FX Draw Tools Overview: A Specialist's Choice
FX Draw Tools sits in a very specialised niche: helping maths and science teachers create clean, accurate diagrams, graphs, and exam-ready visuals in just a few clicks. If you work with geometry, functions, statistics or probability diagrams every day, it is hard to beat – but there are several strong alternatives that may suit different budgets, platforms, or workflows.
Many of these tools offer similar core capabilities such as drawing geometric constructions, plotting functions, and exporting diagrams for worksheets or presentations, so they are very useful as backups or lower-cost options. Some focus more on interactive, web-based activities for students, while others shine in precision print diagrams for tests and textbooks.
Opening paragraph for list of similar software
Before diving into the details, it helps to think in terms of your daily routine: are you preparing formal exam papers, teaching live on a whiteboard, or giving students interactive tasks they can explore themselves? FX Draw Tools is designed primarily for teachers who need fast, accurate, printable maths diagrams, but the alternatives below can cover many of the same use cases with their own strengths and quirks.
When you compare them, pay attention to three things: how quickly you can get from idea to finished diagram, how easily you can reuse or edit your work, and whether the pricing and licensing match your classroom or institutional setup.
1. FX Draw Tools (Main software – reference point)
This first entry is the main software and your benchmark: all other tools in this article are “alternatives to” rather than “replacements for” FX Draw Tools.
FX Draw Tools is a suite built around FX Draw, a dedicated environment for mathematical diagrams where you can create almost any graphic a secondary maths teacher typically needs – from simple triangles to complex function plots – with a toolbox tailored specifically to maths and science. It integrates well into common workflows such as Word or PowerPoint, and exports images in high‑resolution formats so your worksheets, slides and exams look professional when printed or projected.
User Focus
- Secondary and college maths/science teachers creating worksheets, tests, exam papers, and demonstration diagrams on a regular basis.
- Tutors and curriculum designers who need consistent diagram styling across large sets of materials, often working to tight deadlines.
Key Features
- Maths‑specific toolbox: Offers dozens of dedicated tools for objects such as angles, triangles, polygons, arcs, loci, vectors, Venn diagrams, normal distribution curves, number lines, tree diagrams and more, so you rarely have to “hack” a general drawing program to get a proper maths figure.
- Built‑in graphing engine: Includes a powerful graphing component (also found in FX Graph) that draws Cartesian and polar functions, parametric curves, slope fields, Argand diagrams, volumes of revolution, tangents, normals and shaded integrals with precise control over domains and styles.
- Office integration and export: Inserts editable diagrams into documents and presentations and exports to common formats like PNG, JPG, TIF and SVG, making it easy to reuse diagrams across platforms and media.
Advantages
- Advantage: Purpose‑built for maths, so almost every tool is relevant to classroom diagrams, which keeps the interface efficient even when you are in a rush creating exams.
- Advantage: Mature, stable product with a long track record in schools and support teams who understand teachers’ day‑to‑day needs, which reduces the learning curve and support headaches.
Price
Specific Price: FX Draw Tools is typically sold on a subscription or licence model, and education resellers list single‑user licences in roughly the USD $70–$120 range depending on edition and region, with school‑wide or multi‑user licences costing more but lowering the per-seat price.
2. GeoGebra
If FX Draw Tools is like a precision drawing board for exam diagrams, GeoGebra feels more like a full maths lab where you and your students can explore concepts dynamically. It combines geometry, algebra, graphing, statistics and even a computer algebra system in one environment, and runs on web, desktop, tablets and phones, which makes it extremely flexible in a modern classroom. GeoGebra is widely used worldwide in schools and universities, and there is a huge library of ready‑made interactive activities you can adapt instead of starting from a blank canvas every time.
Target Users
- User: Classroom teachers who want interactive demonstrations they can drag, animate and adapt live in lessons, rather than static images only.
- User: Students, tutors and self‑learners who need a free, powerful tool to visualise geometry, functions, statistics and calculus on any device.
Key Features
- Interactive geometry and graphing: Lets you construct points, lines, polygons, circles, conics and transformations in 2D and 3D, all linked to algebraic expressions so diagrams update instantly when you drag objects or change parameters.
- Multiple calculators in one suite: Offers dedicated apps and views for graphing, geometry, 3D graphing, CAS, spreadsheets, statistics and a probability calculator, so you can switch modes without leaving the ecosystem.
- Resource platform and sharing: Connects to an online repository with over a million community‑created activities, worksheets and simulations that you can remix, embed in LMS platforms, or assign to students.
Advantages
- Advantage: Completely free to download and use for typical educational scenarios, making it ideal if your budget is tight or you need a tool students can install at home without extra cost.
