Excalidraw

Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard that produces diagrams with a distinctive hand-drawn aesthetic. We rate it 85/100 — one of the best free diagramming tools available, with frictionless onboarding, real-time collaboration, and a thriving ecosystem of integrations.

What is Excalidraw?

Excalidraw was created by Christopher Chedeau (known online as Vjeux), a Meta engineer who also co-created React Native and Prettier. On January 1, 2020, Chedeau started building a simple tool for creating hand-drawn style diagrams — inspired by Zwibbler, which he had used for a decade to illustrate blog posts. Within two weeks the project had 12,000 active users, 1,500 GitHub stars, and 26 contributors. That explosive growth never stopped.

Today Excalidraw has over 120,000 GitHub stars (ranking as the 75th most popular repository on GitHub), 850,000 monthly active users on excalidraw.com, and 360+ contributors. The project is MIT-licensed and used by teams at Netflix, Meta, Microsoft, Stripe, Supabase, Intel, and Wix. A paid tier called Excalidraw+ launched with cloud storage, voice chat, and team management features, priced at $6/user/month.

Key Features of Excalidraw

• Infinite Canvas with Hand-Drawn Style: Every shape, arrow, and text element renders with a sketchy, hand-drawn look that intentionally reduces perfectionism anxiety. You focus on ideas, not pixel alignment.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Share a link and collaborate live with end-to-end encryption. Multiple cursors, no signup required for the free version.
• Multi-Protocol Export: Export to PNG, SVG, PDF, and PPTX. Copy to clipboard. Save as native .excalidraw JSON for lossless editing later.
• Shape Libraries: Thousands of community-created libraries with pre-made icons, UI components, and diagram elements — installable with one click.
• Mermaid Diagram Support: Paste Mermaid syntax directly and Excalidraw converts it into hand-drawn diagrams automatically.
• Elbow Arrows and Flowchart Shortcuts: Smart routing arrows that avoid shapes, plus keyboard shortcuts for rapid flowchart creation added in 2024.
• Image Cropping and Embedding: Drag in images, crop them on canvas, and annotate — useful for wireframing over screenshots.
• Presentation Mode: Create frames as slides and present directly from the canvas, with offline presentation support in Excalidraw+.

What Users Say About Excalidraw

On Product Hunt, Excalidraw holds a 4.91/5 rating across 23 reviews — with 22 five-star reviews. Users call it the "fastest wireframing tool to ever exist" and praise how the keyboard shortcuts "simplify things so much." One reviewer described it as miles ahead of alternatives for quick sketching.

On Hacker News, the famous "Why is Excalidraw so good?" thread generated hundreds of comments praising the zero-friction onboarding: "You're just in the product, able to use it" — no signup, no OAuth, no confirmation email. Developers noted that the hand-drawn aesthetic actively reduces perfectionism: you feel free to sketch quickly rather than agonizing over alignment.

However, criticism exists. Multiple HN users noted that text doesn't attach to shapes — moving a shape requires separately repositioning text. The default handwritten font (Virgil) drew complaints from users with dyslexia, though the team replaced it with the more legible "Excalifont" in 2024. On Reddit, power users point out that once diagrams grow complex, managing large canvases becomes difficult with no system for organizing multiple screens or reusable UI components.

Excalidraw Pricing

Plan	Price	Key Features
Free (Open Source)	$0 forever	Full editor, 1 infinite scene, unlimited collaborators, PNG/SVG export, libraries, end-to-end encryption
Excalidraw+ (Monthly)	$7/user/month	Unlimited scenes/folders, cloud storage, voice hangouts, screensharing, presentations, extended AI, comments, team management
Excalidraw+ (Annual)	$6/user/month	Same as monthly — save 14%
Enterprise	Custom	SAML SSO, audit logs, custom integrations, dedicated support

A 14-day free trial is available for Excalidraw+ with no credit card required.

Who Should Use Excalidraw?

Best for: Developers, product managers, and designers who need quick, informal diagrams without fussing over alignment. Teams that want real-time whiteboarding with end-to-end encryption. Obsidian users — the Excalidraw-Obsidian plugin is one of the most popular integrations in the ecosystem. Anyone who values zero-friction onboarding.

Not ideal for: Teams requiring precise, production-grade technical diagrams (use draw.io or Lucidchart). Designers needing reusable component systems across large projects. Organizations requiring SAML SSO without enterprise pricing.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Zero friction — no signup, no login, just draw. You are productive in under 5 seconds.
• 120,000+ GitHub stars and MIT license — one of the most popular open-source tools ever built
• End-to-end encrypted collaboration at zero cost
• Used by Netflix, Meta, Microsoft, Stripe, Intel, and hundreds of thousands of developers worldwide
• Deep integrations with Obsidian, Notion, Logseq, and VS Code
• SOC 2 Type 1 certified (Excalidraw+) as of June 2025

Cons:

• Text doesn't auto-attach to shapes — a long-standing UX issue the team acknowledges
• Performance degrades on very large, complex canvases with many elements
• No built-in system for organizing multiple pages or reusable components
• SAML SSO and audit logs gated behind enterprise pricing with no public cost
• Browser version can hit CORS issues when used without the desktop app or proxy

Alternatives to Excalidraw

draw.io (diagrams.net) is the best free alternative for precise, structured technical diagrams — more powerful but less fun to use. Miro offers a richer whiteboarding experience with sticky notes, voting, and facilitation features, but at $8-16/user/month with no true free tier for teams. tldraw is a newer open-source competitor with a similar hand-drawn aesthetic and a developer-friendly SDK, though it has a much smaller community.

Verdict: Is Excalidraw Worth It?

At 85/100, Excalidraw is the best free whiteboarding tool for developers and product teams who value speed and simplicity over precision. The hand-drawn aesthetic is not a gimmick — it actively makes diagramming faster by removing the pressure to be pixel-perfect. With 120K GitHub stars, 850K monthly active users, and adoption by some of the world's best engineering teams, Excalidraw has earned its status as a beloved tool. The free version is absurdly generous, and Excalidraw+ at $6/month is a fair upgrade for teams needing cloud storage and voice collaboration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Excalidraw free?

Yes, the core editor is free forever under the MIT license with no feature gates on drawing, collaboration, or export. Excalidraw+ starts at $6/user/month for cloud storage, voice chat, presentations, and team management.

What platforms does Excalidraw support?

Web (any modern browser at excalidraw.com), desktop via PWA, and deep integrations with Obsidian, Notion, Logseq, and VS Code. No native mobile app, though the web version works on tablets.

How does Excalidraw compare to draw.io?

Excalidraw is faster and more intuitive for quick sketches and brainstorming with its hand-drawn style. draw.io is better for precise, structured technical diagrams with formal shapes and connectors. Excalidraw is open-source (MIT); draw.io is also free but with a different licensing model.

Is Excalidraw open source?

Yes, fully open source under the MIT license at github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw with 120K+ stars and 360+ contributors.

Who created Excalidraw?

Christopher Chedeau (Vjeux), a Meta engineer who also co-created React Native and Prettier. He started building Excalidraw on January 1, 2020.