Lucidspark vs Microsoft Whiteboard

Lucidspark

• Remote and hybrid teams running brainstorms and workshops
• Agile teams holding standups, sprint planning and retrospectives
• Organizations that already use Lucidchart for diagrams
• Teachers and students, who get a free upgrade with a school email

Microsoft Whiteboard

• Teams meetings where participants sketch on one shared board
• Organizations on Microsoft 365, where it is enabled by default
• Schools: free for students and educators through Microsoft 365 A1
• Pen and touch devices such as Surface Hub and iPad

Lucidspark

• The Free plan is limited to 3 editable boards.
• The iOS app requires a Team or Enterprise subscription; Free and Individual accounts are pointed to the browser version instead.
• Voting, timers, guest collaborators and revision history start at Team; breakout boards, SAML and the Jira and Azure DevOps integrations are Enterprise only.
• The pricing page shows only annual-billing rates. Its FAQ says monthly billing is available but gives no monthly price.

Microsoft Whiteboard

• Microsoft lists apps for Windows, iOS, Android and Surface Hub but none for Mac or Linux, where Whiteboard runs in a browser or in Teams.
• Boards made with a personal account are stored in Azure and lack collaborative cursors, the laser pointer, the roster, a recycle bin and retention policies.
• Whiteboard is not sold on its own: work and school use depends on the organization's Microsoft 365 tenant, where an admin can turn it off.
• Copilot features need a separate Microsoft Copilot license.

Lucidspark

Infinite canvas

Boards hold sticky notes, shapes, freehand drawing, images and comments, with Gather and Sort tools to group notes after a brainstorm.

Visual Activities

Interactive exercises collect input from a group and turn it into results the team can act on. Basic activities are free; premium ones need a paid plan.

Facilitation tools

Team plans add voting, a timer, a laser pointer, facilitator controls and the option to call everyone to one spot. Breakout boards are Enterprise only.

Lucid AI

AI generates ideas, sorts notes into themes and summarizes a session. It is listed on every plan, with a note that it may move to a paid model later.

Lucid Cards and Dynamic Table

Lucid Cards work with task tools such as Jira and Azure DevOps to turn ideas into next steps, and Dynamic Table organizes ideas for visual planning.

Mind maps and templates

A mind map can be added to any board in a few clicks, and the template gallery covers retrospectives, sprint planning, roadmaps, SWOT analysis and more.

Microsoft Whiteboard

Infinite canvas with ink and sticky notes

Pens, a highlighter, an eraser and a lasso sit alongside sticky notes, text, images and shapes, and the canvas works with a mouse, a touchscreen or a pen.

Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams

A board can be shared in a Teams meeting, chat or channel and stays available afterwards. The meeting organizer can put other participants in read-only mode.

Templates

More than 60 free templates give a starting structure for exercises such as brainstorming, sprint planning and project development.

Loop components

Microsoft Loop components can be placed on a board and stay in sync with the same component in chats, meetings, emails and documents.

Copilot in Whiteboard

Copilot suggests ideas as sticky notes, sorts notes into categories and summarizes a board. It requires a Microsoft Copilot license.

Automatic saving and share links

Boards save to the Microsoft cloud automatically, a share link invites others to collaborate, and a board can be exported as an image or sent to a OneNote class notebook.

Lucidspark

• Free$0

  3 editable boards, unlimited shapes per board, freehand drawing, commenting, basic Visual Activities and Lucid AI.

• Individual$9

  per month, billed annually

  Unlimited editable boards, premium Visual Activities and 1 GB of storage.

• Team$10

  per user / month, billed annually

  Adds voting, timer, facilitator tools, guest collaborators, revision history with versioning and the developer platform.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Adds Lucidchart, breakout boards, team hubs, SAML authentication, sharing restrictions, and Jira, Smartsheet and Azure DevOps integrations.

Microsoft Whiteboard

• Free$0

  The web, Windows, iOS and Android apps with a free Microsoft account. Work and school access comes with an organization's Microsoft 365 tenant, not as a separate purchase.

Lucidspark

• Annual discount

  Lower price with annual billing

  Lucid's pricing FAQ says paid plans can be paid monthly or, at a saving, annually. The listed rates are the annual ones and the page does not state the size of the saving.

• Education

  Free upgrade for students and educators

  Accounts registered with a valid educational email address are upgraded automatically at no charge. Schools can also request a quote for Education Premium.

Microsoft Whiteboard

No public discounts listed.