Alternatives to
9 Best Excalidraw Alternatives in 2026
The best Excalidraw alternatives depend on whether you prioritize cost, control, or a different workflow.
- Reviewed
- Sep 2026
- Open source
- 0
- Self-hosted
- 1
What you are leaving
Excalidraw at a glance
- Pricing model
- Free forever editor; Excalidraw+ $6/user/mo billed annually with a 14-day free trial
- Deployment
- Browser-based; open source and self-hostable, plus Excalidraw+ cloud
- Licensing
- Open source; developers can build their own solution from the npm package
- Free tier
- Full editor functions, one infinite scene, unlimited collaborators and local E2EE
- Export
- PNG, SVG, JSON and save-to-file
- Integrations
- Notion, Obsidian and other integrations
- Community
- 132,600 GitHub stars
- Main gripe
- The free editor does not sync to a server, and drawings are saved in browser storage which can be cleared unexpectedly
- Best for
- Developers and teams that want a fast, free, open source diagramming tool with a hand-drawn style and self-hosting options
Compare at a glance
Excalidraw alternatives compared
Short facts side by side. Filter by what matters to your team, then open any row for the full decision brief.
| # | Product | Overlap | Substitutability | Free? | Starting price | Self-host | Open source | Migration | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | tldraw | Infinite canvas, shapes, drawing and multiplayer collaboration | Partial replacement | Yes | — | Yes | No | Hard | |
| 02 | Miro | Infinite canvas, diagramming and collaboration | Partial replacement | Yes | — | No | No | Moderate | |
| 03 | FigJam | Infinite canvas, diagramming and real-time collaboration | Mostly replaces | Yes | $16/editor/mo | No | No | Moderate | |
| 04 | Mural | Infinite canvas, diagramming and collaboration | Partial replacement | Yes | — | No | No | Moderate | |
| 05 | Lucidspark | Infinite canvas, diagramming and collaboration | Partial replacement | Yes | — | No | No | Moderate | |
| 06 | Whimsical | Diagramming, flowcharts and collaboration | Partial replacement | Yes | — | No | No | Moderate | |
| 07 | Milanote | Visual canvas for organising ideas | Narrow overlap | Yes | — | No | No | Hard | |
| 08 | Notion Whiteboard | Infinite canvas and real-time collaboration | Narrow overlap | Yes | — | No | No | Hard | |
| 09 | ClickUp Whiteboards | Infinite canvas and real-time collaboration | Narrow overlap | Yes | — | No | No | Hard |
Community signal
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Frequently asked
Excalidraw alternatives FAQ
- Is Excalidraw free?
- Yes. The Excalidraw editor is free forever with full editor functions, one infinite scene, unlimited collaborators, export to PNG, SVG or file, integrations with Notion and Obsidian, libraries and end-to-end encryption locally in your browser. Excalidraw is also open source, with 132,600 GitHub stars, so developers can self-host their own solution.
- How much does Excalidraw+ cost?
- Excalidraw+ is $6 per user per month billed annually, or more on monthly billing, with a 14-day free trial. It adds unlimited scenes and folders, secure cloud saving, access management, sharing with edit and view rights, read-only links and embeds, voice hangouts and screensharing, presentations, extended AI, team management and comments. All prices are in USD.
- What is the best free alternative to Excalidraw?
- tldraw is the closest free alternative for developers, offering a source-available infinite canvas SDK with a free hobby licence and a 100-day free trial for commercial use. FigJam is included with Figma's free Starter plan for up to three FigJam files. Notion Whiteboard is included on Notion's free plan, and ClickUp Whiteboards is available on ClickUp's Free Forever plan.
- Can I self-host Excalidraw?
- Yes. Excalidraw is open source and the project publishes an npm package and source on GitHub, so developers can build their own solution or self-host it. The vendor explicitly points developers and open source contributors to GitHub to create their own solution. That is unusual among whiteboard tools, most of which are cloud-only and proprietary.
- How does Excalidraw compare to Miro?
- Excalidraw is a lightweight, hand-drawn-style diagramming tool that is free and open source, focused on speed and simplicity. Miro is a full visual collaboration platform with 7,000+ templates, AI diagram generation, workflows and MCP server access, aimed at running workshops and mapping at scale. Miro's free plan caps boards at three, while Excalidraw's free editor has no board limit but does not sync to a server.
Switcher Reports
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Editorial method
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