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Miro vs Excalidraw
Miro vs Excalidraw
A side-by-side look at Miro (the paid SaaS) and Excalidraw (the open source alternative). Use this page to decide if the switch fits your team and workflow.
| Miro | Excalidraw | |
|---|---|---|
| Tagline | Online whiteboard for workshops, retros, and diagrams. | Virtual whiteboard for sketchy diagrams. |
| License | Proprietary SaaS | MIT |
| Pricing | Free up to 3 boards; Starter from $8/user/month. | Free to self-host · optional paid hosted plan |
| Self-host option | No | Yes — difficulty 1/5 |
| Hosted cloud available | Yes (only option) | Yes |
| Desktop apps | Varies by product | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Mobile apps | Official apps typically available | iOS, Android |
Ad slot — between tables
Best for
Quick sketchy wireframes and brainstorms with zero setup.
Excalidraw strengths
- Great for wireframes and brainstorms.
- End-to-end encrypted rooms on official instance.
- Embeddable in docs and wikis.
Excalidraw weaknesses
- Not a full design tool — sketch-style only.
- Limited component/library system.
- Real-time plus is behind a paid tier.
What's the catch with Miro?
- Pricing scales with boards and seats.
- Cloud-only — no self-host for confidential workshops.
- Large boards can lag in the browser.
Still unsure?
Check the full list of alternatives to Miro: see Miro alternatives, or learn more about Excalidraw on its project page.
Recommended reading
When self-hosting goes wrong: seven failure modes and how to avoid them
An honest retrospective on the ways self-hosted setups break — not in theory, but in practice — and the small habits that prevent most of them.
Will the open source project you depend on still exist in three years?
Bus factor, maintainer burnout, funding models, and the signals that separate OSS projects that survive from those that quietly decay.
From SaaS to self-hosted: a 30-day migration playbook
A week-by-week plan to move one service off SaaS and onto your own server without breaking your team's workflow.