- Advantage: Strong for conceptual understanding and engagement because students can manipulate sliders, drag points and instantly see how graphs or shapes respond, which many recent classroom studies highlight as a benefit.
Price
Specific Price: GeoGebra’s core calculators and apps are available at USD $0 as free, open‑source tools for education, and institutions that need additional services or enterprise‑style support can explore commercial arrangements or custom packages as needed.
3. Desmos
If you like how quickly FX Draw Tools produces clean graphs, Desmos gives you that speed plus rich interactivity, all from a browser or mobile app. It is best known for its fast, elegant graphing calculator, but it also includes a geometry tool and activity builder that many teachers now use in place of expensive handheld calculators. Its tools are approved for use in a range of standardised tests, which is a bonus if you want students practising in the same environment they will see in exams.
Target Users
- User: Secondary and college maths teachers who want a free, web‑based graphing and geometry environment for demonstrations, practice and assessments.
- User: Students who need a powerful but simple graphing calculator on laptops, tablets or phones, especially where buying dedicated graphing calculators would be too costly.
Key Features
- Fast, expressive graphing: Plots Cartesian, polar and parametric graphs, supports inequalities, allows multiple expressions at once and offers sliders so you can animate parameters and show transformations live.
- Geometry and measurement tools: Includes a dedicated geometry workspace where you can construct and manipulate shapes, measure angles and lengths, and build accessible diagrams that work well with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
- Classroom activities and API: Provides ready‑made interactive lessons, classroom dashboards for monitoring student progress, and an API for embedding Desmos calculators into other platforms or exam systems.
Advantages
- Advantage: Extremely accessible and student‑friendly – runs in a browser without installation, offers good screen‑reader support and audio trace, and feels intuitive even for learners who are not “techy”.
- Advantage: Strong focus on equity and cost: core calculators are free to use and widely recommended as a no-cost alternative to physical graphing calculators.
Price
Specific Price: The core Desmos calculators and classroom tools are available at USD $0, while optional extras like embedding via API or full curriculum bundles are sold on institutional contracts that commonly start from around USD $100 per month or are quoted per school.
4. Cabri (Cabri Express / Cabri Geometry)
Cabri is one of the classic names in dynamic geometry and has evolved into Cabri Express, a modern “all‑in‑one” maths toolkit that runs on web, desktop and mobile devices. It focuses on helping students and teachers explore geometry, algebra and calculus interactively, using a visual, touch-friendly interface that feels comfortable even for younger learners. The environment is less about producing polished exam diagrams and more about building and manipulating constructions live, which makes it a good complement or alternative to FX Draw Tools in exploratory lessons.
Target Users
- User: Maths teachers from primary through to early university who want a dynamic environment for constructions, transformations and visual proofs rather than just static diagrams.
- User: Students who benefit from “learning by dragging” – moving points, changing parameters and immediately seeing how shapes, graphs and tables respond on screen.
Key Features
- Dynamic geometry workspace: Provides tools for constructing points, lines, circles, polygons, loci and transformations, with automatic maintenance of geometric relationships as objects are dragged, which is ideal for exploring theorems visually.
- Integrated calculators and editors: Cabri Express bundles a scientific and graphical calculator, an equation and formula editor, and a constructions editor so learners can move smoothly between symbolic work and visual models.
- 2D and 3D exploration: Supports both plane geometry and 3D visualisation, allowing students to investigate solids, cross‑sections and spatial relationships with interactive rotations and transformations.
Advantages
- Advantage: Very education‑centred design with a long history in classrooms, which means the interface, examples and documentation are tuned to typical school curricula rather than to general‑purpose drawing.
- Advantage: Runs on a wide range of devices (web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) and offers a gentle learning curve, so schools can roll it out without heavy training or complex IT requirements.
Price
Specific Price: Cabri Express is promoted as a free app for students and teachers, while classic Cabri Geometry desktop licences are usually sold through education distributors in the region of USD $30–$60 per user, with school or site licences priced higher but reducing the per-seat cost.
5. GEONExT
GEONExT (often written GEONext or Geonext) is a free dynamic mathematics package that lets you build and manipulate geometric constructions, graphs and transformations on screen. It is lighter and less polished than FX Draw Tools, but it gives teachers and students a flexible environment for exploring geometry concepts visually, especially in classrooms that still rely on Windows PCs. Because it focuses on interactive learning rather than pure publishing quality, it works well as a no‑cost complement when you want students to “play” with constructions rather than just look at finished diagrams.
- User: Secondary maths teachers who want a free dynamic geometry environment for classroom demonstrations, investigations and homework tasks.
- User: Students and trainee teachers who need to experiment with constructions, loci and transformations on their own devices to deepen spatial reasoning and proof skills.
