# 4 Best Alternatives to tldraw in 2026

By Noah — last updated & pricing verified October 26, 2026.

> Excalidraw is the best tldraw alternative for quick collaborative sketching under an open-source license: the MIT-licensed editor has 134,000+ GitHub stars, needs no account, and adds the paid team plan tldraw lacks at $6/user/month billed yearly. Miro and Mural offer full team whiteboards with SSO, and Figma's FigJam suits design teams.

From our data: All 4 tldraw alternatives here have a free tier, and their cheapest paid plans run from $6/user/month billed yearly (Excalidraw+) through $8/member/month (Miro Starter) and $9.99/member/month (Mural Team+), both billed annually, to $16/month per Figma Professional full seat, while tldraw.com has no paid tier at all.

## Quick picks

- Best overall and open source: [Excalidraw](https://findalternative.to/excalidraw/about)
- Best for teams that need templates, integrations and SSO: [Miro](https://findalternative.to/miro/about)
- Best for facilitated sessions with outside participants: [Mural](https://findalternative.to/mural/about)
- Best for design teams already on Figma: [Figma](https://findalternative.to/figma/about)

## tldraw alternatives at a glance

| Alternative | Best for | Standout | Biggest weakness | Learning curve | Price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| tldraw (the incumbent) | sketching quick diagrams and flows with collaborators on a free shared board | A canvas engine good enough that other companies license it: the SDK that runs tldraw.com also powers ClickUp's whiteboards, Padlet's Sandboxes and Jam's annotations, and tldraw now opens that canvas to AI agents through ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Cursor integrations. | tldraw.com is the company's free flagship demo, where early SDK versions ship for testing, and tldraw sells no team plan for it, so companies that standardize on it get no published admin, security or support terms. Developers face the opposite trade-off: the SDK is source-available rather than open source, and shipping it in a product requires a commercial license whose price is not published. | Low | Free |
| Excalidraw | sketching informal system diagrams and wireframes live with others during a meeting or interview | A free, no-account editor whose hand-drawn style and minimal toolset make it fast to sketch an idea in seconds, with end-to-end encrypted link sharing and the whole editor available as MIT-licensed open source. | The free editor keeps work in your browser, one scene at a time, so saving scenes to the cloud, organizing them in folders, commenting and managing team access all require Excalidraw+ at $6-$7 per user per month; Plus is paid by credit card only, and its terms make all charges non-refundable. | Low | Free tier · paid from $6/mo |
| Miro | running live workshops and planning sessions (retros, journey maps, roadmaps) with distributed teams on a shared board | One canvas that holds whiteboarding, diagramming, docs, tables, kanban, slides and AI-generated prototypes, connected to 250+ apps and an MCP server, so a workshop's output can turn into a roadmap or a synced Jira backlog without leaving the board. | Miro charges for every member: on Starter and Business each person added to the workspace takes a paid seat, signed-in guests arrive only on Business ($20/member/month annually, $25 monthly), and the Free plan stops at three editable boards with no guest role, so costs climb quickly for teams that collaborate widely. AI use is metered too, with 25 credits per member per month on Starter, which Miro equates to about 12 document summaries. | Low | Free tier · paid from $8/mo |
| Mural | running facilitated workshops and design-thinking sessions with large groups, including outside participants who join free as visitors | Facilitation tools on every plan, Free included: summon, timer, anonymous voting, private mode, an outline with hide-and-reveal, laser pointer and facilitator lock, so one facilitator can steer a large live session without add-ons. | The Free plan keeps only 3 murals editable at a time, Business ($17.99/member/month) is billed annually only and is the first plan with SSO and ongoing guest access, and the mobile apps trail the web product, rating 2.3/5 from 73 App Store ratings and 3.1/5 from 559 Google Play reviews. | Moderate | Free tier · paid from $9.99/mo |
| Figma | design and product teams that need real-time multiplayer editing and a shared design-to-development handoff, from solo freelancers on the free tier up to large enterprises managing design systems across many teams | True real-time multiplayer editing across design, prototyping, whiteboarding (FigJam), and dev handoff (Dev Mode), all in the same browser-based file with no manual save or merge conflicts. | Figma requires an active internet connection for full functionality, and paid tiers are priced per seat by role (full/dev/collab), which reviewers say gets expensive to manage at scale; it also lacks native CMYK color profiles and 300dpi print export, so print-focused design work still requires a separate tool. | Moderate | Free tier · paid from $16/mo |

