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OpenSourceAlternatives

Miro alternatives

3 projects to consider for your Miro workflows.

3 open source

Explore Excalidraw, AFFiNE and draw.io. Each takes a different approach to your Miro workflows. Read its capabilities and limitations to find the right fit.

Catalogue facts checked August 31, 2026

Excalidraw

Collaborative whiteboard with a hand-drawn look

Open sourceMITSelf-hosted

Teams that sketch architecture, lessons, or interview problems together in a browser will benefit most from Excalidraw. Its sketch-style canvas opens with no signup, and shared-link sessions stay end to end encrypted so early ideas can move fast. The material constraint is cloud persistence: the free hosted tier keeps a single scene, and structured templates lag dedicated platforms, so teams needing managed workspaces should choose something else. If you want fast lo-fi sketching you can also self-host, choose Excalidraw; if you need a managed, template-rich workspace, choose Miro.[1][2]

Good fit. Product and engineering teams whose best conversations happen before anything is decided will get the most from provisional-looking sketches that invite correction.[1]

Keep in mind. Groups running structured retros, customer journeys, or design sprints on ready-made boards will find the template library thin compared with Miro, and the free hosted tier keeps a single scene.[1]

Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed August 31, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

Inspected G2 Excalidraw reviews page excerpts as displayed in October 2026 (page showed 31 reviews averaging 4.5); selected two labelled excerpts covering ease of diagramming and zero-friction opening, with reported criticisms preserved in analysis. Small inspected sample from one community source; Reddit threads were blocked on read. Counts describe the sample only and are not satisfaction or prevalence scores.

  1. Excalidraw GitHub README

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Maintainer-published overview, feature list, embedding, contributing and support statements; primary evidence for capabilities and identity.

  2. Excalidraw+ pricing

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official plan comparison; supports cost FAQ, Plus quotas, and the free-tier single-scene constraint.

  3. Excalidraw reviews on G2

    community · Observed October 9, 2026

    Original public user reports; supports testimonials and community analysis. Page showed 31 reviews averaging 4.5 as displayed.

AFFiNE

Documents, whiteboard, and database in one canvas

Open sourceMITSelf-hosted

Privacy-conscious individuals, families, and small teams who want Notion-style documents plus whiteboards on infrastructure they control will get the most from AFFiNE. Its local-first workspace keeps docs, whiteboards, and databases on your own devices with background sync, and self-hosting is free for up to 10 seats per workspace. The price of that independence is a thinner ecosystem, so teams that depend on Notion integrations, templates, or database-driven dashboards should stay with Notion. If you can run a Docker Compose file or pay a few dollars a month for a VPS, choose AFFiNE; if you need deep integrations and zero operational responsibility, choose Notion.[1][2][3][4]

Good fit. Privacy-minded individuals and families: notes live on your own hardware first, the desktop app needs no account, and self-hosting removes the vendor from your sync path.[1][2][3][4]

Keep in mind. Teams wired into Notion integrations and database dashboards: both firsthand reports name this as the gap most likely to send you back, and the import path for complex databases is experimental.[1][2][3]

Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed August 31, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 6, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

Two named firsthand switch-from-Notion reports: Franklin Indorf's January 2026 XDA-Developers account of Docker self-hosted AFFiNE on his home lab, and Yadullah Abidi's March 2026 MakeUseOf Staff Writer account after 3+ months on self-hosted AFFiNE. Three labelled excerpts totalling 47 words are quoted exactly; full reports are linked in the readable draft. Purposive sample of two inspected firsthand reports, not a prevalence estimate. Both reporters are technical self-hosters who switched from Notion; managed-cloud and non-technical experiences are not represented. Indorf's January 2026 database criticism predates later table and calendar database work in the official changelog.

  1. Self-Host AFFiNE (official docs)

    official · Observed October 6, 2026

    Official deployment documentation: Docker Compose install, editions, prerequisites, identity providers, backup, and experimental AI keys.

  2. Self-Hosted Knowledge Base (official)

    official · Observed October 6, 2026

    Official self-host overview: seat limits, Team per-seat pricing, Installable License route, SSO/compliance checklist, and hardware sizing.

  3. Notion Offline Mode guide (official AFFiNE blog)

    official · Observed October 6, 2026

    Official offline guide, page states updated October 2026: local-first CRDT model, platform availability, experimental Notion HTML importer, and import/export formats.

  4. Never going back to Notion after mastering this self-hosted tool (XDA)

    community · Observed October 6, 2026 · Published January 14, 2026

    Firsthand switch-from-Notion report: Docker self-hosted AFFiNE on a home lab for personal and family documents; performance and canvas observations plus a dated limitation list.

