What Northwoods Software does

Northwoods Software Corporation is a privately-held, founder-owned software vendor that develops interactive diagramming libraries for software developers. Founded in 1994 in Nashua, New Hampshire, the company sells a portfolio of four products: GoJS (a JavaScript/TypeScript library for web and Electron applications), GoDiagram (a C# library for .NET WinForms and Avalonia), GoXam (diagram controls for Microsoft WPF/XAML), and GoPlanogram (a specialized retail planogram visualization library). These libraries provide built-in automatic layouts, data-binding, over 195 predefined shapes, and template-driven rendering, enabling developers to build interactive node-and-link visualizations such as flowcharts, organizational charts, process monitors, dashboards, and system diagrams without building custom graphics from scratch.

The company's business model combines one-time perpetual software licenses with optional annual support and update subscriptions, a source-code add-on, and limited consulting services. Sales follow a hybrid go-to-market approach: a product-led growth motion driven by free full-featured evaluation licenses (watermarked), a developer support forum, and extensive sample code (200+ samples for GoJS, 47 sample apps for GoXam), supplemented by direct enterprise sales for custom licensing of large deployments. A consulting partner (Synergy Codes) extends implementation capacity for complex customer projects.

Northwoods is self-funded, has no disclosed external institutional investment, and operates with a small team (11–50 employees) from a single headquarters location. Its stated customer base spans more than a quarter of the Fortune 100, including Microsoft, Google, Visa, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, Airbus, Bosch, Yamaha, Kinaxis, Verizon, and Fortinet, across industries as diverse as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace, telecommunications, supply chain, and cybersecurity.

Name

Northwoods Software

Legal name

Northwoods Software Corporation

Website

https://nwoods.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Northwoods Software is a privately-held, founder-owned developer-tools vendor that sells interactive diagramming libraries (GoJS, GoDiagram, GoXam, GoPlanogram) to enterprise software developers building flowcharts, dashboards, and process visualizations across web and .NET platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Diagramming and Visualization Component Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (51321), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Game UI/UX, Scripting & Visual Authoring Tools (MPAFAFAK)

Keywords

• Interactive diagramming libraries
• JavaScript diagram components
• .NET graph visualization
• WPF diagram controls
• Node-link visualization

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashua

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses: Northwoods sells perpetual software licenses for their diagramming libraries. Licenses are based on their Software License Agreement with standard terms. The company also offers Enterprise Licenses with custom terms for large organizations.
2. Annual Support and Updates: Technical support and library updates are included for 1 year with most purchases. After the initial period, customers can renew support and updates, creating recurring revenue from existing licensees.
3. Source Code Access: Source code is available as an add-on to licenses, providing additional revenue from customers who require full code access for customization and internal modifications.
4. Consulting Services: Northwoods offers training, proof-of-concept assistance, and consulting within the diagram-specific scope of projects. This includes sample building and feature demonstrations for customers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Northwoods Software develops and sells interactive diagramming component libraries for software developers and enterprise teams. Its core offerings are GoJS (a JavaScript/TypeScript library for web and Electron diagrams), GoDiagram (a .NET WinForms/Avalonia library for C#), and GoXam (a WPF/XAML diagram control set for Microsoft .NET), plus GoPlanogram for retail planograms. The libraries provide built-in layouts, data binding, templating, predefined shapes, and interactivity for building node-and-link visualizations across hundreds of industries.

Product overview

Northwoods Software provides a suite of interactive diagramming libraries across multiple platforms. The product portfolio includes GoJS (JavaScript/TypeScript for web and Electron applications), GoDiagram (.NET WinForms and Avalonia for C# developers), GoXam (WPF/XAML for Microsoft platforms), and GoPlanogram (specialized retail planogram solution). These products are standalone diagramming frameworks rather than a unified platform with modules, each targeting different technology stacks while sharing core diagramming capabilities including automatic layouts, data binding, and interactive node-link visualizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GoJS: JavaScript and TypeScript library for creating interactive diagrams, used for web and Electron applications.
• GoDiagram
• GoXam
• GoPlanogram

