Excalidraw

A virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn style diagrams, available as a web app and as an embeddable React component.

Open-source alternative to:

Miro

Visit Excalidraw GitHub Docs

MITSelf-hostedCloudNot yet assessed

Screenshot of the Excalidraw website — Homepage of excalidraw.com

What the free edition leaves out

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We have not been able to confirm enough from official sources to give a verdict. “Not confirmed” means the official pages we read did not say, so we do not guess.

Open-core feature checklist for Excalidraw
Feature	Free edition	Details	Source
SSO / SAML	Not confirmed	Single sign-on is not mentioned on the Excalidraw+ pricing page.	Source ↗
Role-based access control	Not confirmed	The Excalidraw+ page lists access management with edit or view sharing rights but describes no role model.	Source ↗
Audit logs	Not confirmed	Audit logs are not mentioned on the Excalidraw+ pricing page.	Source ↗
Multi-user / teams	Not confirmed	Excalidraw+ lists teams management and collaboration. What the open source app and self-hosted builds offer for teams is not stated.	Source ↗
Backups and restore	Not confirmed	No official page states whether the free edition includes this.	–
API access	Not confirmed	The Excalidraw+ page lists a REST API under Teams as a public beta. The open source editor is also published as an npm package.	Source ↗
Support SLA	Not confirmed	The Excalidraw+ page gives a support email address and no SLA terms.	Source ↗

Best for

Individuals and teams who want a quick sketch-style whiteboard, or developers who want to embed a drawing editor in their own app.

Why choose it over Miro

The editor is MIT licensed and published as an npm package, so you can embed it or run your own copy. The web app at excalidraw.com is a ready-to-use whiteboard. Excalidraw+ exists as a paid hosted product if you want teams features.

Where it falls short

The README does not describe how to self-host the full app. Team features, a REST API and access management are described on the Excalidraw+ page, not for the open source repository. It is a sketching tool, not a full diagramming suite like Miro.

Open-source alternative to

Miro — Excalidraw is a collaborative whiteboard for sketching and diagramming, so it can replace Miro for simple whiteboard use. This is a replacement use, not an official claim by the project.

Topics

Tech stack

Languages as reported by GitHub for the repository.