Whiteboard & Diagramming Tool Reviews
How many whiteboards does a free plan actually let you keep?
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The Short Answer
- Excalidraw — Excalidraw is "Free forever" with "Export to .png, .svg or 'save to file'" and no count attached; what its free tier caps is the hosted side, at "1 infinite scene".
- Figma (FigJam) — Figma's Starter plan is capped at "3 FigJam files" — a number that appears in the help centre rather than on the pricing page — while PNG, JPG, PDF and CSV export stay available.
- Miro — Miro lets free users "Create and share unlimited boards" but only the "Three most recent ones will remain editable", and free exports are marked "Low-res only".
- Whimsical — Whimsical's free plan gives "3 team boards" and its export docs state that "On the Free plan, exports include a 'Made with Whimsical' watermark".
| Product | Best for | From | Free plan | Free-plan boards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excalidraw | The board is a file on your disk | $6/mo (annual) | Yes | Yours, exportable |
| Figma (FigJam) | Three files, four export formats | $55/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped or marked |
| Miro | Unlimited boards, three of them editable | $8/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped or marked |
| Whimsical | Three team boards, and a watermark on the way out | $10/mo (annual) | Yes | Capped or marked |
What we checked, and what we did not test
A whiteboard fills up in a way a document does not. You do not run out of words; you run out of boards — and the free plan’s number decides whether the tool survives a second project. Right behind it sits the question of whether a finished board can leave as a file, because a diagram locked inside an app is a diagram you will redraw somewhere else eventually.
On 6 August 2026 we read four pricing pages and, where the pricing page was silent, the help centre. Each verdict quotes what we found, and we re-opened three of the four pages afterwards to confirm the wording character by character.
Everybody stops at three
This is the finding, and we did not expect the numbers to match:
- Miro — “3 editable boards”
- Whimsical — “3 team boards”
- FigJam — “3 FigJam files”
Three hosted whiteboard products, three different companies, three different pricing structures, and all three free tiers stop at exactly three. Whatever the reason — convergent product instinct, or watching each other — it means the free tier of this category is effectively standardised, and choosing between them on board count is choosing between identical numbers.
What separates them is what happens at the wall and what leaves before you reach it. Miro keeps the boards and takes away editing. Whimsical caps the boards and marks the exports. FigJam caps the files and lets the exports out clean.
Excalidraw is the fourth because it is not the same kind of product. It is open source, it saves to your disk, and its free cap — “1 infinite scene” — applies to the cloud copy rather than to your work. That is the same pattern we found in image upscalers, where the only tool without a watermark was the one that never uploaded your file: a product that does not hold your work has nothing to ration.
The board is a file on your disk
1. Excalidraw — The board is a file on your disk
Excalidraw’s free limit applies to the part of the product it hosts, which is not the part that holds your drawings.
Best for Boards that are files on your own disk
From $6/mo (annual). Free plan: "Free forever" — full editor functions, "1 infinite scene", "Unlimited collaborators", "Export to .png, .svg or 'save to file'", end-to-end encrypted locally in your browser, and open-source.
- Excalidraw+ — $7/mo, or $6/mo billed annually · 1 seat (A separate hosted product rather than an unlock of the free app: adds unlimited cloud scenes and folders, teams, and PDF and PPTX export, with a 14-day trial)
The free tier lists "Export to .png, .svg or 'save to file'" with no count attached, and the app is open source with drawings held "E2EE locally in your browser". What the free tier caps is the hosted side — "1 infinite scene" — not the files you save. As with local upscalers, there is no server step at which an export could be marked or metered.
Pros
- Saving to a local file is a free-tier feature, not a paid one, and carries no stated count limit.
- "Unlimited collaborators" on the free tier, with no seat ceiling.
- Open source, so an exported file has no vendor to depend on.
Skip it if
- The cloud side is capped at one scene; multiple synced scenes and folders require Excalidraw+.
- PDF and PPTX export are Plus-only — free exports are PNG, SVG and the native file format.
- The pricing page never states a cloud storage figure for free users, because cloud sync is not a free feature.
Three files, four export formats
2. Figma (FigJam) — Three files, four export formats
FigJam has the same board cap as its competitors and the most permissive export of the three hosted tools.
Best for Free exports in four formats, on three boards
From $55/mo (annual). Free plan: Starter — unlimited drafts, UI kits and templates, and "150 AI credits/day, up to 500 AI credits/mo". The FigJam-specific cap is not on the pricing page: Figma's Starter overview article states "3 FigJam files", plus "3 total Figma Design and Figma Sites files" and "Only 30 days version history".
- Professional — price not shown on the page we opened (The page shows a full seat at $16/mo, a dev seat at $12/mo and a collab seat at $3/mo, but does not indicate which state of its monthly/annual toggle produced them, so no figure is recorded as either)
- Organization — $55/mo billed annually (Billed annually; full seat $55/mo, dev seat $25/mo, collab seat $5/mo)
- Enterprise — $90/mo billed annually (Billed annually; full seat $90/mo, dev seat $35/mo, collab seat $5/mo)
The cap is a number and it is not on the pricing page: Figma's Starter plan overview states "3 FigJam files". Export is the part that is not gated — the pricing page's own feature matrix marks "Export your file as PNG, JPG, PDF, or CSV (sticky notes only for CSV)" as included on Starter. So the file count is the wall, not the export.
Pros
- Export in PNG, JPG, PDF and CSV is available on the free Starter plan rather than reserved.
- FigJam is bundled into every plan, including free, with no separate purchase.
- The free tier includes AI credits, at 150 a day up to 500 a month.
Skip it if
- The three-FigJam-file cap appears only in the help centre, not on the pricing page a buyer reads.
- Design and Sites files have their own separate three-file cap, which is easy to confuse with the FigJam one.
