ExcalidrawTurn rough ideas into diagrams, wireframes and sketches.
Free editor. No account or drawing quota.
Design & creative
AFFiNE
Free optionOpen source
Write documents, organise notes and plan ideas on a whiteboard.
What you can use it for
Write documents, organise notes and plan ideas on a whiteboard.
- Unifies markdown notes, infinite whiteboard canvases, and relational database tables.
- 100% local-first data architecture with zero lock-in.
- Active open-source community with over 50,000 GitHub stars.
Workflow coverage and comparison notes
Brainstorm visual mindmaps, collaborate on multi-modal infinite canvas whiteboards and link markdown notes with privacy-first AFFiNE instead of paying $3-$5/seat/mo for FigJam.
Before you switch
Self-hosted sync backend requires Docker deployment; cloud sync on free plan has storage quotas for attachments.
Alternatives to these paid apps
Each comparison covers the workflow described above, rather than every paid feature.
More for the same workflow
See alternatives →Excalidraw
tldrawSketch ideas, brainstorm and draw diagrams on a shared browser whiteboard.
tldraw.com is a free collaborative whiteboard (site title: 'free and instant collaborative whiteboarding').
Draw flowcharts, system diagrams and process maps in your browser.
'Free forever, no sign-up required' (site); Apache-2.0; desktop app too.