## 1. Excalidraw — best tldraw alternative for sketching informal system diagrams and wireframes live with others during a meeting or interview

Excalidraw is the best tldraw alternative for teams and developers who want the same quick, link-shared sketching with an open-source license and a team plan behind it. The Excalidraw editor is MIT-licensed, has 134,000+ GitHub stars against tldraw's 51,000+, and ships as an npm package under that license, where tldraw's SDK is source-available and needs a commercial license for production use. Excalidraw needs no account, anyone with the link can draw on a scene in real time, shared sessions are end-to-end encrypted, and built-in AI handles text-to-diagram, wireframe-to-code and Mermaid conversion with 10 free requests a day. Where tldraw sells no team plan and publishes no admin, security or support terms, Excalidraw+ costs $6/user/month billed yearly ($7 monthly) for cloud-saved scenes, team workspaces with access control, comments, presentations, voice hangouts and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance. tldraw is still the better choice for free use beyond a single scene and for desktop work. Excalidraw's free editor keeps one scene in the browser, while a free tldraw account keeps boards as files in workspaces with comments included; Excalidraw is web-only, where tldraw offline runs on macOS, Windows and Linux with no account; and tldraw's agent integrations for ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Cursor are available now, where Excalidraw's MCP access is in public beta.

Compared to tldraw: MIT open source with 134,000+ GitHub stars vs tldraw's source-available SDK with 51,000+, a paid team plan at $6/user/month billed yearly that tldraw does not offer, free use limited to one scene stored in the browser

- Wins: MIT-licensed open source with 134,000+ GitHub stars and an npm package, where tldraw's SDK is source-available and production use needs a paid commercial license · Excalidraw+ at $6/user/month billed yearly adds team workspaces, access control, comments, presentations and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, where tldraw sells no team plan for tldraw.com · No account needed, end-to-end encrypted shared sessions, and AI text-to-diagram, wireframe-to-code and Mermaid conversion with 10 free requests a day
- Loses: The free editor keeps 1 scene in the browser, where a free tldraw account keeps boards as files in workspaces · Web-only, where tldraw offline runs on macOS, Windows and Linux with self-contained local files · Comments need Excalidraw+, MCP and REST API access are in public beta, and Plus is paid by credit card only with non-refundable charges
- Pros: Free and open source (MIT), with no account needed to start drawing.; Link-based real-time collaboration, end-to-end encrypted for free users.; AI text-to-diagram, wireframe-to-code and Mermaid conversion, with 10 free requests a day.; Excalidraw+ costs $6/user/month billed yearly and is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant.; An embeddable npm package and a large open-source community, with 134,000+ GitHub stars.
- Cons: Free scenes live in the browser, one scene on the free plan; cloud saving, folders and comments need Excalidraw+.; Excalidraw+ accepts credit cards only, and charges are non-refundable under its terms.; MCP and REST API access are still in public beta.
- **Pricing:** Free tier · paid from $6/mo (verified ) — Free for 1 browser scene, or $6/user/month for Excalidraw+ billed yearly ($7 monthly), vs tldraw.com free with no paid tier
- Details: https://findalternative.to/excalidraw/about
- Head-to-head: [Excalidraw vs tldraw](https://findalternative.to/compare/excalidraw-vs-tldraw)
- 4 alternatives to Excalidraw: https://findalternative.to/excalidraw

## 2. Miro — best tldraw alternative for running live workshops and planning sessions (retros, journey maps, roadmaps) with distributed teams on a shared board

