tldraw vs FigJam
Both are alternatives to Miro. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as FigJam vs tldraw — same comparison, one verdict.
tldraw can run on your own server and FigJam cannot — the choice is between operating it yourself and paying someone else to keep it up.
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.
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.
| tldraw | FigJam | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 74 | 30 |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first data | Yes | No |
| License | tldraw licence (custom — free for many uses; read the terms before commercial embedding) | Proprietary (hosted service) |
| Pricing | Free to use. Commercial embedding has its own licence terms. | Free tier available; included or heavily discounted with existing Figma seats. Checked 2026-08-04. |
tldraw edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
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
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 tldraw
if you would rather run it on your own hardware, and your data should stay on machines you control, and best drawing feel of anything in this comparison.
Choose FigJam
if frequently already paid for if your team uses Figma.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — custom licence, not OSI open source — read it before commercial use, 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.
tldraw vs FigJam — common questions
Is tldraw a better fit than FigJam for whiteboards & diagramming?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: tldraw scores 74 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?
tldraw 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 tldraw?
tldraw can be self-hosted; FigJam cannot, so it stays on the vendor's infrastructure whatever you do.
Are tldraw 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.