About WBO
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.
Key features
- Real-time multi-user drawing on shared boards
- Boards saved automatically
- Anonymous boards without sign-up
- Official Docker image
- Runs directly on Node.js
- Configurable client IP source behind proxies
Good fit for
- →Online teaching and math lessons
- →Collaborative diagrams and design sketches
- →Casual group drawing
- Built with
- JavaScript
- Tags
- whiteboard
- collaboration
- real-time
- drawing
- education
- self-hosted
- docker
- nodejs
WBO: questions and answers
- What is WBO used for?
- WBO is an open-source online whiteboard where many people can draw on one large shared board in real time. It is a good fit for online teaching and math lessons, collaborative diagrams and design sketches, and casual group drawing.
- Is WBO open source?
- Yes. WBO is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at lovasoa/whitebophir and is written mainly in JavaScript.
- Is WBO free?
- Yes. WBO is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
- Can I self-host WBO?
- Yes. WBO can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is WBO an alternative to?
- WBO is an open-source alternative to Miro, Microsoft Whiteboard, Conceptboard and Lucidspark. Other open-source alternatives to Miro include tldraw, Excalidraw and Drafft.ink.
- Is WBO actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to WBO was on 12 September 2026. The project has 2.7k stars on GitHub.
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