The best Whiteboards & diagramming
Every option ranked — open-source, self-hostable, and commercial — by our transparent Sovereignty Score, with honest trade-offs so you choose what fits you, not us.
Where teams sketch architecture and run workshops. Per-seat pricing on a canvas most people open twice a month.
L5Applications — layer 5 of the AI stack- 1
Excalidraw
Top pickOpen sourceHand-drawn style diagrams, instantly, for nothing.
Free and open source. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid hosted tier. · in our Miro comparison →
What is Excalidraw? →95sovereignty - 2
draw.io
Open sourceStructured diagrams that live as files in your own repository.
Free and open source. Confluence and Jira plugins are paid. · in our Miro comparison →
What is draw.io? →94sovereignty - 3
AFFiNE
Open sourceDocs and canvas in one — write a page, flip it to a whiteboard.
Free and open source to self-host. AFFiNE Cloud is a paid hosted option. · in our Miro comparison →
What is AFFiNE? →91sovereignty - 4
tldraw
CommercialThe canvas as an SDK — embed it in your own product.
Free to use. Commercial embedding has its own licence terms. · in our Miro comparison →
What is tldraw? →74sovereignty - 5
FigJam
CommercialIf your designers already pay for Figma, this is included.
Free tier available; included or heavily discounted with existing Figma seats. Checked 2026-08-04. · in our Miro comparison →
What is FigJam? →30sovereignty
Replacing a specific tool?
Head-to-head comparisons for each popular whiteboards & diagramming product.
Straight head-to-heads
Two whiteboards & diagramming tools, side by side — verified facts and a plain verdict.