Microsoft Whiteboard vs Miro

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Microsoft Whiteboard

No public discounts listed.

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.