MiroAbout Excalidraw
Excalidraw made the hand-drawn sketch aesthetic its own signature, turning quick diagrams into something that actually looks intentional rather than like clip art. Real-time, end-to-end encrypted collaboration means a shared room stays private even from Excalidraw's own servers.
It's free, open source under MIT, and embeds cleanly into other tools — you'll find it powering the diagram experience inside several other popular apps. For fast, low-ceremony diagramming, it's hard to beat.
What makes it different
A distinctive sketchy rendering style that makes rough diagrams look intentional.
Collaborative sessions are encrypted so even Excalidraw's own servers can't read them.
A large community library of shapes, icons and templates to drop into a diagram.
Excalidraw's canvas can be embedded directly into other apps and websites.
TypeScript
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DockerThe honest read
- Instantly recognizable, likeable hand-drawn style
- Genuinely end-to-end encrypted collaboration rooms
- Free and fully open source under MIT
- Embeds cleanly into other tools and sites
- Huge, active community library of shapes
- Not built for large structured board workflows like Miro (templates, voting, timers)
- No built-in video or audio for live workshops
- Limited built-in template library out of the box
- Self-hosting the collaboration server takes extra setup
Quick answers
Yes — Excalidraw is completely free and open source under MIT, including real-time collaboration.
Yes — collaborative rooms are end-to-end encrypted, so even Excalidraw's own servers can't read the contents.
Yes — Excalidraw is designed to be embedded, and it already powers the diagramming experience inside several other popular products.
Excalidraw is free, open source and focused on quick hand-drawn-style diagrams, while Miro is a larger paid platform with structured templates, facilitation tools and video for full workshop-style sessions.
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