AFFiNE vs FigJam
Both are alternatives to Miro. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as FigJam vs AFFiNE — same comparison, one verdict.
AFFiNE is open source (MPL-2.0) and FigJam is not (Proprietary (hosted service)) — so the real question is whether you want to own the whiteboards & diagramming stack or rent it.
AFFiNE
Docs and canvas in one — write a page, flip it to a whiteboard.
AFFiNE merges the document and the canvas: the same content can be read as a written page or arranged as a whiteboard, switching between the two. That removes a real annoyance — the diagram in Miro and the decision record in Confluence drifting apart until nobody knows which is current. MPL-2.0, self-hostable, local-first, around 50k stars. It is ambitious and still maturing, and the honest caveat is that doing two things well is harder than doing one, which shows in places.
FigJam
If your designers already pay for Figma, this is included.
FigJam is Figma's whiteboard, and for organisations already paying for Figma it is often included or nearly so — which makes buying Miro alongside it a duplicated cost worth noticing. It handles sticky notes, voting, timers and workshops competently, and the ability to pull real design components onto the canvas is something Miro cannot do. Proprietary and hosted. Listed because the most common way to stop paying for Miro is to discover you already own something that does the job.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| AFFiNE | FigJam | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 91 | 30 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first data | Yes | No |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Proprietary (hosted service) |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. AFFiNE Cloud is a paid hosted option. | Free tier available; included or heavily discounted with existing Figma seats. Checked 2026-08-04. |
AFFiNE edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
AFFiNE
Strengths
- +Document and whiteboard modes over the same content
- +Local-first — works offline and syncs after
- +MPL-2.0, self-hostable, with no enterprise carve-out
- +Removes the drift between a diagram and its written decision
Trade-offs
- −Still maturing; rough edges in both modes
- −Neither mode is quite best-in-class alone
- −Smaller community than the focused tools
- −Self-hosting is more involved than Excalidraw's
FigJam
Strengths
- +Frequently already paid for if your team uses Figma
- +Real workshop tools — voting, timers, templates
- +Design components drop straight onto the canvas
- +Familiar to anyone who already uses Figma
Trade-offs
- −Proprietary and hosted with no self-host path
- −Only compelling if you are already a Figma customer
- −Fewer templates than Miro
- −Another Adobe-owned dependency
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose AFFiNE
if you want the source and the option to fork it, and you would rather run it on your own hardware, and your data should stay on machines you control.
Choose FigJam
if frequently already paid for if your team uses Figma.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — still maturing; rough edges in both modes, and proprietary and hosted with no self-host path. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
AFFiNE vs FigJam — common questions
Is AFFiNE a better fit than FigJam for whiteboards & diagramming?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: AFFiNE scores 91 to FigJam's 30 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. FigJam earns its place on a different axis — frequently already paid for if your team uses Figma. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
AFFiNE keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. FigJam keeps your data on its own infrastructure, which is the part to plan for: confirm the export path before you commit, not when you are already trying to leave.
Can I self-host AFFiNE?
AFFiNE can be self-hosted; FigJam cannot, so it stays on the vendor's infrastructure whatever you do.
Are AFFiNE and FigJam both alternatives to Miro?
Yes — both appear in our Miro comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Miro and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.