Key Features
- Dynamic geometry constructions: Supports creating and dragging points, lines, circles, polygons and more complex configurations, with relationships preserved while you move objects, which helps learners see how theorems behave in many cases.
- Link with algebra and graphs: Includes tools to plot graphs and connect geometric objects with numeric or algebraic data, encouraging students to move between pictures, tables and formulas.
- Classroom‑friendly visualisation: Designed to encourage autonomous and cooperative learning, with simple controls and clear visuals that work well when projected or shared in computer labs.
Advantages
- Advantage: Completely free and relatively lightweight, so it can be installed widely across school computers or used in low‑budget environments without licence concerns or complex deployment.
- Advantage: Encourages an exploratory style of teaching where students pose conjectures, test them by dragging figures, and then move to formal proofs, which aligns well with current research on dynamic geometry in teacher education.
Price
Specific Price: GEONExT is distributed as a USD $0 free program under a GPL‑style licence, with no per‑user fees; the only real “cost” is the time needed to install and learn the tool.
FX Draw Tools Price Comparison
Here's a list of FX Draw Tools prices on various platforms (Marketplaces).
| Shop | Price |
|---|---|
 |
$29.99 |
 |
$24.99 |
 |
$19.99 |
 |
$9.99 |
Available Payment Methods
- Paypal
- Credit/Debit Card
- Crypto (BTC, USDT, and more)
Limited Time Offer!
Get the best price on FX Draw Tools.
| Product | Price | Promo |
|---|---|---|
| FX Draw Tools 2019 | $39.99 | $9.99 |
| FX Draw Tools 2020 | $49.99 | $19.99 |
| FX Draw Tools 2021 | $59.99 | $24.99 |
| FX Draw Tools 2023 | $69.99 | $29.99 |
| FX Draw Tools 2024 | $79.99 | $34.99 |
| FX Draw Tools 2025 | $89.99 | $39.99 |
| FX Draw Tools v21.10 | $119.99 | $49.99 |
Visit the Store to find out more about FX Draw Tools!
6. MathType
MathType is best known as a powerful equation editor, but in the context of FX Draw Tools alternatives it earns a place because it lets you combine high‑quality mathematical notation with simple diagrams and integrates directly into the tools where most teachers write – Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs and LMS platforms. While it is not a full dynamic‑geometry package like GeoGebra, it shines when you want exam‑ready equations, expressions and small sketches embedded neatly alongside text in worksheets, quizzes and digital content.
- User: Teachers, lecturers and textbook authors who regularly prepare assessment papers, handouts and slides and need precise maths notation that looks consistent across all documents.
- User: Students in advanced courses, researchers and technical writers who must typeset complex formulas, matrices and chemical notation while still working inside familiar office tools.
Key Features
- Rich equation editor: Provides thousands of symbols, templates and structures for algebra, calculus, statistics, matrices, logic and chemistry, letting you build expressions visually or via LaTeX‑style input.
- Deep integration with Office and web apps: Offers add‑ins for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, desktop Office, WPS and common LMS platforms, so you can insert and edit equations directly within documents, slides and online quizzes.
- Multi‑platform subscription: One subscription unlocks MathType across supported environments (desktop, browser add‑ons and LMS connectors), which simplifies deployment for schools and universities.
Advantages
- Advantage: Produces very clean, professional‑looking notation that remains readable when printed, projected or exported to PDF, which is crucial for formal exams and published materials.
- Advantage: Reduces formatting time significantly compared with trying to build equations using generic equation tools, saving effort for teachers who prepare large volumes of materials each term.
Price
Specific Price: Individual licences for MathType for Office tools typically start at around USD $50–$65 per user per year, with educational “class packs” at similar per‑teacher pricing and institutional LMS plans starting from roughly USD $300 per year depending on student numbers.
7. Lucidchart
Lucidchart is a general‑purpose, cloud‑based diagramming tool that has become popular in education because it lets teachers build clean, professional diagrams quickly and collaborate in real time. While it is not maths‑specific like FX Draw Tools, it works well for set diagrams, probability trees, flow diagrams, coordinate sketches and mixed notation‑plus‑diagram layouts in worksheets and presentations. With recent updates adding AI‑assisted diagram generation and equation support, it can now play a useful supporting role alongside dedicated maths packages in many schools.
- User: Teachers who frequently design worksheets, concept maps, models and exam diagrams and want something more structured and polished than drawing directly in Word or PowerPoint.
- User: Departments and curriculum teams that need to co‑author diagrams, comment on drafts and maintain shared libraries of templates for consistent visual style across courses.
Key Features
- Intelligent diagramming canvas: Offers drag‑and‑drop shapes, automatic connectors, grid snapping and alignment tools, so you can create trees, networks, Venn‑style layouts and coordinate‑based sketches without wrestling with low‑level formatting.