Miro is the best tldraw alternative for organizations that need a whiteboard they can buy, administer and connect to the rest of their tools. Miro's infinite canvas holds sticky notes, diagrams, docs, tables, timelines, kanban boards and slides, with 7,000+ templates, 250+ integrations, a timer and voting from Starter, and two-way Jira, Asana and Linear sync on Business. Starter costs $8/member/month billed annually ($10 monthly), Business at $20 adds signed-in guests and SSO, and Enterprise adds SCIM, audit trails and data residency in the EU, US, Australia or Japan, where tldraw sells no team plan and publishes no admin, security or support terms. Miro also has iOS and Android apps, rated 4.7/5 from 5,845 App Store ratings and 4.4/5 from 20.2K Google Play reviews, and an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and Copilot. tldraw is still the better choice for anyone who wants a free board without paying per seat. tldraw.com has no paid tier, where Miro Free stops at 3 editable boards and every Miro member on Starter or Business takes a paid seat. tldraw offline runs on Linux and saves self-contained .tldraw files with no account, while Miro has no Linux app, and Miro meters AI at 10 credits a month on Free and 25 per member on Starter.

Compared to tldraw: 7,000+ templates, 250+ integrations and two-way Jira sync on Business, SSO on Business and SCIM on Enterprise where tldraw publishes no admin terms, a free plan capped at 3 editable boards and a paid seat for every member

- Wins: Paid plans with SSO (Business, $20/member/month billed annually) and SCIM, audit trails and data residency (Enterprise), where tldraw sells no team plan for tldraw.com · 7,000+ templates, 250+ integrations, a timer and voting from Starter, and two-way Jira, Asana and Linear sync on Business · iOS and Android apps rated 4.7/5 from 5,845 App Store ratings and 4.4/5 from 20.2K Google Play reviews, where tldraw lists no mobile apps
- Loses: The free plan stops at 3 editable boards and every board is visible to the whole team, where tldraw.com is free with no paid tier · Every workspace member takes a paid seat ($8/member/month billed annually on Starter), and AI is metered at 25 credits per member per month on Starter · No Linux app, where tldraw offline runs on macOS, Windows and Linux and saves self-contained .tldraw files with no account
- Pros: Free plan with unlimited members, 7,000+ templates and 250+ integrations.; Docs, Tables, Timelines, Kanban and Slides live on the same canvas as the whiteboard.; Visitor editing on Starter lets outsiders edit a public board without signing in.; Native apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android; the iOS app rates 4.7/5 from 5,845 App Store ratings.; An MCP server and two-way Jira, Asana, Linear and ClickUp sync (Business) connect board content to AI and delivery tools.
- Cons: The Free plan allows only 3 editable boards, and every board is visible to the whole team.; Each workspace member takes a paid seat; signed-in guests require Business at $20/member/month billed annually.; AI is credit-metered: 25 credits per member per month on Starter and 50 on Business.; Enterprise features such as SCIM and data residency require at least 30 members.
- **Pricing:** Free tier · paid from $8/mo (verified ) — $8/member/month for Miro Starter billed annually ($10 monthly) vs tldraw.com free with no paid tier
- Details: https://findalternative.to/miro/about
- 6 alternatives to Miro: https://findalternative.to/miro

## 3. Mural — best tldraw alternative for running facilitated workshops and design-thinking sessions with large groups, including outside participants who join free as visitors

Mural is the best tldraw alternative for facilitators who run structured live sessions rather than freeform sketches. Mural puts summon, a timer, anonymous voting, private mode, an outline with hide-and-reveal, a laser pointer and facilitator lock on every plan including Free, where tldraw.com lists live cursors, viewport following and comments. Visitors join individual murals free on every plan, 250+ templates and, on Business, LUMA design-thinking frameworks give sessions a starting structure, and Mural runs on the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Surface Hub. For organizations, Mural holds SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, adds SSO and unlimited guests on Business at $17.99/member/month billed annually, and offers SCIM, audit logs, data residency and bring-your-own-key encryption on Enterprise, where tldraw publishes no admin, security or support terms. tldraw is still the better choice for quick, free sketching and for AI agents. tldraw.com has no paid tier, where Mural Free keeps only 3 murals editable at a time and Team+ costs $9.99/member/month billed annually; tldraw's agent integrations with ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Cursor are available now while Mural's MCP server is still coming soon; tldraw offline runs on Linux; and Mural's mobile apps rate 2.3/5 from 73 App Store ratings, with a moderate learning curve against tldraw's low.

