Comparison
Drawdy vs Excalidraw
Both are hand-drawn infinite canvases, and Excalidraw is the reason that whole category exists. The real difference is where the line sits between free and paid — and whether you want the code or the canvas.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Excalidraw | Drawdy |
|---|---|---|
| Your AI draws on your boards (MCP)Excalidraw's free MCP app draws inside the chat and can export a share link; editing saved scenes needs an Excalidraw+ workspace | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Extensions run on the boardExcalidraw offers shape libraries, not extensions that run on the board. Drawdy's marketplace has 36 from eight publishers today, and the same API is open for you or your AI to build your own | No | Yes |
| Infinite canvas with a hand-drawn feel | Yes | Yes |
| Free to use | Yes | Yes |
| No account needed to start | Yes | Yes |
| Real-time collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Export to PNG, SVG, and JSON | Yes | Yes |
| Boards saved to the cloudThree free in Drawdy, then Pro; boards on your device are unlimited | Paid plan only | 3 free, then Pro |
| Version history | No | Yes |
| Presentation mode | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Guests can edit without an account | Yes | Yes |
| Comments, voice, and screensharing | Paid plan only | No |
| Sketched-shape recognitionRough rectangle in, clean rectangle out. Excalidraw calls it Draw to shape | Yes | Yes |
What Excalidraw gets right
Excalidraw is excellent, and it is the tool we measure ourselves against. It is open source, it has been battle-tested by millions of people, and the free app at excalidraw.com gives you the full editor and end-to-end encrypted collaboration links without asking for an account.
It also has a far bigger ecosystem than ours: hundreds of community shape libraries, a VS Code extension, and an Obsidian plugin. If any of those matter to you, Excalidraw is the honest answer and you should stop reading here.
Where the two diverge is the paywall. Cloud boards, comments, and presentation export live in Excalidraw Plus at $7 per user per month ($6 billed yearly). Drawdy's free tier includes version history, presentation mode, and three cloud boards — where Excalidraw's free tier has no cloud storage at all — and its shape recognition cleans up a rough sketch with your original stroke one undo away. Past those three cloud boards Drawdy asks for Pro, which starts with one month free. The free tier itself does not expire.
Which one should you pick?
Choose Excalidraw if…
- You want the code: self-hosting, forking, or embedding an open-source canvas in your own product.
- You lean on the community library ecosystem, or on the VS Code and Obsidian integrations.
- Your team needs comments, voice, and screensharing in the canvas, and paying $7 per user per month ($6 billed yearly) is fine.
- You have years of .excalidraw files you need to keep editing and saving in that format.
Choose Drawdy if…
- You want your own AI, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or VS Code, to draw on the board with your team: connect it over MCP and it works on your cloud boards, free on both plans.
- You want to add the feature you are missing yourself: install one from the extension marketplace, or have a coding agent build one from the extension docs.
- You want version history and presentation mode without a subscription, and three cloud boards are enough.
- You sketch fast and want rough shapes cleaned up automatically, without losing the original stroke.
- You want a board that stays quick when it gets crowded, and one you can extend with your own tools.
- You care that a snapshot link is end-to-end encrypted and that boards stay on your device unless you choose cloud.
- You want guests to join and edit from a link with no account at all.
What each one costs
Excalidraw
The open-source app at excalidraw.com is free, with drawings kept in your browser. Excalidraw Plus is $7 per user per month billed monthly, or $6 billed yearly, with a 14-day trial, and that is what unlocks cloud boards, workspaces, comments, voice and screensharing, and presentation export to PDF or PPTX.
Drawdy
Free to start and free to keep using: unlimited boards on your device and three cloud boards for syncing and sharing, with no card. Pro lifts the cloud-board limit and starts with one month free; the free tier itself does not expire.
See Drawdy pricingFAQ
Questions people actually ask
Is Drawdy a fork of Excalidraw?+
No. Drawdy is a separate codebase with its own canvas engine and element model. It sits in the same family of tools and deliberately keeps the hand-drawn feel people came to Excalidraw for.
Can I import my Excalidraw drawings into Drawdy?+
Yes. Open a saved .excalidraw file from the board menu, or select elements in Excalidraw, copy them, and paste onto a Drawdy board — shapes, text, and arrows arrive as editable objects. Drawdy cannot save back to .excalidraw; it exports PNG, SVG, and .drawdy.
How many boards do I get on Drawdy for free?+
Boards on your device are unlimited. The free plan also includes three cloud boards, which is what syncing across devices and sharing a link run on; past those three, cloud boards need Pro, and Pro starts with one month free. Excalidraw's free tier keeps drawings in your browser with no cloud board at all.
Is Excalidraw collaboration encrypted?+
Yes, in the free app. Excalidraw's free live-collaboration sessions are end-to-end encrypted, and so are Drawdy's snapshot links — the key travels in the link fragment, which browsers never send to a server. Excalidraw Plus is encrypted at rest and in transit rather than end to end.
What does Excalidraw Plus cost, and do I need it?+
Excalidraw Plus is $7 per user per month billed monthly, or $6 billed yearly. You need it for cloud-synced boards, team workspaces, comments, voice and screensharing, and presentation export. If that list is the reason you were considering it, Drawdy's free tier covers version history and presentation mode, plus three cloud boards where Excalidraw's free tier has none. Beyond those three Drawdy asks for Pro. Comments, voice, and screensharing Drawdy does not have at all.
Keep reading
- Best Excalidraw alternatives in 2026 — the wider field
- Excalidraw vs Miro, the two of them head to head
- Excalidraw vs draw.io, the two of them head to head
- Excalidraw vs tldraw, the two of them head to head
- Drawdy vs tldraw
- Drawdy vs Miro
- Drawdy vs draw.io
- Drawdy for system design diagrams
- Drawdy for presentations
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