Data as of Oct 7, 2026A topic in Collaborative Online Whiteboard Tools.
Reviewed by Dimitry Apollonsky
Mentioned in · Jul 8 – Oct 7, 2026
ChatGPT SearchOct 7, 2026
Yes. If “open source + collaborative + no feature gates” is the requirement, I’d narrow the field considerably.
| Tool | License | Real-time collaboration | Self-hosted | Feature gates? | My take |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excalidraw | MIT | ✅ | ✅ |
Google AI ModeOct 7, 2026
I'm looking for a fully open source digital whiteboard for collaboration. It needs to be completely free of feature gating.
I'm looking for a fully open source online whiteboard tool where all features are available from the start.
| No |
| ⭐ Best overall |
| WBO | AGPL-3.0 | ✅ | ✅ | No | Best simple/self-hosted option |
| AFFiNE | MIT (Community Edition) | ✅ | ✅ | No for CE | Best if you want docs + whiteboard |
| Drafft.ink | AGPLv3 | ✅ | ✅ | No | Interesting newer option |
Excalidraw is probably what you're looking for. Its editor is MIT-licensed, explicitly described as free/open source, and the project includes real-time collaboration and end-to-end encryption. The core feature set includes infinite canvas, images, shape libraries, PNG/SVG export, open .excalidraw files, arrows, text, etc.
WBO is more bare-bones, but it is unusually well aligned with your requirements. It's an AGPL-3.0 collaborative whiteboard where multiple people can draw simultaneously, changes are synchronized in real time, and boards are persisted. It is explicitly designed to be deployed on your own server and provides an official Docker image.
The tradeoff is that WBO feels more like a straightforward shared drawing board than a polished Miro replacement.
If you want something closer to “Notion + Miro”, AFFiNE is interesting. Its Community Edition is MIT-licensed and intended to be self-hosted without the restrictions of its hosted product. It combines documents, knowledge management, and an infinite/edgeless whiteboard, with real-time collaboration underneath.
I wouldn't put tldraw on your shortlist given your “no feature gates” requirement.
Despite frequently being described as open source, its current SDK license explicitly restricts production use and requires a license key. The project's own documentation says production use requires a trial, commercial, or hobby license, and the SDK technically enforces this.
So if your requirement is “I can clone it, self-host it, and not discover that collaboration/export/etc. requires a subscription or license key”, tldraw fails that test.
If you tell me whether you want “Miro-like” (sticky notes, voting, templates, diagrams, cursors, etc.) or “simple drawing/diagramming”, I can narrow this to the 2–3 best choices and compare their actual feature sets and self-hosting requirements.
When you want a digital whiteboard without arbitrary limits, paid tiers, or locked "enterprise-only" features, open-source and self-hostable options are the way to go.
The top open-source collaborative whiteboards with zero feature gates include:
If you'd like to narrow this down, tell me:
I can help you pick the right one and point you toward deployment steps or repository links.
