Open-source Ziteboard alternatives

Excalidraw is a browser-based whiteboard that renders shapes, arrows and text in a deliberately hand-drawn style, which makes diagrams feel like quick sketches rather than polished slides. It is used for architecture diagrams, wireframes, brainstorming and teaching, and works on an infinite canvas with zoom and pan.

The editor offers rectangles, circles, diamonds, arrows, lines, free-draw and an eraser, along with labeled arrows that stay bound to shapes, image support, shape libraries, dark mode and undo and redo. Drawings export to PNG, SVG or the clipboard, or to an open JSON-based .excalidraw file. The hosted app adds real-time collaboration with end-to-end encryption, offline use as a progressive web app, autosave in the browser and shareable read-only links.

The editor is also published as an npm package under the MIT license, so developers can embed it in their own products and customize it. A separate paid plan, Excalidraw+, is linked from the project for people who want a hosted workspace.

tldraw is an SDK for building infinite canvas applications in React. It supplies a complete canvas engine that serves as the foundation for whiteboards, diagramming tools, design editors and other canvas products, and it ships a default whiteboarding tool set that you can use as is or replace with your own primitives.

Out of the box it offers pressure-sensitive drawing, geometric shapes, rich text, arrows with snapping, image and video support and image export. Developers can extend it with their own shapes, tools, bindings, interface components, side effects and event hooks, and can drive the canvas at runtime through the Editor API. Multiplayer collaboration is available through a self-hostable sync package, there are canvas primitives for building with LLMs, and the DOM-based rendering can embed websites such as YouTube, Figma and GitHub. It works in desktop and touch browsers.

Starter kits provide the custom shapes, tools and interface for common application types, and each kit is MIT licensed. The SDK itself is under tldraw's own license rather than a standard open-source one, so review the terms before shipping it in a commercial product.

Drawnix is a free, open-source whiteboard that brings mind maps, flowcharts and freehand drawing together in a single workspace. Instead of switching between separate diagramming apps, you can sketch ideas, structure them into diagrams and annotate everything on one infinite canvas that you can zoom and scroll freely.

The editor supports inserting images, undo and redo, copy and paste, light and dark themes, and a layout that adapts to mobile devices. Mermaid syntax can be converted into flowcharts and Markdown text into mind maps, while work is saved automatically in the browser and can be exported as PNG images or as .drawnix JSON files for later reuse.

Drawnix is released under the MIT licence and is built on Plait, an open-source drawing framework from the PingCode team, using a plugin architecture that can work with different UI frameworks. The hosted app at drawnix.com is a minimal version, and the repository includes Docker instructions for people who prefer to run their own copy.

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.

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.

Drafft.ink is a digital whiteboard with an infinite canvas, written in Rust and rendered with WebGPU. It runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, in the browser and on mobile, works without an account, and offers real-time collaboration through the Loro CRDT. The authors position it as a subscription-free tool, and the code is licensed under AGPL-3.0 so you can use, modify and host it as long as it stays open.

Drawing tools include rectangles, ellipses, lines, arrows and freehand paths with pressure sensitivity, plus smart guides for alignment, equal spacing and angle snapping. Text supports multiple fonts, per-character styling and inline LaTeX math, and images can be dropped or pasted into the document. A sketchy, hand-drawn style is available through the roughr library. Boards export to PNG or JSON, and JSON can be imported back. Touch gestures work on tablets, and the project states there is no telemetry.

For collaboration you run a single-binary server that listens on a WebSocket endpoint with no configuration files, or use the hosted site at drafft.ink. It is comparable to Excalidraw, which appears among its topics.