Compared to tldraw: facilitation tools (summon, timer, anonymous voting, private mode) on every plan, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certification with SSO on Business, only 3 editable murals free vs tldraw.com with no paid tier

- Wins: Facilitation tools (summon, timer, anonymous voting, private mode, outline, laser pointer, facilitator lock) on every plan, where tldraw.com offers live cursors, viewport following and comments · SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified, with SSO on Business at $17.99/member/month billed annually and SCIM, audit logs and data residency on Enterprise, where tldraw publishes no admin, security or support terms · Apps for iOS, Android and Surface Hub alongside web, Windows and macOS, plus 250+ templates and free visitors on every plan
- Loses: The free plan keeps only 3 murals editable at a time and Team+ costs $9.99/member/month billed annually, where tldraw.com is free with no paid tier · The MCP server for AI agents is still coming soon, where tldraw already works with agents in ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Cursor · No Linux app, mobile apps rate 2.3/5 from 73 App Store ratings and 3.1/5 from 559 Google Play reviews, and the learning curve is moderate against tldraw's low
- Pros: Facilitation tools (timer, anonymous voting, private mode, summon, facilitator lock) are included on every plan, Free included.; Visitors join individual murals free on every plan, so one-time participants never need a paid seat.; 250+ templates, plus LUMA design-thinking frameworks on Business.; Apps for the web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Surface Hub interactive displays.; SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified, with data residency and bring-your-own-key encryption on Enterprise.
- Cons: The Free plan allows only 3 editable murals at a time.; Business ($17.99/member/month) is billed annually only, and SSO and ongoing guest access start there.; Mobile apps rate 2.3/5 on the App Store (73 ratings) and 3.1/5 on Google Play (559 reviews).; Mural's MCP server for AI agents is still listed as coming soon.
- **Pricing:** Free tier · paid from $9.99/mo (verified ) — $9.99/member/month for Mural Team+ billed annually ($12 monthly) vs tldraw.com free with no paid tier
- Details: https://findalternative.to/mural/about
- 4 alternatives to Mural: https://findalternative.to/mural

## 4. Figma — best tldraw alternative for design and product teams that need real-time multiplayer editing and a shared design-to-development handoff, from solo freelancers on the free tier up to large enterprises managing design systems across many teams

Figma, through its FigJam whiteboard, is the best tldraw alternative for design and product teams whose sketches turn into interface designs. FigJam sits in the same browser-based platform as Figma's interface design, prototyping, Dev Mode handoff and Figma Slides, with real-time multiplayer editing that Capterra reviewers consistently praise. Figma holds 4.7/5 from 874 Capterra reviews, reports that about 95% of the Fortune 500 use it, and sells paid tiers with admin controls, from team-wide design libraries on Professional to centralized admin on Organization and SCIM seat management on Enterprise, where tldraw sells no team plan. Figma also lists an iOS app, which tldraw does not. tldraw is still the better choice for anyone who only needs a whiteboard. tldraw.com is free with no paid tier, where Figma's free Starter plan is limited to 3 collaborative files and a Professional full seat costs $16/month; Figma's listing does not price FigJam on its own. Figma requires an internet connection for full editing, where tldraw offline saves local files on macOS, Windows and Linux with no account or server. Figma's Organization ($55) and Enterprise ($90) full seats are billed annually only, and its learning curve is rated moderate against tldraw's low.

