Overview
Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard known for its hand-drawn visual style, suited to informal architecture sketches in documentation and presentations. Its code is published on GitHub, and a commercial service, Excalidraw+, adds cloud features.[15]
The free tier includes the full editor, one infinite scene, unlimited collaborators, 10 generative AI requests a day and PNG/SVG export, with scenes encrypted end-to-end in the browser. Excalidraw+ costs US$6 per user per month with a 14-day trial and adds unlimited scenes and folders, cloud saving, sharing, PDF/PPTX export, comments, presentations, 100 AI requests a day and MCP and REST API access in beta; SOC 2 Type 2 compliance is listed.[15]
Its informal look is deliberate and is the main reason to choose it; it is unsuited to formal notations, precise layouts or Visio compatibility.
Excalidraw features
- Hand-drawn visual style
- End-to-end encrypted free scenes
- Unlimited collaborators
- AI diagram generation
- MCP and REST API (beta, Plus)
Excalidraw pricing
Free; Excalidraw+ US$6/user/month (annual saves 14%); 14-day trial.
Excalidraw strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Free and open source
- End-to-end encryption
- Very fast to use
Limitations
- Informal style unsuitable for formal docs
- Free tier limited to one scene
- Few technical shape libraries
Appears in
Excalidraw alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to Excalidraw: companies ranked in the same lists.
Lucidchart
Microsoft Power BI- draw.io (diagrams.net)
Miro- Figma FigJam
Creately- Whimsical
Gliffy- SmartDraw
- Cacoo
OmniGraffle- Mermaid Chart
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