Open source whiteboard searches usually land on the same three names: Excalidraw, tldraw, and Miro. What most comparisons miss is that one of those three quietly stopped being a fair "open source" pick sometime in late 2025. tldraw changed its SDK license in September 2025, and production use now needs a paid commercial license or a watermarked free tier, not the permissive setup people still assume it has.
That change actually simplifies this comparison. Here's where each tool genuinely stands, what self-hosting each one costs in practice, and where Miro still wins on raw feature depth despite not being open at all.
Quick answer
Jump to a section
How to choose a whiteboard tool
Three questions actually matter here, before feature lists:
- Do you need to actually self-host it, or just want the option? Only Excalidraw genuinely offers that today at zero license cost. tldraw's source being visible on GitHub doesn't mean production use is free.
- Does real-time multi-user collaboration matter? All three support it, but self-hosted Excalidraw needs a small extra backend service running alongside the main app, it's not automatic out of the box.
- Do you need Miro's structured features, templates, voting, facilitation tools, or just freeform sketching? Excalidraw and tldraw are both closer to a shared canvas than a workshop platform. Miro is built for the latter specifically.
1 Excalidraw: MIT licensed, free to self-host
Excalidraw is MIT licensed end to end, no license key, no watermark, no revenue threshold. Self-hosting runs comfortably on a $5 to $10 a month VPS via Docker, and the hand-drawn sketch style has become something of a default look for technical diagrams precisely because it's this easy to stand up. Excalidraw+ is a separate, optional paid hosted product ($7/month per user) with cloud storage, voice hangouts, and extra AI features, useful if you want a managed version, but the open source core doesn't need it.
Key Features
- MIT license, free for any use including commercial, no watermark
- Docker self-hosting, minimal server requirements
- Real-time collaboration via the excalidraw-room backend service
- Hand-drawn sketch aesthetic, widely embedded in other tools (including Jitsi Meet's whiteboard)
2 tldraw: visible source, paid production license
tldraw's SDK is what powers the polished infinite-canvas apps a lot of people have seen. Until September 2025 it sat under a permissive license; the 4.0 licensing change moved production use behind a paid commercial license (custom pricing, reportedly around $6,000/year at launch) or a free "hobby" license that forces a visible "made with tldraw" watermark on the canvas. Development and evaluation are still free via a 100-day trial license.
Key Features
- Polished, well-documented React SDK for building custom canvas apps
- Free 100-day trial license for development and evaluation
- Hobby license available for non-commercial use, watermarked
- Commercial license required for any production, revenue-generating use
3 Miro: the proprietary standard, not self-hostable
Miro isn't open source and never has been, it's included here because "open source Miro alternative" is exactly what people searching this topic are trying to find. The free tier allows unlimited team members but only 3 editable boards at a time, older boards lock to view-only. Starter runs $8/user/month and Business $20/user/month (annual billing, as of mid-2026), with Enterprise custom-priced starting around 30 seats.
Key Features
- Deep template library and structured facilitation tools (voting, timers, breakout frames)
- SCIM, data residency, and org-wide governance on Enterprise
- Metered AI credits even on paid tiers
- No self-hosting option at any tier
Excalidraw vs tldraw vs Miro: feature comparison
| Feature | Excalidraw | tldraw | Miro |
|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | tldraw license (paid for production) | Proprietary |
| Self-hostable free | ✅ | ❌ (watermarked hobby tier only) | ❌ |
| Real-time collaboration | ✅ (extra backend service) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Structured facilitation tools | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Paid tier price | $7/user/mo (Excalidraw+, optional) | Custom, ~$6,000/yr commercial license | $8-$20/user/mo |
| Best for | Free self-hosted sketching | Custom canvas apps, paid | Structured team workshops |
Exporting your work and format lock-in
Worth checking before you commit to any of these, since it's the thing people forget to ask until they want to leave: Excalidraw saves to an open .excalidraw JSON format, plain text, readable without the app, and exports cleanly to SVG or PNG for use anywhere else. tldraw's .tldr format is similarly open on disk, though obviously the app itself still needs a valid license to run in production. Miro is the one with real lock-in, boards live on Miro's platform, and while exports to PDF or image exist, you're exporting a flattened snapshot, not the editable board structure, so a mass migration off Miro means redoing the actual board work, not just moving a file.
