Best Online Whiteboard Software in 2026
Miro is the most powerful option with extensive templates and integrations, ideal for teams that use whiteboards heavily. FigJam is simpler and perfect if you already use Figma. Microsoft Whiteboard is free with Microsoft 365 and works well for casual use. For quick, free whiteboarding, Excalidraw is surprisingly good.
Collaborate visually from anywhere
Digital whiteboards exploded during remote work and haven't slowed down. They recreate the spontaneous collaboration of physical whiteboards while adding features that analog can't match, infinite canvas, templates, voting, timer tools, and persistent boards you can return to. Toolradar data: we catalog 1,602 productivity tools all told, and 65% of them let you start without paying, collaborative whiteboards included.
The market has matured into clear categories: enterprise powerhouses, design-focused tools, and lightweight free options. Here's how to pick.
Top Picks
Picked by editorial review, informed by G2 and Capterra review volume and rating and by media mentions, the signals behind our category rankings. How we rate
| Tool | Starting price | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miro | From $8/mo | 4.6 13,566 reviews | Teams that use whiteboards as a core collaboration tool for workshops and planning |
| FigJam | From $3/mo | 4.0 640 reviews | Design teams and Figma users who want quick, fun collaboration without complexity |
| Excalidraw | From $6/mo | 4.5 31 reviews | Quick sketching, developers, and teams who value simplicity and privacy |
| Microsoft Whiteboard | Free plan | 4.2 209 reviews | Microsoft 365 customers who want a free whiteboard tightly integrated with Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook. |
| Mural | From $9.99/mo | 4.1 1,500 reviews | Enterprise innovation, design, and consulting teams that run frequent facilitated workshops at scale. |
| Lucidspark | Free plan | 3.8 18,186 reviews | Teams already on Lucidchart that want a whiteboard tightly integrated with formal diagrams. |
| Stormboard | From $10/mo | 4.4 118 reviews | Facilitators and consultants who want structured frameworks (5 Whys, SWOT, retros) baked into a whiteboard. |
| Conceptboard | Free plan | 4.6 144 reviews | Product and engineering teams that need a whiteboard plus document review and PDF markup workflows. |
| tldraw | Free | n/a | Developers and creators who want a tiny, fast, open-source whiteboard that embeds easily into custom apps. |
Teams that use whiteboards as a core collaboration tool for workshops and planning
- Pro: 300+ templates for retrospectives, user story mapping, brainstorming, and strategic planning
- Pro: Powerful facilitation tools: voting, timers, attention management, and anonymous mode
- Pro: Integrates with Slack, Jira, Zoom, Teams, Asana, and 100+ other tools
- Con: Interface can feel overwhelming, too many features for teams who just want simple stickies
- Con: Starter at $8/member/mo adds up fast for large teams (10 members = $80/mo)
Miro's pricing is generally fair, offering a robust Free tier for individuals and small teams.
Watch out
Monthly billing is 25% more expensive
Design teams and Figma users who want quick, fun collaboration without complexity
- Pro: Free with unlimited files, no board limit like Miro's 3-board cap
- Pro: Playful interactions: stamps, emoji reactions, cursor chat, and music
- Pro: Seamless Figma integration, drag components between FigJam and Figma designs
- Con: Less powerful than Miro, fewer templates, no advanced facilitation tools
- Con: Fewer integrations, no Jira, Asana, or Slack native connections
FigJam's pricing is quite fair, especially with a generous free 'Starter' tier.
Quick sketching, developers, and teams who value simplicity and privacy
- Pro: Completely free and open source, no account required, no limits, no ads
- Pro: Charming hand-drawn aesthetic that keeps diagrams feeling informal and approachable
- Pro: End-to-end encryption for live collaboration, privacy-first design
- Con: No templates library, you start from a blank canvas every time
- Con: Collaboration requires sharing a link, no persistent team workspace
Excalidraw's pricing is very generous, especially with its robust free tier offering full whiteboard features and collaboration.
Watch out
No mention of storage limits on paid plans
Microsoft 365 customers who want a free whiteboard tightly integrated with Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook.
