Excalidraw vs Miro

Excalidraw

• Quick architecture sketches, wireframes and diagrams
• Ad hoc sessions where guests join by link with no account
• Developers who want an open-source editor to embed or self-host
• Students and teachers, who get a reduced Excalidraw+ price

Miro

• Remote workshops, retrospectives and brainstorming sessions
• Product and engineering teams mapping processes and systems
• Teams that plan sprints on a board synced with Jira or Asana

Excalidraw

• The free editor has 1 scene and no accounts or cloud saving; anything else has to be exported or saved to a file.
• Unlimited scenes, comments, access management, presentations and voice hangouts all need Excalidraw+.
• The vendor's pages list no desktop or mobile apps; Excalidraw runs in a web browser.
• Excalidraw+ bills every seat in every workspace, accepts credit cards only, and its terms make charges non-refundable.

Miro

• On the Free plan only the 3 most recent boards stay editable, every board is open to the whole team, and there are no guest or visitor roles.
• The technical diagramming shapes, two-way integrations, SSO and AI workflows start at Business, $20 per member / month billed yearly.
• AI use is metered: 10 credits a month on Free, 25 per member on Starter and 50 per member on Business, with no rollover.
• The download page lists Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps but no Linux app.

Excalidraw

Hand-drawn style canvas

An infinite canvas with elementary drawing tools and a sketched, hand-drawn look. Keyboard shortcuts and a command palette speed up drawing.

Collaboration by link

Sharing a link starts a live session that anyone can join without an account. Excalidraw+ adds read-only links, edit or view rights, comments and embeds.

Libraries

Public libraries supply ready-made sketches to drop into a scene. A personal library is kept in the browser on the free editor and on the server with Excalidraw+.

Generative AI

Text to diagram builds and edits diagrams from a prompt, and wireframe to code turns a sketch into an interactive mockup. AI use is limited on Free and extended on Plus.

Excalidraw+ workspace

Scenes sync to the cloud and are organized into collections, with user accounts, team management and access control. An MCP server lets AI agents draw into a workspace.

Presentations and voice

With Plus, frames become slides for live presentations, scenes export to PDF and PPTX, and collaborators can talk over voice hangouts with screen sharing.

Miro

Canvas with built-in formats

Docs, tables, timelines, kanban boards and slides sit on the same board as sticky notes, shapes and drawings, and are available on every plan including Free.

Diagramming shape libraries

The Business plan adds more than 4,700 shapes for mapping technical systems, cloud infrastructure and business processes, covering Mermaid, UML, AWS and BPMN.

Facilitation tools

From the Starter plan, a timer, voting, private mode and notes support meetings and workshops. Business adds Engage activities such as polls, scales and a 2x2 matrix.

Miro AI

Generates diagrams, tables and summaries and clusters sticky notes, paid for with monthly AI credits that do not roll over. AI workflows and agents are part of Business.

MCP server

Connects Miro to AI tools such as Claude, Cursor and GitHub Copilot so board content can flow both ways. Daily call limits rise with the plan: 500 on Starter, 2,000 on Business.

Two-way integrations

On Business, items from Jira, Asana, Linear, ClickUp and Azure can be planned on the canvas with changes synced in both directions.

Excalidraw

• Free$0

  Full editor with 1 infinite scene, unlimited collaborators by link, PNG and SVG export, libraries, and end-to-end encryption in the browser.

• Plus$6

  per user / month, billed annually ($7 billed monthly)

  Unlimited scenes and folders saved to the cloud, edit or view-only sharing, comments, team management, presentations, voice hangouts and extended AI.

Miro

• Free$0

  3 editable boards, unlimited team members, templates, Docs, Tables, Slides and Kanban formats, and 10 AI credits a month.

• Starter$8

  per member / month, billed yearly

  Unlimited and private boards, visitor editing, high-resolution exports, timer and voting, 25 AI credits per member a month and 500 MCP calls a day.

• Business$20

  per member / month, billed yearly

  Unlimited workspaces and guests, 4,700+ diagram shapes, AI workflows and agents, two-way integrations, SSO and 50 AI credits per member a month.

• EnterpriseCustom

  From 30 members. Enforced SSO, SCIM, audit logs, domain control, data residency in the EU, US, Australia or Japan, and AI admin controls.

Excalidraw

• Annual discount

  Save 14% with annual billing

  Excalidraw+ is $6 per user a month when billed annually and $7 when billed monthly. The pricing page states the annual saving as 14%.

• Education

  Excalidraw+ for $4 a month with a school email

  Students and teachers with an educational email address can get Excalidraw+ for $4 monthly or $36 yearly, shown at checkout or after verification.

Miro

• Annual discount

  Save 20% with yearly billing

  Miro's pricing page states that annual billing on Starter and Business costs 20% less than paying monthly.

• Education

  Free plans for students and educators

  Students can apply for a free plan with 10 team members for 2 years, and educators for a free plan with 100 team members. Institution accounts start at 50% off the regular price.

• Nonprofit

  30% off paid plans for nonprofits

  Eligible nonprofit organizations that apply with proof of status receive a 30% discount on paid Miro plans for as long as the account stays active.

• Startups

  Up to $1,000 in credits for startups

  Startups with fewer than 30 employees and no paid subscription can get $1,000 in Miro credits through a partner accelerator, incubator or VC, or $500 when applying independently.