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Miro is the strongest tool here for running a workshop with fifteen people, and it is not close. It is also the heaviest, and its free plan keeps only your three most recent boards editable. Which of those matters more to you is the whole decision.
If your canvas work is facilitated, Miro is far ahead of everything in this category. Retros, sprint planning, workshops with a dozen people who need voting, timers, a framework already drawn on the board and a template to start from: that is what Miro is built for, and a lightweight sketchpad is not a substitute for it.
The enterprise story is just as real. Miro publishes SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 42001 certifications, offers data residency in the EU, the US and Australia with Japan listed as coming, and lets Enterprise customers bring their own encryption keys hosted in their own AWS account through Enterprise Key Management. It wires into Jira, Confluence, Asana and the rest of the stack. If procurement has a checklist, Miro passes it and we do not.
Miro is also more generous than people expect in two specific ways. Members are unlimited even on the free plan, so a large team can all be in the same workspace at no cost. And from the Starter plan up, visitor editing lets you share a board publicly for others to edit with no sign-in at all. The free plan is where the edges show: three editable boards, no Guest role, and no board history.
| Feature | Miro | Drawdy |
|---|---|---|
| Infinite canvas | Yes | Yes |
| Hand-drawn look as the defaultMiro's default aesthetic is clean and corporate rather than sketchy | No | Yes |
| Free plan with unlimited members | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited editable boards for freeMiro: create and share unlimited boards, but only the three most recent stay editable. Drawdy: unlimited boards on your device, one cloud board | No | Yes |
| No account needed to start | No | Yes |
| Real-time collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| Guests can edit from a link without an accountMiro calls it visitor editing and starts it on the Starter plan; the free plan has no Guest role | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Version historyMiro calls it board history and does not include it on the free plan | Paid plan only | Yes |
| Workshop facilitation: voting, timers, template library | Yes | No |
| Enterprise controls: SSO, data residency, customer-managed keys | Yes | No |
| End-to-end encrypted share linksMiro encrypts in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256, but Miro manages the keys, so Miro can read board content | No | Yes |
| Local-first boards that keep working offlineMiro boards live in Miro's cloud; it does not offer a local-first mode | No | Yes |
| Sketched-shape recognitionRough rectangle in, clean rectangle out. Miro does not advertise this | No | Yes |
| Presentation mode | Yes | Yes |
| Extensions and apps inside the board | Yes | Yes |
Free with three editable boards: you can create and share unlimited boards, but only the three most recent stay editable, and the free plan has no Guest role and no board history. Starter is $8 per member per month billed yearly and adds unlimited private boards, board history and visitor editing. Business is $20 per member per month billed yearly and adds unlimited guests. Enterprise is custom and starts at 30 members. Miro publishes annual pricing and notes a 20% saving against paying monthly.
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
Three editable boards. Miro's pricing page puts it as: create and share unlimited boards, and the three most recent ones remain editable. Older boards stay visible but you cannot edit them, which is the single most common reason people go looking for a Miro alternative. The free plan also has no Guest role and does not include board history. Members, though, are unlimited even on free.
Yes, but not on the free plan. Miro calls it visitor editing, described on its pricing page as sharing boards publicly for others to edit with no sign-in required, and it starts on the Starter plan at $8 per member per month billed yearly. On the free plan anyone you invite to collaborate has to create an account. Drawdy's share links are editable by anyone you send them to, with no account, on the free tier.
Not in the strict sense, although Miro's security page uses the phrase "protected end-to-end". Miro documents encryption in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256, with Miro managing the keys and Enterprise Key Management available for customers who want their own keys in their own AWS account. That is a strong posture, but while the provider holds the keys the provider can read the content. Drawdy's share links are end-to-end encrypted in the strict sense: the board is encrypted in your browser and the key travels in the URL fragment, which browsers never send to a server.
They are built for different jobs. Miro is a facilitation platform: voting, timers, a huge template library, enterprise admin controls, and a free plan capped at three editable boards. Excalidraw is a fast open-source sketchpad with a hand-drawn feel, free and self-hostable, with cloud boards and teams behind its $6 per user per month Plus tier. Pick Miro for structured group sessions and Excalidraw for sketching you can host yourself. Drawdy sits nearer Excalidraw and adds encrypted sharing, version history and presentation mode to the free tier.
Often, yes, and that is a fair reason to look elsewhere rather than a criticism of the product. Miro carries the weight of a facilitation and enterprise platform, which is exactly what makes it good at running workshops and slower to get a quick diagram out of. If nobody is going to vote on a sticky note, most of what you are loading is not for you.
Only if you ask for it. Boards live on your device by default and keep working offline; cloud sync is opt-in per board, and share links are encrypted in your browser before anything is uploaded.
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