- Pro: Free with Microsoft 365
- Pro: Tight Teams integration
- Pro: Templates and inking
- Con: Less powerful than Miro
- Con: Best inside the Microsoft ecosystem
Microsoft Whiteboard's pricing is incredibly generous, effectively offering a robust digital canvas for free to anyone with a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Enterprise innovation, design, and consulting teams that run frequent facilitated workshops at scale.
- Pro: Strong workshop facilitation features
- Pro: Mature templates for design thinking
- Pro: Enterprise governance
- Con: Pricier than Miro
- Con: UX less playful
MURAL's pricing is fair, especially for teams.
Lucidspark
- 4.5 on G2 (9,023 reviews)
- 2.3 on SourceForge (6,699 reviews)
- 4.7 on Capterra (2,464 reviews)
Teams already on Lucidchart that want a whiteboard tightly integrated with formal diagrams.
- Pro: Integrated with Lucidchart
- Pro: Strong voting + facilitation
- Pro: Templates for brainstorming
- Con: Less mind-share than Miro
- Con: Best inside the Lucid suite
It's best for individuals and small to medium teams looking for a robust virtual whiteboard solution.
Facilitators and consultants who want structured frameworks (5 Whys, SWOT, retros) baked into a whiteboard.
- Pro: Strong facilitation frameworks
- Pro: Reasonable per-user pricing
- Pro: Reports + sticky note exports
- Con: UX less modern than Miro
- Con: Smaller community
Stormboard's pricing is fair, offering a generous 'Personal' free tier for individuals.
Product and engineering teams that need a whiteboard plus document review and PDF markup workflows.
- Pro: Strong PDF + image annotation
- Pro: Real-time collaboration
- Pro: Reasonable per-user pricing
- Con: UX denser than Miro
- Con: Smaller community
Conceptboard offers a fair pricing structure, with a generous free tier for individual use.
Developers and creators who want a tiny, fast, open-source whiteboard that embeds easily into custom apps.
- Pro: Open source
- Pro: Tiny + fast
- Pro: Strong embedding story
- Con: Limited facilitation features
- Con: Smaller template library
tldraw's pricing is exceptionally fair and generous, as it offers a fully-featured collaborative whiteboard experience completely free of charge.
Other Whiteboard tools worth considering
More published tools from our Whiteboard category, ordered by our category ranking. They are not part of the editorial picks above.
What Digital Whiteboards Do
Online whiteboard software provides a shared canvas where teams can draw, add sticky notes, create diagrams, and collaborate in real-time. Unlike document collaboration, whiteboards are spatial, ideas can be arranged, grouped, and connected visually. Modern tools add facilitation features like voting, timers, and structured templates.
Why Digital Whiteboards Matter
Remote and hybrid work makes spontaneous collaboration harder. Digital whiteboards bring back the brainstorming energy of being in a room together. They're essential for workshops, retrospectives, strategic planning, and any session where visual thinking helps. The best teams use them as a default collaboration space.
Key Features to Look For
Real-Time Collaboration (Essential)
Multiple users editing simultaneously
Infinite Canvas (Essential)
Unlimited space for ideas
Sticky Notes & Shapes (Essential)
Basic building blocks for visual work
Templates (Important)
Pre-built structures for common meetings and processes
Voting/Reactions (Important)
Dot voting, emoji reactions for prioritization
Timer & Facilitation Tools (Important)
Run structured workshops
Integrations (Important)
Connect with Slack, Jira, Zoom, etc.
Drawing Tools (Nice to have)
Freehand sketching and annotation
Video Embedding (Nice to have)
Add calls or recordings to boards
How to Choose
How often will you use it? Heavy users need robust tools; occasional use works with free options
Team size? Collaboration features and pricing scale differently
Existing tools? FigJam pairs with Figma; Microsoft Whiteboard pairs with 365
Workshop facilitation? Look for voting, timers, and structured templates
Performance? Some tools struggle with large boards or many participants
Evaluation Checklist
Run a real workshop with 5-10 participants, test sticky note creation, voting, and cursor visibility under realistic conditions
Test board performance with 100+ elements, large boards with many stickies and drawings can lag significantly on some tools
Verify template quality for your use cases, retrospectives, user story mapping, and brainstorming should have ready-made templates
Check mobile and tablet experience, facilitators and participants may join from various devices
Test video call integration, can you whiteboard inside Zoom/Teams, or do you need a separate window?