Already using Jitsi? You may not need a separate tool
Here's the part that ties back to something a lot of teams already run: Jitsi Meet's built-in whiteboard is Excalidraw. When Jitsi added whiteboarding, they didn't build a new canvas from scratch, they embedded the same open source engine reviewed above directly into video calls. If your team is already meeting in Jitsi, the whiteboard is a toggle in the call, not a second account or a separate tool to adopt.
Self-hosted Jitsi servers don't enable it by default, though, it needs the excalidraw-backend service deployed and a config change. Our guide to enabling the Jitsi Meet whiteboard covers that setup step by step, and our roundup of Jitsi Meet's less obvious features covers what else is sitting in the same call interface most teams never turn on. If BigBlueButton is also on your shortlist for education or webinar-style use, our BigBlueButton vs Jitsi Meet comparison covers that specifically, BBB ships its own separate whiteboard tool rather than embedding Excalidraw.
Where I'd start
Want a free, self-hosted, genuinely open source whiteboard: Excalidraw, no real competition on that specific criterion anymore. Building a product on a canvas SDK and fine paying for it: tldraw's commercial license is a legitimate option, just budget for it, it's not the free permissive tool it used to be. Need Miro's structured workshop and facilitation depth and self-hosting isn't the point: Miro still does that better than either open source option, that's a real, earned strength, not a knock against the open source picks.
And if video calls are already part of the workflow, check whether Jitsi's built-in whiteboard covers the need before adding a fourth tool to the stack.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's a genuinely open source whiteboard tool in 2026?
Excalidraw, MIT licensed, free to self-host with no watermark or license key required. tldraw's SDK source is visible but requires a paid commercial or watermarked hobby license for production use as of its 4.0 licensing change in late 2025, so it doesn't really qualify anymore. Miro was never open source.
Excalidraw vs tldraw, what actually changed between them?
Excalidraw stayed MIT licensed the whole time, free for any use, commercial included. tldraw moved from a permissive license to a paid model in September 2025: production use now needs a commercial license (custom pricing, reportedly around $6,000/year when it launched) or a hobby license that forces a visible watermark on the canvas.
Is Excalidraw self hosted actually free?
Yes, fully. A docker-compose setup runs on a $5 to $10 a month VPS, no license fee, no per-user cost. Excalidraw+ is a separate paid hosted product with extras like voice chat and cloud sync, but self-hosting the open source version costs nothing beyond the server.
What's a good open source Miro alternative for a small team?
Excalidraw for freeform sketching and diagramming, self-hosted for free. It doesn't replicate Miro's templates, Kanban boards, or enterprise governance features, so for structured workshop facilitation at scale, Miro's feature depth is still ahead, you're trading that for cost and data control.
Does a self hosted whiteboard support real-time collaboration?
Excalidraw does, with a small backend service (excalidraw-room) handling the WebSocket sync between participants. It's not automatic with the base app, self-hosting real-time collaboration means running that extra service alongside the main app.
Is there a collaborative whiteboard open source option that doesn't need separate setup?
If you already run Jitsi Meet, its built-in whiteboard is Excalidraw under the hood, no separate app or account needed, just enabled in a video call. It's the same open source engine, already wired into a tool you may be running anyway.
Get Video Calls With a Built-In Whiteboard
Launch a pre-configured Jitsi Meet server on AWS with the Excalidraw-powered whiteboard ready to enable, no separate whiteboard tool or account needed.
Launch Jitsi Meet 250-User on AWS
