The canvas is open
Start drawing now
Sketch a system, map a flow, or think it through with your team — no signup, no setup, just a canvas and a link to share.
Start drawing — it’s freeComparison
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.
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 something we simply do not: an ecosystem. Thousands 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, version history, shared team libraries, comments, and presentation export live in Excalidraw Plus at $6 per user per month. Drawdy's free tier includes version history, team libraries, presentation mode, and one cloud board — where Excalidraw's free tier has no cloud storage at all — and it adds shape recognition that cleans up a rough sketch while keeping your original stroke. Past that first cloud board Drawdy asks for Pro, which starts with three months free. The free tier itself does not expire.
| Feature | Excalidraw | Drawdy |
|---|---|---|
| Infinite canvas with a hand-drawn feel | Yes | Yes |
| Free to use | Yes | Yes |
| No account needed to start | Yes | Yes |
| Real-time collaborationEnd-to-end encrypted in both tools | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes |
| Export to PNG, SVG, and JSON | Yes | Yes |
| Boards saved to the cloudOne free in Drawdy, then Pro; boards on your device are unlimited | Paid plan only | 1 free, then Pro |
| Version history | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Shared team libraries | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Presentation mode | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Guests can edit without an account | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Comments, voice, and screensharing | Paid plan only | No |
| Extensions run inside the appThree ship on Drawdy today, and the same API is open for building your own | No | Yes |
| Sketched-shape recognitionRough rectangle in, clean rectangle out | No | Yes |
The open-source app at excalidraw.com is free, with drawings kept in your browser. Excalidraw Plus is $6 per user per month with a 14-day trial, and that is what unlocks cloud boards, workspaces, comments, voice and screensharing, and presentation export to PDF or PPTX.
Free to start and free to keep using: unlimited boards on your device and one cloud board for syncing and sharing, with no card. Pro lifts the cloud-board limit and starts with three months free; the free tier itself does not expire.
FAQ
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.
Partly. Select elements in Excalidraw, copy them, and paste onto a Drawdy board — shapes, text, and arrows arrive as editable objects. Opening a saved .excalidraw file directly is not supported yet.
Boards on your device are unlimited. The free plan also includes one cloud board, which is what syncing across devices and sharing a link run on; past that first one, cloud boards need Pro, and Pro starts with three months free. Excalidraw's free tier keeps drawings in your browser with no cloud board at all.
Yes. Excalidraw's live-collaboration sessions are end-to-end encrypted, and so are Drawdy's share links — the key travels in the link fragment, which browsers never send to a server. Neither tool can read your board.
Excalidraw Plus is $6 per user per month. 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, team libraries, and presentation mode, plus one cloud board where Excalidraw's free tier has none. Beyond that first cloud board Drawdy asks for Pro. Comments, voice, and screensharing Drawdy does not have at all.
The canvas is open
Sketch a system, map a flow, or think it through with your team — no signup, no setup, just a canvas and a link to share.
Start drawing — it’s free