Pricing Overview
Miro
Most powerful option for teams using whiteboards as core collaboration tool
Free (3 boards) / Starter $8/member/mo yearly / Business $20/member/mo yearly
FigJam
Design teams already using Figma, simple, playful, and free
Free (unlimited files) / Professional $5/editor/mo (with Figma)
Excalidraw
Developers and quick sketching with charming hand-drawn style
Free (open source) / Excalidraw+ $7/mo (collaboration)
Mistakes to Avoid
- ×
Paying for Miro when FigJam or Excalidraw would suffice, FigJam is free with unlimited files. Excalidraw is free with no limits. Test these before committing to Miro at $8/member/mo
- ×
Creating boards that become too large and slow, A board with 1,000+ stickies is unusable. Break large workshops into separate boards by topic or phase. Archive completed boards
- ×
Not using templates for structured workshops, Setting up a retrospective from scratch takes 15 minutes. Miro's templates have pre-built structures that save setup time and guide facilitation
- ×
Forgetting that Microsoft Whiteboard exists, If your organization uses Microsoft 365, Whiteboard is included free. It's basic but handles simple brainstorming and meeting sketches well
- ×
Over-facilitating with too many tools on the board, Timers, voting, stickers, and drawing tools are powerful but confusing when used all at once. Start simple and add facilitation tools as needed
Expert Tips
- →
Start with FigJam or Excalidraw to test if whiteboarding fits your workflow, Both are free and reveal whether your team actually benefits from visual collaboration before you invest in Miro
- →
Miro's template library is worth exploring even on the free tier, Search for your specific use case (sprint planning, empathy mapping, SWOT analysis) and save time with pre-built structures
- →
Set board ground rules before workshops, Define sticky note colors (yellow = ideas, pink = concerns), voting limits (3 dots per person), and time boxes. This prevents chaos with large groups
- →
Keep boards focused, create new boards instead of expanding, One board per workshop or meeting. Don't create a 'master board' that grows indefinitely. Boards are cheap; cognitive overload is expensive
- →
Use Excalidraw for technical diagrams and architecture discussions, Its hand-drawn style keeps diagrams informal, discouraging over-polishing. Developers especially love this for system design conversations
Red Flags to Watch For
-
Free tier limited to 3 boards with no way to archive (Miro), you'll hit the limit quickly and be forced to delete or upgrade
-
No real-time collaboration or significant lag between participants, defeats the purpose of a digital whiteboard
-
Boards automatically deleted after inactivity, persistent boards are essential for ongoing projects
-
No export options, you should be able to save boards as images or PDFs for documentation
The Bottom Line
Miro (Free for 3 boards ($8)/member/mo) for teams that use whiteboards as a core collaboration tool. FigJam (free unlimited) for Figma users who want simple, playful collaboration. Excalidraw (free, open source) for quick sketching and technical diagrams. Don't pay for enterprise features unless you're actually running structured workshops regularly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Miro vs. FigJam - which should I choose?
Are digital whiteboards good for remote teams?
Essential for remote teams. They bring back the spontaneous visual collaboration that's lost in remote work. Regular use takes some adjustment, but teams who embrace them often can't go back.
Can I use these for in-person meetings too?
Absolutely, cast to a screen or projector and use as a shared digital canvas. Many teams use digital whiteboards in meeting rooms even when everyone's present, for persistence and flexibility.
Cite this page: Toolradar, "Best Online Whiteboard Software in 2026", updated September 2026, https://toolradar.com/guides/best-whiteboard-software
Sources
Prices and plan details on this page come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker:
- Miro pricing, checked
- FigJam pricing, checked
- Excalidraw pricing, checked
- Microsoft Whiteboard pricing, checked
- Mural pricing, checked
- Lucidspark pricing, checked
- Stormboard pricing, checked
- Conceptboard pricing, checked
- tldraw pricing, checked
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