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Head-to-head · Whiteboards & diagramming

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.

74

tldraw

The canvas as an SDK — embed it in your own product.

SOURCE-AVAILABLEtldraw licence (custom — free for many uses; read the terms before commercial embedding)SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

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.

30

FigJam

If your designers already pay for Figma, this is included.

SOURCE-AVAILABLEProprietary (hosted service)

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

 tldrawFigJam
Sovereignty Score7430
Open sourceNoNo
Self-hostableYesNo
Local-firstYesNo
Licensetldraw licence (custom — free for many uses; read the terms before commercial embedding)Proprietary (hosted service)
PricingFree to use. Commercial embedding has its own licence terms.Free tier available; included or heavily discounted with existing Figma seats. Checked 2026-08-04.
The verdict

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
See all 5 Miro alternatives →

Related alternative guides

Facts verified 2026-08-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.

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