Skip to content
Day 69: new resources are added every day. See what's new
Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Web App

Excalidraw

Hand-drawn style whiteboard for thinking out loud.

Visit Excalidraw4.7

  • Rating

    4.7 / 5

  • Pricing

    Freemium

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    Web, Cross-Platform

Built with love by Shushant Lakhyani. Building bestproductivityresources.com

Free: 1,100+ ways people make money onlineFree: 399+ ways to make money online

What is Excalidraw?

A free, open-source virtual whiteboard whose sketchy style keeps diagrams feeling like drafts. Perfect for brainstorming, architecture sketches and explaining ideas fast.

Pros: what Excalidraw does well

  • Free and instant
  • Great for rough thinking

Cons: where it falls short

  • Not for polished diagrams

What people use Excalidraw for

  • Sketching a system diagram, flow chart or wireframe in a hand-drawn style
  • Brainstorming live with others on one shared board
  • Explaining an idea in a meeting or video with quick drawings
  • Exporting a diagram as PNG or SVG for docs, slides or a README

How to get started

  1. 1Open excalidraw.com and start drawing; no account is needed.
  2. 2Use the toolbar for shapes, arrows, text and freehand lines, and the library for ready-made shapes.
  3. 3Click Share to start a live session and send the link to others.
  4. 4Export to PNG or SVG, or save the .excalidraw file to reopen later.

Excalidraw pricing

Excalidraw is free and open source, with one infinite canvas, live collaboration and a small daily allowance of AI requests. Excalidraw+ is the paid plan, adding unlimited cloud-saved scenes and folders, sharing permissions, comments, presentations, PDF and PPTX export, team management and a larger AI allowance. See current prices on Excalidraw's site

Checked 2026-10-28. Prices change, so double-check before you pay.

Excalidraw FAQ: quick answers

Is Excalidraw free?
Yes. The editor at excalidraw.com is free with no account. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid plan for teams that want cloud storage and sharing controls.
Is Excalidraw private?
Drawings in the free app are stored locally in your browser, and live sessions are end-to-end encrypted.
Is Excalidraw open source?
Yes. The code is on GitHub at excalidraw/excalidraw, and developers can embed the editor in their own apps.

Compare Excalidraw

See how Excalidraw stacks up, side by side, plus the lists it made.

Excalidraw alternatives

Not sold on Excalidraw? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Brainstorming resources

Miro

Focus: workshops and retros. Shares whiteboard and diagrams with Excalidraw. Adds macOS, Windows and iOS. Rated 4.5 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFree planWeb, macOS
4.5Visit

tldraw

Focus: sketching and brainstorming. Shares whiteboard and diagrams with Excalidraw. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Rated 4.6 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.6Visit

D2

Focus: diagram as code, command line and github. Shares diagrams and open source with Excalidraw. A desktop app, not a web app. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds macOS, Windows and Linux. Rated 4.6 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Whimsical

Focus: flowcharts, wireframes and mind maps. Shares whiteboard with Excalidraw. Adds macOS and Windows. Rated 4.6 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFree planWeb, macOS
4.6Visit

Coggle

Focus: mind maps, brainstorming and flowcharts. Shares diagrams with Excalidraw. Rated 4.5 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFree planWeb
4.5Visit

Lucidchart

Focus: flowcharts, org charts and process mapping. Shares diagrams with Excalidraw. Rated 4.5 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFree planWeb
4.5Visit

Free alternatives to Excalidraw

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Witeboard

Focus: sketching, real-time and brainstorming. Shares whiteboard with Excalidraw. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Rated 4.4 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.4Visit

croc

Focus: file transfer, encryption and command line. Shares open source with Excalidraw. A desktop app, not a web app. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds macOS, Windows and Linux. Same 4.7 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

draw.io

Focus: flowcharts and uml. Shares diagrams and open source with Excalidraw. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds Windows, macOS and Linux. Same 4.7 rating.

Web AppFreeWeb, Windows
4.7Visit

Mermaid

Focus: diagrams as code, flowcharts and gantt charts. Shares open source with Excalidraw. A framework, not a web app. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds macOS, Windows and Linux. Same 4.7 rating.

FrameworkFreeWeb, macOS
4.7Visit

Screenity

Focus: screen recorder, loom alternative and annotation. Shares open source with Excalidraw. A browser extension, not a web app. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds Chrome. Same 4.7 rating.

Browser ExtensionFreeChrome
4.7Visit

NetBird

Focus: vpn, private network and wireguard. Shares open source with Excalidraw. A desktop app, not a web app. Free (Excalidraw: Freemium). Adds macOS, Windows and Linux. Rated 4.6 (Excalidraw: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit
Are you the maker of Excalidraw?Get a free Featured badge for your site, a share image and ready-to-paste posts. No sign-up.

Free Notion database

1,100+ ways people are making money online

Real online businesses, creators and projects, broken down by how they make money: apps, online stores, AI tools and more. Free on Gumroad.

Get the free database

Free Notion database

399+ ways to make money online

Hundreds of online income methods in one place, so you can compare options and pick one to try. Free on Gumroad.

Get the free list

For research and ideas only. Results vary and nothing here is a promise of income. See our Disclaimer.

Weekly newsletter

Everything new, every Monday.

One short email every Monday with everything shipped that week: new free tools and websites, new guides, new free browser tools and what's new in my free Gumroad libraries, plus how the site is growing. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Join the newsletter

You sign up on Gumroad, which stores your email to send the newsletter. See our Privacy Policy.