- AI and automation tools: Includes options to generate diagrams from text prompts, turn data tables into charts and maps, and update layouts automatically, which can save a lot of time when preparing repetitive assessment structures.
- Maths‑friendly extras: Supports inserting mathematical expressions using LaTeX or a WYSIWYG editor and integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, making it easy to drop diagrams and formulas straight into documents and slides.
Advantages
- Advantage: Extremely versatile – the same tool can handle maths diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, UML, and more, reducing the number of different applications teachers and students must learn.
- Advantage: Strong collaboration and cloud storage: multiple users can work on the same diagram, leave comments and track versions, which suits distributed teaching teams or schools using shared curriculum banks.
Price
Specific Price: Lucidchart offers a limited free tier for individuals, while its education‑oriented paid plans commonly start around USD $7–$10 per user per month on annual billing, with significant discounts and custom pricing for larger school or district deployments.
Reasons Why FX Draw Tools Is Best for Educators
Purpose-Built for Maths and Science
FX Draw Tools provides a drawing environment created specifically for mathematics and science teachers, with dozens of tools for angles, polygons, graphs, probability diagrams, statistics, vectors, and more. This specialization means almost every click is relevant to classroom diagrams, saving valuable preparation time.
High-Productivity Workflow
The interface adapts to common teacher tasks and lets you drop diagrams straight into tests, exams, worksheets, presentations, and web pages. This dramatically reduces the time spent wrestling with generic drawing software, leading to a high-productivity workflow.
Integrated Graphing and Statistics
FX Draw includes the same powerful engines found in FX Graph and FX Stat, allowing you to create function plots, slope fields, statistical graphs, normal curves, and data-driven charts without leaving the drawing environment or learning separate applications.
Bonus Tools for Wider Use
A subscription gives access to bonus standalone programs such as FX Equation, FX Graph, and FX Stat. This means you can use familiar tools with students or for rapid equation and graph creation beyond the core FX Draw window.
Professional-Looking Output with Easy Editing
Diagrams export cleanly to common image formats and integrate well with Word, PowerPoint, and other platforms. Furthermore, the image-ID approach makes it simple to reopen and tweak graphics later without redrawing from scratch.
Optimised for Real Classroom Conditions
FX Draw Tools has been refined over decades with direct input from practising teachers. It balances power and simplicity in a way that perfectly matches lesson planning, last-minute exam tweaks, and projector-based demonstrations, ensuring reliability in real classroom conditions.
Excellent Value for Heavy Users
For teachers or departments producing large volumes of materials, the time saved by fast, specialised tools and bundled bonus applications typically outweighs the modest annual licence cost. This represents an excellent value proposition, especially compared with piecing together several separate apps.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - FX Draw Tools vs. Dynamic Geometry
FX Draw Tools is usually the strongest choice because it is designed specifically for mathematics and science teachers who need precise, consistent diagrams, graphs and statistics that drop straight into Word or PowerPoint.
GeoGebra is ideal when you want students exploring concepts dynamically on their own devices, combining geometry, graphing, CAS and statistics in one free environment that works in browsers and on tablets.
Desmos focuses on a very clean graphing and geometry experience with ready‑made classroom activities and dashboards teachers can use to monitor student work in real time, while GeoGebra offers a broader set of tools for geometry and 3D but can feel more feature‑rich.
Yes, Cabri Express and Cabri Geometry remain popular where schools want a structured dynamic‑geometry environment with clear, curriculum‑aligned tools for constructions and transformations, often particularly valued in early secondary geometry courses.
GEONExT is helpful in settings where budgets are tight and Windows computers are common, as it offers a free dynamic‑geometry and graphing environment that supports exploratory learning with constructions, loci and transformations.
MathType complements diagram tools by handling complex mathematical notation inside Word, Google Docs and LMSs, making it ideal when you need high‑quality equations and matrices alongside small diagrams and do not want to fight with basic built‑in equation editors.
Lucidchart excels at general diagramming and collaboration, so it is useful when you want to build concept maps, probability trees, set diagrams and process charts with colleagues, and then embed them into your teaching materials or online courses.
Yes, teachers commonly create diagrams in FX Draw and then paste or upload the resulting images into LMS pages and quizzes, and the image‑ID system makes it easy to reopen and edit graphics later if questions need tweaking.
FX Draw works well for both: many teachers project it during lessons to build diagrams or graphs step by step in front of students, and then reuse those same diagrams in handouts or homework later.
GeoGebra and Desmos are the most convenient choices because both run smoothly in browsers and have classroom features designed for 1:1 device environments, while Lucidchart can cover more general diagramming and group work.