Remember those good ol’ days when teams used to gather in conference rooms, brainstorm brilliant ideas, and discuss projects on whiteboards?
With the rise of remote and hybrid work, real-time collaboration has moved over from physical whiteboards to virtual ones. Virtual whiteboards like Excalidraw are great tools for expressing your ideas and brainstorming with your teams.
However, Excalidraw may not be suitable for everyone because of certain limitations. For instance, you can only create one drawing at a time, which limits the discussion scope. Some users also find the tool lacking in terms of integrations.
So, if you are looking for a reliable Excalidraw alternative, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s have a look at the top 10 Excalidraw alternatives and their features.
10 Excalidraw Alternatives for Whiteboard Collaboration
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for in Excalidraw Alternatives?
Using an online whiteboard may seem simple enough. But if you pick one with a clunky interface, it can make your work twice as hard. Here are some important factors you must consider when seeking alternatives for Excalidraw:
- Real-time collaboration: Check functionalities such as simultaneous editing, chat option, comments for task assignment, and live cursor tracking
- User-friendliness: Choose a tool that is intuitive and easy to navigate. A user-friendly interface ensures efficient workflow and reduces the learning curve for you and your team
- Customization: Look for alternatives that offer customizable templates, color schemes, and shapes
- Security and privacy: Prioritize tools that offer end-to-end encryption to protect your data
- Cost: Evaluate the total cost of alternative tools by considering both one-time subscription fees and upfront expenses for additional features
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe 10 Best Excalidraw Alternatives to Use in 2024
Let’s look at the top 10 Excalidraw alternatives for better workspace collaboration. From advanced visualization features to quick customization options, these tools offer everything your team needs to put ideas into action.
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is an all-in-one platform for project management, helping distributed teams collaborate efficiently, work smarter, and save time. ClickUp’s Whiteboard feature provides a flexible workspace for brainstorming, planning, and executing projects. You can draw, connect ideas, write notes, and add images and links for effective collaboration.
However, ideation alone does not matter. You need to convert thoughts into action items. This is where ClickUp Mind Maps help—align tasks and ideas.
You can use mind maps to ideate, strategize, and create roadmaps and agile workflows. This helps you simplify tasks by breaking down complex project plans and connecting dependencies.For example, the ClickUp Processes Map Whiteboard Template is a ready-to-use, customizable template that is also great for beginners. It lets you easily communicate processes to the team with a visual representation. You can also customize Statuses, Fields, and even Views.
If you want to simplify processes further, use the ClickUp Process Flow Chart template. It helps visualize daily processes and track task progress easily.
ClickUp best features
- Real-time visual collaboration: Share ideas and notes and track everyone’s activity in the team to coordinate actions
- Connect tasks and ideas: Plan and organize your ideas and tasks easily with ClickUp Mind Maps. You can make mind maps based on tasks or nodes and easily arrange your projects by dragging branches into logical paths
- Customize task management: Bridge the gap from ideation to execution by creating ClickUp Tasks directly from your whiteboards. Customize your workspace by adding different conventions for different task types
- Get shareable links: Share whiteboards with clients or partners outside of your workspace, even if they don’t have a ClickUp account
- Use pre-built templates: Try ready-to-use Whiteboard templates for creating workflows and flowcharts, concept mapping, reverse brainstorming, and brainwriting
- Connect your tech stack: Quickly access information from ClickUp, connected apps, or local drive using ClickUp’s Universal Search feature
- Format Whiteboards: Create interactive Whiteboards by formatting text with banners, headlines, highlights, and highlights. Also add items like shapes and connectors using the toolbar
ClickUp limitations
- There is a learning curve for some users to understand the ClickUp Whiteboards
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever Plan: Best for personal use
- Unlimited: Best for small teams; $7 per month per user
- Business: Best for mid-sized teams; $12 per month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $5 per month per user
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (4,000+ reviews)
2. Draw.io
Draw.io is a versatile flowchart maker and online design software, used mostly on Atlassian apps, such as Confluence and Jira.
