

• Your organisation already has Visio through Microsoft 365 and your diagrams are simple.
• You draw many kinds of diagram, not only AV systems.
• You need Visio's data linking, or files that clients edit in Visio.
• You rely on manufacturer stencils that you have built up over years.

When is Patchify the better choice?

• You keep a cable schedule by hand next to the drawing and want it generated instead.
• You want racks, patch panels and labels from the same devices.
• You want connections checked by signal type.
• You need a priced bill of materials and job sheets for the crew.

Sources

• Visio plans and prices: microsoft.com Visio plans (checked 9 October 2026)
• Patchify plans: patchify.app/pricing

Microsoft and Visio are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Prices change; check the vendor's site before you buy. If anything here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it.