Seven days ago, FreeFlowCharts didn't exist. Here's what happened in week one.
Day 1-2: The idea
The flowchart tool market is dominated by enterprise products (Lucidchart, Visio) and open-source tools with dated UIs (Draw.io). We saw a gap: a modern, beautiful, free flowchart maker that just works — no enterprise sales calls, no feature walls, no clunky interfaces.
We set a constraint: build and launch in two weeks.
Day 3-4: Scaffolding
We spun up a Vite + React + TypeScript project, added Tailwind CSS for styling, and integrated React Flow for the canvas. Firebase handles everything backend: authentication (Google sign-in), Firestore for data, and Cloud Storage for exports.
The dark theme was a deliberate choice from day one. Flowcharts are visual work — a dark canvas with vibrant node colors reduces eye strain and makes the diagrams pop.
Day 5-6: Core features
By mid-week we had:
Day 7: Polish
Spent the last day on UX polish: transitions, hover states, loading skeletons, empty states, and keyboard shortcuts. Also added flow templates so new users aren't staring at a blank canvas.
What's next
Week two is all about AI features, payments, and launch prep. Stay tuned.