You can create network diagrams, flowcharts, wireframes, and do a lot more. Its user-friendly interface, with many shapes, icons, and customization options, makes it one of the most popular Excalidraw alternatives.
Draw.io best features
- Use the class search function to find relevant diagrams for visualizing workflows
- Store your diagram files in any cloud platform
- Collaborate with multiple team members in real time with shared cursors
- Provide feedback easily by adding comments on images
Draw.io limitations
- You might face difficulty in importing some file types
- The software may lag while using it on browser
Draw.io pricing
- Free: 30-day trial
- Cloud: $20 per month for 20 users and $532.50 per month for 2000 users
- Data Center: $6,000 for 500 users and $10,000 for 2000 users, billed annually
Draw.io ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (350+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (700+ reviews)
3. Mural
Mural is a virtual canvas, where you can brainstorm, solve problems, and organize ideas visually in real time with your team.
The tool allows you to create and edit various elements such as sticky notes, images, and drawings. Moreover, you can easily sketch diagrams to collaborate visually. It offers customized whiteboard solutions for design, product, engineering, innovation, and sales teams, eliminating the need for multiple collaboration apps within the entire organization.
Mural best features
- Add ideas or action items as sticky notes or text boxes
- Control the access to collaborate with view-only, edit, and facilitator settings
- Change text and note colors to create clusters and identify patterns
- Add icons, GIFs, and images with Unsplash integration
Mural limitations
- You might find integrations with other apps to be limiting
- Tracking comments while working with multiple team members can feel overwhelming
Mural pricing
- Free: Forever
- Team+: $12 per month per user
- Business: $17.99 per month per user, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Mural ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (1,365+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (120+ reviews)
4. FigJam
FigJam, developed by Figma, is another Excalidraw alternative that enables teams to brainstorm, draw diagrams, design strategies, and create flowcharts and agile workflows.
It helps create project roadmaps, customer journey maps, and project timelines. You can provide real-time feedback using audio chat and live chat. FigJam also offers AI integration to automate project timelines and tracking action items.
FigJam best features
- Add workflow widgets such as Jira tasks to the whiteboard
- Personalize communication with customized Bitmoji avatars
- Try AI integration to brainstorm ideas or design codes
- Gather feedback by conducting polls
FigJam limitations
- You will not be able to work on any updates without being online
- You can invite external members for up to 24 hours only with the free plan
FigJam pricing
- Free: Forever
- Professional: $3 per month per user
- Organization: $5 per month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
FigJam ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (400+ review)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (25 reviews)
5. Lucidchart
Lucidchart is a cloud-based visual collaboration and intelligent diagramming platform that empowers teams to bring their ideas to life through dynamic diagrams, flowcharts, and visualizations.
You can use cursors for live collaboration, link data, and overlay metrics on diagrams to access all important information in one place.
Lucidchart best features
- Organize your diagrams using containers or swimlanes
- Add notes to a shape to keep others in the loop
- Integrate it with popular workspace tools such as Google and Atlassian
Lucidchart limitations
- You may find it challenging to bulk export to Visio
- You can create only 60 objects per diagram with the free plan
Lucidchart pricing
- Free: 7-day trial
- Individual: $7.95 per month, billed annually
- Team: $27 per month per user, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Lucidchart ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (5,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (2,000+ reviews)
6. InVision App
Invision’s flagship product, Freehand, is a virtual whiteboard for project planning, ideating, team building, brainstorming, presenting, and reviewing ideas.
It offers customized templates for engineering, design, IT, and product teams. You can use its intelligence canvas to define workflows and manage projects seamlessly.
InVision App best features
- Turn ideas into screen designs using InVision’s vector-based drawing and flexible layers
- Prototype, manage, review, refine, and test digital products without coding
- Streamline project management with over 200 pre-built templates
InVision App limitations
- Importing artboards from Sketch can be tedious
- Team collaboration can be challenging
InVision App pricing
- Free
- Freehand Pro: $4.95 per month per user
InVision App ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (700+ reviews)
7. Jamboard
If you want to collaborate with your team in real time, you can use Jamboard, a digital whiteboard by Google. You can use it on the Jamboard device (a 55-inch digital whiteboard that works with G Suite services), web browser, or mobile app.
