tldraw vs Whimsical
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Whimsical
Whiteboard for flowcharts, wireframes, mind maps and docs
Where they differ
- tldraw is free. Whimsical starts at $10 per editor / month, billed annually ($120 a year).
- Whimsical also covers templates, documents and mind mapping.
At a glance
| tldraw | Whimsical | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $10 per editor / month, billed annually ($120 a year) |
| Free plan | 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. | Unlimited boards, docs, teams and guests, with a monthly allowance of 50 board objects and 50 doc blocks, watermarked exports, 7-day version history and 10 one-off AI credits. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | tldraw | Whimsical, Inc. |
| Price read from | tldraw.com | whimsical.com |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
tldraw
- Quick sketches and diagrams without creating an account
- People who want whiteboard files kept locally on their computer
- Working on a canvas alongside coding agents such as Codex or Claude Code
- Developers evaluating the tldraw SDK for their own product
Whimsical
- Product teams sketching flows, wireframes and specs in one place
- Teams with many occasional viewers, since only editors are billed
- Linux users: the desktop app ships as DEB and RPM packages
- Students and teachers, who can apply for a free year
Worth knowing
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.
Whimsical
- The Free plan allows 50 new board objects and 50 doc blocks a month and puts a watermark on exports.
- There is no dedicated mobile app: on a phone, files can be viewed and commented on in a browser, and iPad use is browser-based.
- AI credits are a one-off 10 per account on every plan; more are sold in bundles starting at 250 credits for $25.
- Private teams, SAML single sign-on and SCIM are limited to Business, at $20 per editor / month billed annually.
Key features
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.
Whimsical
- Boards on an infinite canvas
- One board type covers flowcharts, mind maps, sequence diagrams, sticky notes and freehand sketches. Voting and a timer are included on every plan.
- Wireframes
- Wireframes are assembled from drag-and-drop components, as a quick way to explore product ideas and iterate on them.
- Whimsical AI
- A prompt generates a flowchart, a branched mind map or an editable wireframe. Each account gets 10 one-off AI credits; more are sold separately at $0.10 each.
- Docs
- Docs hold notes, project plans, briefs and specs next to the boards they describe, with Markdown support, toggles and embedded content.
- Multiplayer editing and comments
- Several people can edit a file at once and leave comments on it. Share links can grant view, comment or edit access on every plan.
- Embeds and AI tool connectors
- Boards embed live in Notion and Obsidian and preview in Slack, Jira and Google Docs. An MCP server and connectors let ChatGPT, Claude and Cursor create diagrams.
Plans
tldraw
Free$0
The whiteboard at tldraw.com, with or without an account, and the tldraw offline desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Whimsical
Free$0
50 new board objects and 50 doc blocks a month, 5 MB uploads within 1 GB of storage, watermarked exports and 7-day version history.
Pro$10
per editor / month, billed annually ($12 billed monthly)
Unlimited board objects and doc blocks, exports without a watermark, 90-day version history, password-protected files and 100 GB of storage.
Business$20
per editor / month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)
Private teams, SAML single sign-on, SCIM, content security lock, unlimited version history, invoicing, priority support and storage from 2 TB.
Ways to pay less
tldraw
No public discounts listed.
Whimsical
- Annual discount
2 months free with annual billing
Pro is $120 per editor billed annually against $12 a month, and Business is $240 against $24. The pricing page shows this as a 17% saving.
- Education
Free for a year for students and teachers
Teachers and students can apply for the education plan, which provides the same features as Pro free of charge for a year.
- Nonprofit
20% off for nonprofits
Whimsical offers a 20% discount to non-profit organizations that apply through its form.
- Other savings
Free for life for YouTube creators
Creators with a public YouTube channel of at least 1,000 subscribers and a video published in the past 30 days can apply for a plan that is free for life.
