Excalidraw

About Excalidraw

Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard known for its hand-drawn look, which makes diagrams feel informal and quick. You can start drawing in the browser straight away without an account, sketch boxes, arrows, text and freehand lines, reuse shapes from community libraries, and export to PNG, SVG or a file. Sharing a link starts real-time collaboration, with end-to-end encryption for shared sessions. It also has AI features such as text to diagram, Mermaid import and wireframe to code. Because the editor is an open-source component under the MIT licence, it is embedded in many other tools, including Obsidian plugins and Notion integrations, and you can self-host it. Excalidraw+ is the paid hosted product, priced per user, that adds unlimited saved scenes and folders, team workspaces, presentations, comments, voice hangouts and more AI requests. The deliberately simple feature set means it is not a replacement for workshop tools with templates, voting and timers, but for engineers and quick explanations it is a favourite.

Best for: Engineers and anyone who wants fast, informal sketches and diagrams without an account.

Why people left Excalidraw

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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Excalidraw: common questions