Why I created Our Org Chart (An Org Chart Generator)

For many years now I’ve wanted to create an org chart generator. It may seem random or boring, but for me it’s neither.

More than once I was on a team that needed to, not only build org charts, but also update them over and over, fast. Oh, and they had to have everyone’s photo. Many tools, even PowerPoint, can create org charts but when it comes to updating them fast and/or adding photos, that’s when the speed humps appeared.

You can create really nice looking org charts in tools like PowerPoint or Canva, but updating is painfully slow (depending on what all needs to change). Or, you can automatically create an org chart in Google Sheets using a built in chart. But, wait; no photos. Major missed opportunity there, Google. They’ll probably add this feature one day.

Or, you can pay $10 to $30+ a month (or more) and use a tool like LucidChart or Visio. But, I feel like they were built for process mapping and not specifically for org charts, plus there’s the cost. Sometimes a learning curve too.

Often on previous teams I would go to ask leadership about what the company had to build an org chart and a common answer was something like, “LucidChart, but we have limited licenses.” In other words, you can’t use it.

These days you could probably feed AI a spreadsheet and images and it could make an org chart pretty quickly. But, where is that data being stored and would it get everything just right? How easy is it to edit or update later?

From about 2022 to 2024 I created a few different org chart scripts or mini apps. In other words, small chunks of code that could do something like, consume a spreadsheet in a very specific format and create an org chart. Most of the time. But, there were bugs. During this time though I learned a lot about the type of code it took to create a good org chart generator.

Then this year, 2025, I thought about building the ultimate org chart tool several times but I had other things to focus on, or felt discouraged from past attempts. Something changed when October hit and I thought, you know what? I’m going for it. It’s time to build a super simple, fast, org chart web app with a very generous free plan. So, I did, and you can check it out for free at ourorgchart.com.

I could have went with a made up term for the name, but I went with Our Org Chart to be purposefully generic. The idea is that any company can use this, and make it their own. It can mix with your brand easily.

Our Org Chart was built with no dependencies. In other words, I don’t rely on any third party code libraries. It’s just pure HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and PHP. This makes it fast and easy to maintain.

The reason you’ll want to use it over other similar tools is because:

1. It was built with one thing in mind: Org charts
   • It’s not trying to do process maps, AI stuff, and run an entire HR department; it’s just org charts
     • This means the features, experience, and everything just make sense and work well… and fast
2. You can build, re-build, and export an org chart over and over, for life, for FREE
   • The free account has everything you need to create an org chart, export it, then add it to slides, a website, or wherever
     • Yes, there’s a paid “pro” account (just $5/mo) which gives you the ability to create unlimited org charts in the same account as well as more exporting options (and future features)… but, the free account is very capable and feature rich on its own

Our Org Chart also solves those speed humps I spoke about because you can easily add images (and re-use already uploaded images), and you can create a full org chart in seconds by uploading a CSV. You don’t have to, you can make it from scratch drag and drop style. But, if you already have a spreadsheet of your employees, with a reports to or manager column, then the import feature will save you a lot of time. Editing can be done per node (box), or super fast via an easy to use table.

In the end, I personally experienced a major pain point, experimented off and on for a couple of years with different options, and finally built a full, very feature rich app, from scratch, for all to enjoy. So, enjoy! 😊