Products and services

• GoJS GoJS is a JavaScript and TypeScript library for creating interactive diagrams. It includes built-in layouts, interactivity, and over 200 samples demonstrating different use cases. It works with React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Node, and Electron with no dependencies, and is targeted at software developers building web and Electron applications that require interactive node-and-link visualizations.
• GoDiagram GoDiagram is a complete .NET solution for creating diagrams in C# for WinForms and Avalonia applications. It provides advanced controls for graphs of nodes connected by links, with built-in layouts and interactivity, comprehensive documentation, and sample applications. It is targeted at C# developers building .NET desktop applications that need interactive diagramming.
• GoXam GoXam provides diagram controls for Microsoft WPF and XAML applications. It includes automatic layouts, data binding, subgraphs and groups, collapsible/expandable trees, overviews, and 47 sample applications with full source code. It is targeted at Microsoft .NET developers building WPF applications.
• GoPlanogram GoPlanogram is a specialized diagramming solution focused on retail planograms and shelf-arrangement visualizations. It is targeted at retail merchandising teams and software developers building planogram tools.
• Northwoods Consulting and Training Training, proof-of-concept assistance, and consulting services within the diagram-specific scope of customer projects, including sample building and feature demonstrations. It is targeted at enterprise customers implementing Northwoods diagram libraries.

Quantifiable outcome

• Saves projects weeks of development time with built-in features
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Synergy CodescoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerSynergy Codes has over a decade of GoJS experience and cooperation with Northwoods Software. They have leveraged GoJS in data visualization and process modeling projects for customers worldwide, serving startups, SaaS businesses, and Fortune 500 companies in banking, energy, and automotive industries. They offer a fully staffed team including UX/UI designers and software engineers with expertise in GoJS tool and layout customizations, data importation, real-time data integration, and collaboration solutions.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• yWorks (yFiles): yWorks sells yFiles, a commercial diagramming SDK available for JavaScript, .NET, and Java—the most direct competitor to GoJS, GoDiagram, and GoXam. yFiles is the primary paid alternative in the enterprise diagramming-component market.
• Syncfusion: Syncfusion offers a broad suite of UI component libraries including a diagramming control, sold as commercial SDKs for web and .NET. The company competes with Northwoods in the developer-tools category and often targets the same enterprise evaluation cycles.
• MindFusion: MindFusion provides diagramming and charting libraries for .NET (WinForms, WPF, ASP.NET) and JavaScript—directly comparable to GoDiagram and GoXam. MindFusion is a smaller, niche competitor focused exclusively on diagramming components.
• DHTMLX: DHTMLX offers a commercial JavaScript diagramming library as part of its broader suite of UI components. It targets enterprise developers building web-based visualizations, similar to GoJS, with comparable feature sets around layouts, data binding, and node-link diagrams.
• JointJS (clientIO): JointJS provides a commercial JavaScript library for building interactive diagrams, flowcharts, and graph editors. It is a direct GoJS alternative, with overlapping customer use cases in workflow builders, BPM tools, and visualization dashboards.

Emerging players

• React Flow: React Flow is an open-source, MIT-licensed library for building node-based UIs in React. It has become a leading free alternative to GoJS for React developers building workflow editors, AI agent graphs, and process-modeling tools, eroding GoJS's market in the React ecosystem.
• Mermaid: Mermaid is an open-source, text-based diagram generation library that renders flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and more from markdown-like syntax. It is widely adopted in developer documentation and GitHub, and represents a fundamentally different (text-first) paradigm competing with GoJS in workflow and use-case documentation.
• Cytoscape.js: Cytoscape.js is an open-source graph-theory/network visualization library for JavaScript. While more specialized for graph analytics, it is a free alternative to GoJS for organizations building network and relationship visualizations at enterprise scale.
• mxGraph (maxGraph): mxGraph (now reborn as maxGraph) is the open-source JavaScript library that originally powered draw.io. It is a free, fully-featured alternative to GoJS for browser-based diagramming, particularly for organizations building in-house BPM, org-chart, or workflow tools.

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft (Visio / Power BI): Microsoft bundles diagramming and visualization capabilities into Visio, Power BI, and the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem. While not a direct SDK competitor, Microsoft's platform approach can subsume use cases that Northwoods customers would otherwise pay for, particularly among enterprise customers already embedded in the Microsoft stack.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/northwoodsgo
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC9We8EoX596-6XFjJDtZIDg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Northwoods Software