Excalidraw Plus vs tldraw (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, tldraw grades higher than Excalidraw Plus: 3.2 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
tldraw grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Excalidraw Plus
Paid workspace for Excalidraw with cloud scenes and team access
Which one is for you
Pick Excalidraw Plus if
- Fits if you already use the free Excalidraw and want scenes saved and shared
- Works for teams that want comments and presentations on a simple canvas
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan for Plus, as there is only a 14-day trial
- Watch out: payment is by credit card only, and bank transfer is not supported
- Watch out: workspace libraries and library search are marked coming soon
- Watch out: the MCP server and REST API are in public beta
Pick tldraw if
- Fits if you want to sketch something right now without making an account
- Works for keeping boards as local files with the offline desktop app
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want native phone or tablet apps, as none are listed
- Not for you if you want a tool that sits still, since early SDK versions get tested on tldraw.com
- Not for you if you need open source, because the SDK is source-available and its commercial license price isn't published
- Too light for workshops, with no templates or comments listed
- Watch out: sharing a board from tldraw.com needs you to sign in
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAExcalidraw PlusFair | 3.2GPAtldrawVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$6 a seat billed yearly sits between the category's cheaper quarter at $5 and its middle at $8.25. | AFree. The whiteboard at tldraw.com, an account to save your files, and the offline desktop app all cost nothing. What the company sells is its SDK, licensed to other software makers, and that price isn't published. |
| Free plan and trial | C14-day free trial of Plus; the card requirement is not stated, and the free editor is a separate product with local storage. | AEverything a person would use is free: the whiteboard with or without an account, cloud files that sync between devices, sharing by link, and the desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. |
| Features | CCloud scenes, sharing, comments, presentations and 100 AI requests a day, but workspace libraries are coming soon and the API and MCP server are in beta. | CFreehand drawing, shapes, arrows, rich text, images and bookmarks on an infinite canvas, with guests joining by link and snapshots you can publish and update. The drawing basics, covered. But the listing shows no templates and no comments, and sharing needs you to sign in first. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record, and you draw everything yourself. | BNo store rating on record, but there is nothing to set up: open tldraw.com and start drawing, no login asked for. The offline desktop app has no accounts and no server either, so that's download, open, go. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with Notion and Obsidian links and a beta API. | BBrowser, macOS, Windows and Linux, with plugins that let ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor draw on a board. No native iOS or Android apps are listed, so on a phone or tablet it runs in the browser. |
| Best for | hand-drawn whiteboards saved to the cloud | a free whiteboard with no sign-up |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Excalidraw Plus and tldraw. How we grade
Price against what you get
Excalidraw Plus starts at $6 a month for each person and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. tldraw has no paid plan and scores 2.7.
tldraw scores higher and starts $6 a month lower. Of the other whiteboard and mind map tools on the chart, 9 score higher than Excalidraw Plus for less, and none scores higher than tldraw for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
At a glance
| Excalidraw Plus | tldraw | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free |
| Starts at | $6 per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly) | Free |
| Free plan | None | The tldraw.com whiteboard, a tldraw.com account and the tldraw offline desktop app are all free. The tldraw SDK for building canvas products is licensed separately. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of Plus | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Excalidraw | tldraw |
| Price read from | plus.excalidraw.com | tldraw.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Excalidraw Plus
- Plus has no free plan; the free Excalidraw editor is a separate product with local, browser-based storage.
- Payment is by credit card only; the pricing FAQ says bank transfer is not supported.
- Workspace libraries and library search are marked as coming soon.
- The MCP server and REST API are in public beta.
tldraw
- The vendor describes tldraw.com as the flagship demo of its SDK and ships early SDK versions there for testing and evaluation.
- Sharing a board from tldraw.com requires signing in to an account.
- No native iOS or Android apps are listed; on phones and tablets tldraw runs in the browser.
- tldraw is not open source: the SDK is source-available, and using it in a product needs a commercial license whose price is not published.
Key features
Excalidraw Plus
- Cloud scenes and folders
- Scenes are saved to the vendor's cloud with no limit on their number and can be organized into folders and collections.
- Access management
- Share with edit or view rights, send read-only links and embeds, and manage team members in a workspace.
- Presentations and export
- Frames can be shown as slides, including live presentations, and exported to PDF and PPTX.
- Voice hangouts and comments
- Collaborators can talk and share screens on the canvas and leave comments on a scene.
- AI requests
- Text to diagram and wireframe to code run at 100 requests a day on Plus, or with your own API key.
- MCP and REST API
- A public beta MCP server lets an AI agent draw into a workspace, and a REST API is also in public beta.
tldraw
- Infinite canvas drawing tools
- Draw freehand, add shapes, arrows and text with rich formatting, and drop in images and bookmarks. The site says it works in browsers on phones, tablets and desktops.
- Accounts and cloud files
- The app works without logging in. Signing in to a free account saves files to the cloud, syncs them between devices and lists them in a sidebar.
- Sharing and multiplayer
- A signed-in owner can invite guests as editors or viewers with a link, keep a file private, or publish a snapshot that can be updated later without a new link.
- tldraw offline
- A desktop app with no accounts and no server. Boards are saved as self-contained .tldraw files, and others on the same local network can join a file.
- Canvas for AI agents
- A plugin for ChatGPT and Codex and an MCP App for Cursor let agents draw on a board, and tldraw offline lets local agents such as Claude Code edit and script files.
Plans
Excalidraw Plus
Plus$6
per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)
Unlimited scenes and folders saved to the cloud, sharing with edit or view rights, comments, 100 AI requests a day.
tldraw
Free$0
The whiteboard at tldraw.com, with or without an account, and the tldraw offline desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Ways to pay less
Excalidraw Plus
- Annual discount
Save 14% with annual billing
The pricing page lists $6 per user a month billed annually against $7 billed monthly, and labels the annual option as a 14% saving.
tldraw
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Excalidraw Plus or tldraw?
As of Nov 13, 2026, tldraw is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $6 a month for each person for Excalidraw Plus. Excalidraw Plus starts at $6 per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly), and tldraw is free.
Which has a free plan, Excalidraw Plus or tldraw?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only tldraw has a free plan. Excalidraw Plus does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Excalidraw Plus and tldraw run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only tldraw lists macOS, Windows and Linux apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.