  5. I ditched Notion for a self-hosted app (MakeUseOf)

    community · Observed October 6, 2026 · Published March 26, 2026

    Firsthand Staff Writer report after 3+ months on self-hosted AFFiNE: doc/canvas duality, VPS cost math, ops burden, and scoped switch advice.

draw.io

Security-first diagramming online, on desktop, or self-hosted

Open sourceApache-2.0Self-hostedManaged hosting

Security-conscious teams and Confluence or Jira shops will get the most from draw.io. Its free Apache 2.0 editor, offline desktop apps, user-chosen storage, and zero-egress Forge option give regulated teams real data control at no seat cost. Teams with very large diagrams or self-hosted live co-editing needs should verify those limits first, since reviewers note heavy-diagram clunkiness and the self-hosted build lacks real-time collaboration. If you need a free, precise, data-controlled diagrammer, choose draw.io; if you need whiteboard-first workshops, choose Miro or Excalidraw instead.[1][2][3]

Good fit. Because the core editor, desktop apps, and self-hosted builds are free under Apache 2.0 with no seats or trials, cost approval never gates adoption. A team can standardize on it for every contributor, including contractors, without license true-ups.[1][2]

Keep in mind. A verified reviewer reported that draw.io can feel clunky with large diagrams and that the interface looks dated, while still getting the job done. Teams maintaining very large or dense diagrams should trial their heaviest real file before committing, rather than assuming infinite-canvas smoothness.[1]

Repository review signals: unknown status, very stale · Observed October 3, 2026.

Read project review Official website
Sources and editorial review

Source research. Reviewed on October 9, 2026. Written by Sanjib Sah. AI assisted; reviewed by a human editor.

We have not run or tested this product.

Inspected sample of original user reports: verified G2 reviews for draw.io (5.0 aggregate shown on-page from a small reviewer count), with both 5-star ease-of-use reports and a 4-star report noting heavy-diagram friction. Small inspected sample: one community review page with a handful of visible verified reviews, all from 2023 or undated in the excerpt shown. No Reddit originals were accessible in this run, so forum sentiment is a documented gap rather than a finding.

  1. diagrams.net: draw.io official site

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official homepage: definition, browser/desktop/Confluence/Jira editions, free and Apache 2.0 positioning, no account or paywalls, real-time collaboration with shared cursors, UML/BPMN/AWS/Azure libraries, user-chosen storage, SVG/PNG/PDF export and embeds, zero-egress Forge option, no tracking and isolated desktop, import formats. Read October 9, 2026.

  2. jgraph/drawio README

    official · Observed October 9, 2026

    Official repository README: Apache 2.0 licence, free desktop and self-hosted builds, single-command docker run, supported browsers, and the explicit statement that this version does not support real-time collaborative editing. Read October 9, 2026.

  3. G2: draw.io reviews

    community · Observed October 9, 2026

    G2 draw.io review listing: visible verified reviews including ease-of-use praise and a heavy-diagram clunkiness report; aggregate 5.0 shown on-page from a small reviewer count. Two short labelled excerpts quoted within the 25-word-per-source budget. Read October 9, 2026.

Compare Miro alternatives

Known catalogue facts at a glance. Columns with no reviewed values are omitted. “Not reviewed” means unknown, not that a capability is absent.

Known facts for Miro alternatives
ProjectLicense policyHostingDeploymentOfflineEnterprise supportBest fit
ExcalidrawMIT · OSI-approvedSelf-hostedNot reviewedNot reviewedNot reviewedNot reviewed
AFFiNEMIT · OSI-approvedSelf-hostedNot reviewedNot reviewedNot reviewedNot reviewed
draw.ioApache-2.0 · OSI-approvedSelf-hosted + ManagedeasyYesYesTechnical diagramming for software and infrastructure teams; Privacy-sensitive organisations that must keep diagram data in their own storage

Before you switch

  • Check that the project covers the workflows and data you need to move.
  • Confirm that the license terms fit how you plan to run, modify, and distribute it.
  • Choose between self-hosting responsibility and a reviewed managed option.
  • Open the project page for repository freshness, review dates, and any unresolved requirements.

Browse by requirements

Explore projects grouped around common requirements.

Best overall by organic score

Excalidraw, AFFiNE

About Miro

Miro is the canvas most distributed teams reach for when the work is thinking rather than producing: retrospectives, service maps, story mapping, and anything else that used to need a wall and sticky notes.

Its strength is facilitation features rather than drawing: timers, voting, private mode, and templates that carry a workshop structure. Boards accumulate quickly and are rarely revisited, which is a cultural problem more than a product one.

Miro · Free for 3 boards, paid from $8/member/month · Checked August 31, 2026

Official website
How this list is ordered

Recommended · Organic catalogue order.

A deterministic editorial score using relationship confidence, category fit, logarithmic popularity, as-of maintenance and freshness, with bounded anomaly quarantine and known-data penalties. Payment is fixed at zero.

Payment does not affect organic ranking. Order is a starting point, not a universal recommendation.

OpenAlternative organic alternatives v4 · version 4