Excalidraw is a free whiteboard for drawing diagrams, sketches and wireframes in a hand-drawn style. It is for anyone who wants to draw flowcharts or quick sketches, and it can be used in a browser at excalidraw.com or added to other apps.
Has 3 of 7
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
Windows · Mac · Linux · Android · iPhone · In your browserApache-2.0
draw.io is a free app for drawing flowcharts, diagrams and whiteboard-style sketches. It is for anyone who needs to make diagrams, from students and teachers to office workers and programmers.
Has 3 of 7 · Live co-editing ✗
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
Mermaid is a free tool that creates diagrams, charts and flowcharts from simple typed text instead of drag-and-drop. It is aimed at software developers and documentation writers, and its live editor lets non-programmers make diagrams too.
Has 2 of 7
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does part of the job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
PlantUML for GitHub is a browser extension that turns text descriptions of diagrams into pictures directly on GitHub pages, so people can see the drawing instead of the code. It is aimed mainly at software developers and technical writers who put diagrams in their projects.
Has 0 of 7 · Build without code ✗ +2
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does part of the job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
None of these match. Try another device.
Help me choose
I want to pick an open-source replacement for Miro. Below is a list from Open Source Everything (CC BY-SA 4.0), in the order its website shows it. The order is a starting point, not a verdict.
- Excalidraw: Excalidraw is a free whiteboard for drawing diagrams, sketches and wireframes in a hand-drawn style. It is for anyone who wants to draw flowcharts or quick sketches, and it can be used in a browser at excalidraw.com or added to other apps. [Easy setup; In your browser; replaces fully; MIT; https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw]
- draw.io: draw.io is a free app for drawing flowcharts, diagrams and whiteboard-style sketches. It is for anyone who needs to make diagrams, from students and teachers to office workers and programmers. [Easy setup; Windows · Mac · Linux · Android · iPhone · In your browser; replaces fully; Apache-2.0; https://github.com/jgraph/drawio]
- Mermaid: Mermaid is a free tool that creates diagrams, charts and flowcharts from simple typed text instead of drag-and-drop. It is aimed at software developers and documentation writers, and its live editor lets non-programmers make diagrams too. [Advanced setup; In your browser; replaces partly; MIT; https://github.com/mermaid-js/mermaid]
- PlantUML: PlantUML for GitHub is a browser extension that turns text descriptions of diagrams into pictures directly on GitHub pages, so people can see the drawing instead of the code. It is aimed mainly at software developers and technical writers who put diagrams in their projects. [Easy setup; In your browser; replaces partly; MIT; https://github.com/plantuml/plantuml-for-github]
Setup rating: "Easy setup" means you can install it like a normal app, use it in a browser. "Advanced setup" means you must run it on your own server or use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Full details: https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/diagrams.json
Before recommending anything, ask me these three questions (one at a time, in plain words): 1) Which device or devices will I use it on (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone)? 2) How comfortable am I with technical setup: only installing apps from a store, happy to follow a step-by-step guide, or comfortable with servers and the command line? 3) What is my budget: free only, or willing to pay for hosting or support? Then recommend one to three projects from this list only, and for each say why, using how fully it replaces the app, its setup rating, and the devices it runs on. If nothing on the list fits me, say so plainly instead of stretching.
Before you build
Read the list of open-source projects at https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/diagrams.json. Compare it with my project or idea below. Tell me which projects overlap, what I could reuse instead of rewriting, and what mine does that none of them do.
My project or idea:
