Alternatives · 2026
6 Miro alternatives, honestly compared.
Miro is the category king of the infinite canvas: an enormous template library, hundreds of integrations, facilitation tools and the enterprise features big organisations expect. But it is cloud-only with no self-hosted option today, it is a US company under US jurisdiction, and it is priced per member — so the bill scales with the whole team, not just the workshop facilitators. For many teams, the whiteboard is also yet another tab, disconnected from the chat and tasks where the work actually happens.
This guide compares six real alternatives, from genuinely free open-source canvases to whiteboards that live inside a team workspace. One of them is our own product; we say so on its card and apply the same honest-caveat rule to it as to everyone else.
Five questions worth asking before you switch.
- (01)
Another tab, or part of the workspace?
A standalone whiteboard means links, exports and context switches. A canvas inside the workspace starts in the channel where the project already lives.
- (02)
Can you run it on your own servers?
Miro is cloud-only today. If compliance or data-sovereignty rules require the canvas on your infrastructure, the shortlist gets short — and open source starts to shine.
- (03)
What happens after the session?
A brilliant workshop that ends as a screenshot was a poster, not a plan. Check how sticky notes and diagrams become tracked work.
- (04)
Workshops or everyday sketching?
Facilitated workshops with voting and timers, and a quick architecture sketch during a call, are different jobs. Pick for the sessions you actually run.
- (05)
What does the bill reward?
Per-member pricing can charge for occasional contributors, not just active facilitators. Check what happens to the invoice when the whole team joins the board.
The six contenders.
- 01(01)
Polybase
Our productThe sovereign team workspace
Full disclosure: Polybase is our product. Read this entry as the maker's perspective — the caveat below is as real as everyone else's.
Polybase Boards is an infinite canvas that lives inside the team workspace, next to chat, tasks and docs — you sketch in the channel where the project already lives, with live cursors, follow/"spotlight me", connectors, templates, a minimap and version history. It imports draw.io files, exports boards, and because tasks are one module over, workshop outcomes become tracked tasks instead of screenshots. Self-hosting goes all the way to air-gapped Docker Compose deployments.
- Best for
- Teams that sketch as part of everyday project work, and organisations that want the whiteboard on infrastructure they control.
- Hosting model
- EU cloud, private VPC, or self-hosted / air-gapped via Docker Compose.
- Honest caveat
- No template or widget marketplace, and no facilitation toolkit — voting, timers and estimation games are Miro and Mural territory.
- 02(02)
FigJam
Figma's whiteboard for design teams
FigJam is Figma's whiteboard: the same polished multiplayer engine, wired straight into the design files your product team already lives in. Stickies, stamps, voting and audio chat make it a natural home for design crits, retros and brainstorms, and Figma users need zero onboarding.
- Best for
- Product and design teams already working in Figma who want brainstorms next to their design files.
- Hosting model
- Figma cloud only.
- Honest caveat
- No self-hosting today, and the value assumes you live in Figma's ecosystem — it is sold as part of Figma's seat model, and outside a design org its Figma tie-ins matter much less.
- 03(03)
Mural
Facilitation-first workshops at enterprise scale
Mural is built around facilitation: timers, voting sessions, private mode, celebrations and a deep template library give workshop leaders real superpowers. Consultancies and enterprise transformation teams that run structured sessions for a living are its home turf.
- Best for
- Facilitators, consultancies and enterprises that run structured workshops as a core activity.
- Hosting model
- SaaS only.
- Honest caveat
- Cloud-only today, with a per-member pricing model much like Miro's — and if your team mostly needs quick sketches rather than facilitated workshops, you may be paying for machinery you won't use.
- 04(04)
Excalidraw
The open-source whiteboard with hand-drawn charm
Excalidraw is the open-source whiteboard that made diagrams feel human again: the hand-drawn style keeps sketches looking like sketches, the editor opens instantly at excalidraw.com with no account, and the whole thing is MIT-licensed and self-hostable. For a free tool, the drawing experience is genuinely excellent.
- Best for
- Developers and teams that want fast, free, beautiful sketches — hosted or on their own servers.
- Hosting model
- Free web app, or self-hosted (open source).
- Honest caveat
- A canvas, not a workspace: boards live as files or links rather than inside your team's project context, and workshop tooling and enterprise admin are deliberately not the point.
- 05(05)
tldraw
The canvas as an open-source SDK
tldraw is two things: a very good free whiteboard at tldraw.com, and — more importantly — an open-source SDK that lets developers embed a polished infinite canvas into their own products. If you are building software that needs a whiteboard inside it, tldraw is arguably the best starting point there is.
- Best for
- Developers embedding a canvas into their own product, and teams happy with a deliberately lean whiteboard.
- Hosting model
- Free web app; the SDK ships inside your own product on your own infrastructure.
- Honest caveat
- First and foremost a developer building block — as an end-user team whiteboard it is intentionally minimal, with none of Miro's templates, integrations or enterprise administration.
- 06(06)
draw.io
Free, open-source diagramming — even fully offline
draw.io (diagrams.net) is the veteran of free diagramming: flowcharts, architecture diagrams and org charts in the browser with no account, or in desktop apps that run fully offline. It is open source, and your files stay wherever you put them — local disk, Git, your own drive. For pure diagramming at zero cost, it is very hard to beat.
- Best for
- Flowcharts, architecture and process diagrams on any budget — including air-gapped environments.
- Hosting model
- Free web app, offline desktop apps, self-hostable (open source).
- Honest caveat
- A diagram editor, not a realtime team whiteboard — live multiplayer collaboration and sticky-note workshops are not what it is for.
Where Polybase wins — and where we don't win yet.
You are reading this list on our site, so here is the part vendors usually skip.
- The canvas lives where the project livesBoards sit inside the workspace, next to chat, tasks and docs — you sketch in the channel where the discussion already is, not in another tab with another login.
- Sketches become tracked workBecause tasks live one module over, workshop outcomes turn into tracked tasks with assignees and due dates — not a screenshot pasted into Slack.
- A whiteboard you can self-hostEU-region cloud, your own VPC, or air-gapped Docker Compose. Miro, FigJam and Mural are cloud-only today; Polybase Boards runs on infrastructure you control.
- Real multiplayer, with historyLive cursors, follow/"spotlight me" for walkthroughs, connectors, templates, a minimap — and version history, so a board's past states are never lost.
- draw.io import and plain pricingExisting draw.io diagrams import directly. Boards is a €5 per user/month add-on on Core (€10 per user/month) — no separate whiteboard vendor, no separate bill.
- Template and widget marketplacePolybase ships board templates, but there is no marketplace of community templates and widgets — Miro's ecosystem is years ahead there, and we won't pretend otherwise.
- Facilitation toolkitNo voting sessions, timers or estimation games on the canvas today. If you facilitate structured workshops for a living, Miro or Mural serve that better right now.
- CertificationsNot certified yet — SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are on our roadmap. We answer security questionnaires and architecture questions today.
- Enterprise sign-onSSO/SAML/SCIM are on the roadmap; today sign-in is email/password and magic links.
- Native appsDesktop and mobile apps are available. You can also use the web app or installable PWA, and Boards runs in any modern browser.
Choosing a Miro alternative.
It depends on your binding constraint. Free and open source with a lovely drawing feel: Excalidraw. Embedding a canvas into your own product: tldraw. Pure diagramming, even offline: draw.io. Design teams in Figma: FigJam. Facilitated enterprise workshops: Mural. A whiteboard inside the workspace, next to chat, tasks and docs: that is the case Polybase is built for — we're biased, so read the side-by-side comparison too.
Three on this list are open source: Excalidraw (free web app, self-hostable), tldraw (free app plus an open-source SDK) and draw.io (free in the browser and fully offline on desktop). All three are genuinely usable at zero cost — for many teams they are the honest first stop before paying anyone, us included.
Excalidraw and draw.io are open source and self-hostable, and tldraw's SDK runs inside your own product on your own infrastructure. Polybase self-hosts too — including air-gapped Docker Compose deployments. Miro, FigJam and Mural are cloud-only today.
There is no automated Miro importer today — we won't pretend otherwise. Polybase Boards does import draw.io files directly, and we provide migration assistance during onboarding; automated importers are on the roadmap.
Boards ships templates, live cursors, follow/"spotlight me", connectors, a minimap, export and version history. What it does not have: a community template and widget marketplace, or facilitation tools like voting and timers. For everyday project sketching the essentials are there; for facilitated workshops, Miro and Mural remain ahead.
Boards is a €5 per user/month add-on on Polybase Core (€10 per user/month), which includes chat, tasks, drive, calls and automation. Miro charges per member for the whiteboard alone. Whether Polybase beats your Miro bill depends on what else it replaces — a demo walks through your actual stack.
See Polybase next to Miro, feature by feature.
Book a 30-minute demo and we'll show a board sketched in a channel, ending in tracked tasks — or start with the detailed side-by-side comparison.
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