Flowgorithm is a popular free tool for flowchart programming, used in many schools and colleges. If you need something that runs in the browser, or comes with practice and classes built in, here's how B4Coder compares, fact by fact.
What each is and does. Neither list is complete: these are the differences people ask about.
| Flowgorithm | B4Coder | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free desktop app, made at Sacramento State University | A website: runs in any modern browser |
| Where it runs | Windows | Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebooks, tablets |
| Installing | Installed on each computer | Nothing to install; needs an internet connection |
| Cost | Free | Free to start; Pro and Education plans for more |
| Flowchart shapes | Standard flowchart symbols | B4Coder's labelled blocks, or standard symbols in one click |
| Datatypes | Declared: Integer, Real, String, Boolean | Automatic, or Datatype Mode: Integer, Real, String, Boolean |
| Running a flowchart | Step by step, with a variable watch window | Step by step, with a Values panel, and FlowBot explaining each step |
| Seeing the code | Over 18 programming languages | Python, Java, C++, C# and JavaScript |
| Data structures | Arrays | Lists, objects and classes, tables (Filter and Sort Rows), stacks, queues, recursion |
| Student logins | No accounts: students use the app on a computer | College logins: the college's code, a username and a password, no email needed |
| Setting work | Done outside the app (shared files, email or your LMS) | Teachers set challenges and lab missions for a class, with a due date, and see who passed |
| Saving and sharing | Files on your computer; flowcharts can be exported as images | In your account, on any computer; share by link |
Flowgorithm details from its official website and its Wikipedia entry, checked October 2026. Flowgorithm is a trademark of its owner; B4Coder is not connected with it.
Practice that checks itself
A hundred challenges in five worlds, plus Datatypes challenges for college, each checking the answers your flowchart gives, with three hints.
Explanations as it runs
FlowBot says what each block is doing, in plain words, and points at the block when something goes wrong.
Story Mode and Data Lab
Flowcharts that drive a cartoon story, or work with tables, forms and live apps like a cricket scoreboard.
Classes and progress
Student logins without email, classes, challenges set with a due date, and who has finished, for teachers.
What a college gets when its students and teachers use B4Coder together.
The college admin sets up the college with its own code. Students sign in with that code, a username and a password: no email needed. Login cards print in one go.
Teachers join by invitation, make classes, and set challenges or Data Lab missions for a class with a due date. Students find them waiting on their dashboard.
For each challenge set: who has passed, who is still working, who hasn't started, and how long each student took, so teachers can see who needs a hand.
A teacher can turn on Datatype Mode and standard flowchart symbols for a class, so every student's new programs start the way the course teaches.
Beyond arrays, B4Coder's blocks cover the data structures a college course starts with: lists (add, change, remove, go through each item), objects and classes with their own fields and methods, tables that Filter Rows and Sort Rows work on, stacks (push, pop, peek) and queues (enqueue, dequeue), and functions that call themselves, with the call stack drawn as they run.
Data Lab puts them to work: a help desk run with a queue and an undo stack, bracket checking with a stack, and recursion from factorial to Fibonacci. The Data Structures syllabus map shows each topic of a college course, unit by unit, and what teaches it. Linked lists, trees and graphs aren't in B4Coder yet; they're marked as coming there.
Flowgorithm fits a lab where every computer runs Windows, internet is unreliable, and students mainly need to draw and run flowcharts and see them in many languages.
B4Coder fits when students work on their own computers and phones as well as in the lab, when you want practice that checks answers and gives hints, and when teachers want logins, classes and progress in one place. It's also an online Flowgorithm alternative for students who can't install software on their computer.
Flowcharts that use Flowgorithm's datatypes feel at home: turn on Datatype Mode from the Start block, give each value its Integer, Real, String or Boolean type, and switch on Standard symbols for the familiar shapes. The datatypes lesson shows how, and the data structures syllabus map shows what a college course can use today.
Not at the moment. Flowgorithm's .fprg files can't be opened in B4Coder, so a flowchart is rebuilt with B4Coder's blocks. Small programs take a few minutes, and the logic stays the same.
Yes. Some colleges teach with Flowgorithm in the lab and use B4Coder for practice at home, challenges and assignments, since it runs in the browser on any computer.
No. A college on B4Coder gets its own code; the admin makes a login for each student (a username and a password) and prints their login cards. Students sign in with the college code, their username and password.
Yes, as an option. Turn on Datatype Mode from the Start block, and each value can be an Integer, Real, String or Boolean. The program then keeps to those types, as Flowgorithm does.
“Everyone can learn to program. It just takes the right tools.” Your first program is about a minute away, and it's free.