Compared to tldraw: FigJam whiteboards beside design files, prototypes and Dev Mode, 4.7/5 from 874 Capterra reviews and paid tiers with admin controls, 3 collaborative files free and $16/month per Professional full seat vs tldraw.com free

- Wins: FigJam whiteboards share a platform with Figma's interface design, prototyping, Dev Mode handoff and Slides · 4.7/5 from 874 Capterra reviews, where tldraw has no ratings on record · Paid tiers with centralized admin (Organization) and SCIM seat management (Enterprise), plus an iOS app, where tldraw sells no team plan and lists no mobile app
- Loses: The free Starter plan is limited to 3 collaborative files and a Professional full seat costs $16/month, where tldraw.com is free with no paid tier, and FigJam is not priced separately in Figma's listing · Requires an internet connection for full editing, where tldraw offline works with local files and no account or server · Organization ($55/month per full seat) and Enterprise ($90) are billed annually only, and the learning curve is moderate against tldraw's low
- Pros: Real-time multiplayer collaboration works reliably even with many simultaneous editors in one file.; Free Starter tier is genuinely usable for solo designers with unlimited drafts and basic AI credits.; Dev Mode gives engineers direct, inspectable access to design specs, reducing handoff friction.; Broad plugin and integration ecosystem plus FigJam and Slides extend it beyond pure UI design.
- Cons: Requires an internet connection for full editing; offline work is limited.; No native CMYK color profile or 300dpi export, so print design work needs a separate tool.; Per-seat, per-role pricing (full/dev/collab) can be confusing and adds up quickly for larger teams.; Organization and Enterprise tiers are annual-billing only, reducing flexibility for smaller teams.
- **Pricing:** Free tier · paid from $16/mo (verified ) — $16/month per Figma Professional full seat vs tldraw.com free with no paid tier
- Ratings: Capterra 4.7/5 (874 reviews)
- Details: https://findalternative.to/figma/about
- 5 alternatives to Figma: https://findalternative.to/figma

## Which one fits you?

- You want to embed a whiteboard in a commercial product without buying a canvas license → **Excalidraw**
- You sketch diagrams in meetings and want link sharing with end-to-end encryption → **Excalidraw**
- Your company needs a whiteboard with SSO, SCIM and published admin terms → **Miro**
- Your team runs retros and roadmaps that should sync to Jira, Asana or Linear → **Miro**
- You facilitate workshops where a timer, anonymous voting and private mode matter → **Mural**
- Your brainstorms feed directly into interface designs and prototypes → **Figma**

## FAQ

### Is there a free alternative to tldraw?

Yes: Excalidraw is free with no account, unlimited collaborators by link and end-to-end encrypted sharing, though its free editor keeps one scene in the browser. Miro Free and Mural Free allow unlimited members with 3 editable boards, and Figma's Starter plan allows 3 collaborative files.

### What is the closest alternative to tldraw?

Excalidraw is the closest alternative to tldraw: both are browser whiteboards for quick collaborative sketches, both publish their canvas code on GitHub, and developers embed both in other products. The difference is licensing and paid plans: Excalidraw is MIT-licensed and sells Excalidraw+ at $6/user/month billed yearly, while tldraw's SDK needs a commercial license in production and tldraw.com has no team plan.

### Can Excalidraw replace tldraw?

Yes for browser sketching and for developers who need an MIT-licensed canvas, since Excalidraw matches tldraw's link-based real-time collaboration and adds end-to-end encryption and a $6/user/month team plan. Excalidraw falls short if you want desktop files or free cloud storage: Excalidraw is web-only and its free editor keeps one scene in the browser, where tldraw offline saves local files on macOS, Windows and Linux.

### Is tldraw open source?

No: tldraw's SDK source is public on GitHub with 51,000+ stars, but it is source-available rather than open source, and production use requires a commercial license with value-based pricing after a 100-day free trial. Excalidraw is the open-source option here, under the MIT license.

### Which tldraw alternative is best for companies?

Miro is the best fit for most companies: Business at $20/member/month billed annually adds SSO, signed-in guests and two-way Jira, Asana and Linear sync, and Enterprise adds SCIM, audit trails and data residency. Mural is the alternative for facilitation-heavy teams, with SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and SSO on Business at $17.99/member/month billed annually.

## Related

- [tldraw vs Excalidraw](https://findalternative.to/compare/excalidraw-vs-tldraw)
- [Online whiteboards](https://findalternative.to/categories/whiteboards)

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