Excalidraw vs tldraw
Both are alternatives to Miro. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as tldraw vs Excalidraw — same comparison, one verdict.
Excalidraw
TOP PICKHand-drawn style diagrams, instantly, for nothing.
Excalidraw opens in a browser tab with no account and produces diagrams in a deliberate hand-drawn style — which sounds cosmetic and is not. A sketchy diagram signals 'this is a draft, argue with it', where a polished one signals 'this is decided', and for architecture discussions that difference changes how people respond. MIT licensed, self-hostable, with real-time collaboration and end-to-end encryption. Around 100k stars. For engineering diagrams specifically it has quietly become the default, and the reason is that it removes every step between having an idea and drawing it.
tldraw
The canvas as an SDK — embed it in your own product.
tldraw is an infinite canvas that is also a library: the drawing experience is excellent, and the SDK is designed to be embedded so your own application can have a canvas without building one. That dual nature is what distinguishes it — for most people it is a very good free whiteboard, and for a product team it is a component. Licensing is the thing to check: tldraw uses its own licence rather than a standard OSI one, free for many uses with terms for commercial embedding, so read it against your intended use rather than assuming.
Side by side
| Excalidraw | tldraw | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 95 | 74 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | tldraw licence (custom — free for many uses; read the terms before commercial embedding) |
| Pricing | Free and open source. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid hosted tier. | Free to use. Commercial embedding has its own licence terms. |
Excalidraw is Macrostack's recommended Miro alternative, so it's our pick here.
Excalidraw
Strengths
- +Opens instantly with no account, no loading, no onboarding
- +Hand-drawn style invites argument rather than closing it down
- +MIT and self-hostable, with end-to-end encrypted collaboration
- +Exports cleanly to SVG and PNG, and embeds in most documentation tools
Trade-offs
- −No workshop facilitation tools — no voting, timers or templates
- −Weaker for large structured boards
- −Real-time collaboration needs the hosted service or your own server
- −Not a Miro replacement for cross-business workshops
tldraw
Strengths
- +Best drawing feel of anything in this comparison
- +SDK designed for embedding a canvas in your own product
- +Very actively developed with a strong design sensibility
- +Self-hostable
Trade-offs
- −Custom licence, not OSI open source — read it before commercial use
- −Fewer collaboration features than Miro
- −No workshop facilitation tooling
- −Smaller template ecosystem
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.