- Version history on Starter stops at 30 days.
Unlimited boards, three of them editable
3. Miro — Unlimited boards, three of them editable
Miro is the only one that lets you keep making boards and takes the old ones away instead.
Best for Making as many boards as you like, keeping three of them alive
From $8/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "$0" with "3 editable boards. Create and share unlimited boards. Three most recent ones will remain editable", 7,000+ templates, and board exports marked "Low-res only".
- Starter — $8/mo billed annually ("$8 /month per member, billed yearly"; adds unlimited private boards and high-resolution JPG and PDF export. The monthly-billed rate was not exposed on the page)
- Business — $20/mo billed annually ("$20 /month per member, billed yearly"; monthly rate likewise not exposed)
- Enterprise — price not shown on the page we opened · 30 seats (Custom pricing with a stated minimum of 30 members)
Miro's free limit is unusual and worth reading twice: "3 editable boards. Create and share unlimited boards. Three most recent ones will remain editable." Your fourth board does not fail to exist — your first one stops being editable. Exports are capped rather than blocked: free is "Low-res only" against paid "high-resolution as a JPG, PDF, Vector, or CSV file".
Pros
- Free users can create and share unlimited boards; only editability is rationed.
- Over 7,000 templates are included at the free tier.
- Export exists on free rather than being paywalled outright.
Skip it if
- Only the three most recently active boards stay editable, so old work locks as you make new work.
- Free exports are low-resolution only; vector and CSV need Starter at $8 a month billed yearly.
- The page never says what happens to a locked board beyond remaining viewable — no retention or deletion statement.
Three team boards, and a watermark on the way out
4. Whimsical — Three team boards, and a watermark on the way out
Whimsical exports in three formats on the free plan and puts its name on all of them.
Best for Free exports, with Whimsical's name on them
From $10/mo (annual). Free plan: Free — "$0 /Month /Editor" with "Unlimited workspace members, 3 team boards, 3 teams, 10 guests, Upload files up to 5MB each, 7-day version history". The same page's FAQ separately claims "unlimited private boards", which the plan table does not mention.
- Pro — $10/mo billed annually ("$10 /Month /Editor" with annual billing selected, a stated 17% saving; adds unlimited team boards, private teams, 6 teams and 50 guests. The monthly-billed rate was not present on the page)
- Business — $20/mo billed annually ("$20 /Month /Editor" with annual billing selected; monthly rate likewise absent)
The plan table caps the free tier at "3 team boards" and "3 teams", and Whimsical's export documentation adds the second condition: "On the Free plan, exports include a 'Made with Whimsical' watermark." Exports themselves are not paywalled — PNG, PDF and SVG are all available — they simply arrive marked.
Pros
- "Unlimited workspace members" on the free plan, with no editor seat ceiling.
- Exports in PNG, PDF and SVG are documented as available to free users.
- Flowcharts can be copied out as Mermaid code, which is a genuine plain-text escape route.
Skip it if
- Free exports carry a "Made with Whimsical" watermark.
- The free tier is capped at three team boards and three teams.
- The pricing page contradicts itself — the plan table says three team boards while its own FAQ says unlimited private boards, and a reader has to reconcile the two.
What this means if you are choosing today
For scratch work you want to keep, Excalidraw ends the comparison the same way it ended the upscaler one: the file is yours, locally, at no cost, and the thing being sold is the hosting rather than the drawing.
Among the hosted three, the board count will not decide it, because it is the same everywhere. Decide on the wall instead. If you work in bursts and revisit old boards, Miro’s rule is the worst fit — your archive quietly becomes read-only as you work. If you export to share, FigJam’s Starter is the only one of the three whose free exports carry no watermark and no resolution downgrade. And if you use Whimsical free, copy flowcharts out as Mermaid code, which is plain text and carries no mark at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which whiteboard tool has no free board limit?
Excalidraw, in the sense that matters: its free tier lists "Export to .png, .svg or 'save to file'" with no count, and the file lands on your own disk. Its cap is on the hosted side — "1 infinite scene" — so what is rationed is cloud sync, not the boards you keep. The other three cap the boards themselves.
What happens to your fourth Miro board?
Nothing happens to the fourth. Something happens to the first. Miro's pricing page says free users "Create and share unlimited boards. Three most recent ones will remain editable", so a new board pushes your oldest one into read-only. The page never states what happens to a locked board after that — no retention or deletion policy is given.
Are free whiteboard exports watermarked?
Whimsical's are: "On the Free plan, exports include a 'Made with Whimsical' watermark." Miro's are not watermarked but are downgraded — "Low-res only" against paid high-resolution JPG, PDF, vector and CSV. FigJam's Starter exports carry no stated mark and cover PNG, JPG, PDF and CSV. Excalidraw's local saves carry nothing.
Where is FigJam's free limit published?
In the help centre, not on the pricing page. Figma's Starter plan overview article states "3 FigJam files", alongside a separate "3 total Figma Design and Figma Sites files" cap. The pricing page a buyer reads lists unlimited drafts and AI credits and does not mention the FigJam file count at all.
Did you create boards and export them?
No. Every verdict here was read on the vendor's own pricing page or documentation on 6 August 2026 and is labelled as read, not run. We did re-open Miro's, Whimsical's and Excalidraw's pages independently and confirm the exact wording quoted above, which is a second reading rather than a hands-on test.
How We Keep This Updated
Prices move and vendors rewrite their plan tables, so every value on this page carries the date we read it. When a page changes, the change lands here rather than being edited away quietly. The procedure is on the methodology page. tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Board caps and export rules read on each vendor's own pricing page; FigJam's three-file cap located in Figma's Starter plan overview article after the pricing page omitted it. Miro's, Whimsical's and Excalidraw's quotes re-checked against the live pages before publication.