Open-source Padlet alternatives

WBO, short for Whitebophir, is an online collaborative whiteboard that lets many users draw at the same time on a large virtual board. Every change appears in real time for everyone connected, and the state of each board is always saved, so you can return to a board later. A public demonstration server is available if you want to try it before installing.

The project suggests uses ranging from art and entertainment to design and teaching, and its screenshots show boards used for diagram editing, math lessons and drawing. Topics also tag it for education. Boards are reachable by name, including an anonymous board, so people can start collaborating without creating an account.

If you have your own web server you can run a private instance. The recommended route is the official Docker image, which listens on port 5001 and keeps boards outside the container. Running directly with Node.js 22 or later is also supported, although it offers less isolation. When behind a trusted proxy or CDN you should set the IP source setting explicitly. The software is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Ideon is a self-hosted visual workspace for projects. Instead of abstract folders and tabs, it uses spatial organization: you place blocks on a shared infinite canvas, and what sits close together is related, so a project's repositories, design notes and tasks can be seen on a single map.

Blocks can hold Markdown notes, images, links, files and to-dos, and live integrations embed repositories and issues from GitHub, GitLab, Gitea and Forgejo directly on the canvas. Teams can collaborate in real time, and a time travel feature shows historical snapshots of the workspace to trace past decisions. A hosted demo is available to try without setup.

Ideon runs with Docker and Docker Compose, using a PostgreSQL database and a persistent storage volume, and there is a one-click template for the Easypanel deployment platform. You set a secret key in an environment file before starting the stack and open the dashboard on port 3000. It is written in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL-3.0.

InfiniPaint is an open-source drawing and note-taking app built on an infinite canvas that you can zoom without a fixed limit, until your computer runs out of memory. That makes it handy for sketches that mix huge scale differences, such as a solar system drawn to scale, as well as for ordinary notes and doodles.

Collaboration is built in through online lobbies, which include text chat and the ability to jump to the position of other participants. The project is written in C++ and has a web version compiled with Emscripten that needs a WebGL2-capable browser, though the maintainer recommends the native build for a better experience. Drawing tablets are among the topics the project lists.

Native builds are offered for Windows (installer or portable zip), macOS on Apple Silicon, and Linux through Flathub or flatpak bundles. Files use the .infpnt extension. The author says it was inspired by the Lorien infinite canvas program, and the code is released under the GPL-3.0 licence.