With Jamboard, you can write and draw with the included stylus, and convert your sketches into a refined image. However, Jamboard will be discontinued on October 1, 2024.
Jamboard best features
- Add Google Drive tools such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides to a jam using a Jamboard device easily
- Search Google and insert images or web pages
Jamboard limitations
- It is not iOS-friendly
- Tracking each member’s contribution to the Jamboard is tedious
- It provides limited collaboration features in comparison to other tools
Jamboard pricing
- $4,999 for one Jamboard display, two styluses, one eraser, and one wall mount
- $600 annual management and support fee.
Jamboard ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (68 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (114 reviews)
8. Collaboard
Collaboard is a creative whiteboard and collaboration tool with a hand-drawn feel. It provides drawing options using markers, pens, and brushes. You can use it for brainstorming or storytelling.
It allows you to change the text color and font, add hyperlinks to relevant resources, upload documents, add images, and connect objects. Moreover, you can add videos directly on the board, change view modes for better readability, and create sticky notes for quick ideas or suggestions.
Collaboard best features
- Plan and navigate swiftly through the whiteboard to specific areas through convenient hyperlinks using the infinite canvas
- Brainstorm and narrate stories using different shapes and colors
- Switch to dark mode for better readability
- Protect your content by adding passwords
Collaboard limitations
- You may not find the user interface appealing
- It does not have a smooth provision to embed external media
Collaboard pricing
- Free 7-day trial
- Advanced: $10 per month per user, billed annually
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Collaboard ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (92 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (114 reviews)
9. Miro
Miro’s cutting edge whiteboard enables scaled product planning, mind mapping, process mapping, customer journey mapping, and strategy and planning.
Using Miro, you can provide your team with a visual, scalable and secure workspace for innovation by connecting it with 130+ apps. It enables smooth collaboration and management by automatically integrating data from spreadsheets and other apps across the tech stack.
Miro best features
- Structure your ideas with Miro Frames on Miro’s infinite canvas
- Share ideas anonymously
- Add documentation, survey results, videos, and live data from different apps for digital collaboration
Miro limitations
- You cannot save custom templates for reuse
- It has limited font options for sticky notes
- The interface can be confusing
Miro pricing
- Free
- Starter: $10 per month per user
- Business: $20 per month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Miro ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.8/5 (5,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (1,500+ reviews)
10. DrawIsland
DrawIsland is an online drawing tool to express yourself creatively through digital art. You can create GIFs, add text to images, use different shapes to create sketches and change colors and fonts.
It also has an intuitive interface and offers various drawing tools, including brushes, pens, and shapes. You can start working on DrawIsLand directly online without any signup or installations.
DrawIsland best features
- Choose between four different screen sizes by default (200*200, 400*400, 800* 400, 1024*768 pixels) and a custom option to customize the size
- Generate animations using images
- Import images easily to alter their size or add text to them
DrawIsland limitations
- Animations can be generated using up to 10 frames only
- You can save images only in .png format
- It does not support sharing images on social media
DrawIsland pricing
- Free
DrawIsland ratings and reviews
- G2: NA
- Capterra: NA
Summarize this article for me pleaseUse ClickUp for Better Collaboration
Virtual whiteboards can significantly improve collaborative brainstorming and creative work with their visualization features. They also play a crucial role in breaking down complex tasks and workflows, helping you see the big picture.
If Excalidraw is falling short of your expectations in these aspects, it’s time to upgrade your tech stack with ClickUp!Switch to ClickUp Whiteboard, the best alternative to Excalidraw, and turn your ideas into action plans by creating and assigning tasks directly from your brainstorming sessions.
Sign up on ClickUp for free to communicate ideas better and enhance team collaboration!
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
