PlantUML is described as 'Open-source tool that uses simple textual descriptions to draw UML diagrams. The generator can be run anywhere within JVM and integrated with various application such as wiki, text editor, IDE, programming language, documentation generator, and others' and is a very popular Diagram Editor in the development category. There are more than 100 alternatives to PlantUML for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Web-based, Mac, Linux and Self-Hosted apps. The best PlantUML alternative is draw.io, which is free. Other great apps like PlantUML are Excalidraw, yEd Graph Editor, Dia and Freeplane.
Live drawing combined with text view!