Excalidraw is a free, open source virtual whiteboard for sketching diagrams, flowcharts, and wireframes with a distinctive hand-drawn visual style, built as a browser-based canvas application in React and TypeScript.
Created by Christopher Chedeau (co-creator of React Native and Prettier) and launched on January 1, 2020, Excalidraw has grown into one of the most widely starred open source design tools on GitHub while remaining entirely unfunded and bootstrapped.
Key Features
The free editor includes an infinite canvas, all core drawing and shape tools, unlimited real-time collaborators, and export to PNG, SVG, or clipboard, with end-to-end encrypted sharing so Excalidraw's own servers cannot read shared scene content.
The open source component is also embeddable into other products via its npm package, which is why the hand-drawn Excalidraw style shows up widely across technical blogs, documentation, and third-party tools beyond the hosted excalidraw.com site.
Pricing
The core Excalidraw editor is free forever with no feature restrictions on drawing, collaboration, or export.
Excalidraw+, priced at $6 per user per month (with an annual discount), adds persistent cloud storage, unlimited scenes and folders, access management, voice/video collaboration, presentation mode, and extended AI features.
Key Features
Hand-drawn sketch rendering — A distinctive sketchy visual style for shapes, arrows, and text that gives diagrams an informal, hand-drawn look.
Infinite canvas — An unbounded drawing surface for sketching diagrams of any size without running out of space.
Real-time multiplayer collaboration — Unlimited collaborators can draw together on the same scene simultaneously, even on the free tier.
End-to-end encrypted sharing — Scenes shared via collaboration links are encrypted locally in the browser so Excalidraw's servers cannot read the content.
Export to PNG, SVG, and clipboard — One-click export of any diagram to common image formats or directly to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere.
Embeddable via npm package — The open source editor component can be embedded directly into third-party products and internal tools.
Excalidraw+ cloud workspace — Persistent cloud storage, unlimited scenes and folders, and team access management on the paid tier.
AI-assisted diagramming — Extended AI features on Excalidraw+ that help generate or assist with diagram creation.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Core editor is completely free with no feature restrictions, including unlimited real-time collaborators
Open source and embeddable, letting developers integrate the editor directly into their own products
Distinctive hand-drawn aesthetic is fast to use and widely recognized across technical documentation and blogs
Bootstrapped and sustainably run without venture funding pressure to monetize aggressively
Cons
Free tier stores scenes locally in the browser only; persistent cloud storage requires an Excalidraw+ subscription
Feature set is intentionally narrower than full-featured whiteboard suites like Miro or FigJam
Less suited to precise, structured diagramming compared to tools like Lucidchart or Visio
Small maintaining team relative to its large user base could limit the pace of major new feature development
Pricing
Free $0 N/A
Excalidraw+ $6/user/month (annual discount available) monthly or annual
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Excalidraw completely free?
Yes, the core Excalidraw editor is free forever with no restrictions on drawing tools, shapes, or real-time collaborators. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid tier for cloud storage and team features, priced at $6 per user per month.
Who created Excalidraw?
Excalidraw was created by Christopher Chedeau, a Meta software engineer known as 'vjeux' and co-creator of React Native and Prettier, who launched it on January 1, 2020.
Can Excalidraw be embedded into other apps?
Yes, because Excalidraw is open source under the MIT license, its editor component is published as an npm package that developers can embed directly into their own products and internal tools.
Is Excalidraw venture-funded?
No. Excalidraw has zero recorded funding rounds and is sustained by revenue from Excalidraw+ subscriptions rather than venture capital.
What is included in Excalidraw+?
Excalidraw+ adds persistent cloud storage, unlimited scenes and folders, access management and sharing permissions, voice and video collaboration, presentation mode, extended AI features, and team management tools.
What are the best alternatives to Excalidraw?
Common alternatives include tldraw (a similarly open source sketching canvas), Miro and FigJam for broader team whiteboarding, and structured diagramming tools like Lucidchart, draw.io (diagrams.net), and Microsoft Visio.