LibreAI / Design / Excalidraw
// design · excalidraw/excalidraw

Excalidraw

Excalidraw — the virtual whiteboard with the hand-drawn look: infinite canvas, real-time collaboration and end-to-end encrypted sharing, MIT-licensed

★ 134.0k stars⑂ 15.7k forksMITupdated 2026-10
▦ visual — this project's README ships no embeddable screenshot,
so here's a placeholder. The guide below is complete regardless.
// project facts

Project facts

Excalidraw is an open-source design project by excalidraw (excalidraw/excalidraw on GitHub). It has 134,043 GitHub stars and 15,703 forks, is released under the MIT license, and was last updated on GitHub on 15 October 2026.

GitHub stars
134,043
Forks
15,703
License
MIT
Last updated on GitHub
15 October 2026
Category
Design
Listing
Full install guide
Official site
Official site
// how it works

How it works

  1. Open the app

    No install at all for the hosted editor: go to excalidraw.com and start drawing — work is saved locally in your browser.

  2. Share or collaborate

    Export to PNG/SVG for documents, or start a live session and send the link; collaborators join in the browser and shared content is end-to-end encrypted.

  3. Self-host or embed it

    Clone the repo to run your own instance, or embed the editor in a React app with the @excalidraw/excalidraw npm package.

// features

Why people love it

Hand-drawn aesthetic

The sketchy style is a feature: diagrams look like drafts, so teams actually edit them instead of treating them as finished art.

Real-time collaboration

Live multi-user rooms with end-to-end encryption — the server cannot read shared boards.

Embeddable editor

The npm package drops the full whiteboard into your own product, with an API for scenes, elements and app state.

Libraries and exports

A public library of reusable diagram elements, plus PNG, SVG and native-file export for portability.

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// run it

Run it yourself

  1. Use it in the browser

    The zero-install route — the full editor, free, no account needed.

    https://excalidraw.com
  2. Self-host from source

    Per the README development setup (Node + yarn).

    git clone https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw.git
    cd excalidraw
    yarn install
    yarn start
  3. Embed it in a React app

    The editor as a component, from the README.

    npm install react react-dom @excalidraw/excalidraw
// use cases

What you can build

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// faq

Questions, answered

Who makes Excalidraw?

The Excalidraw open-source community (excalidraw/excalidraw on GitHub); the hosted excalidraw.com service and the Excalidraw+ product are run by the core team.

Is Excalidraw free?

Yes — the editor is MIT licensed and excalidraw.com is free to use. Excalidraw+ is an optional paid tier with team workspaces and admin features.

Is my data private?

Files you keep locally never leave your machine, and shared collaboration rooms are end-to-end encrypted, so the servers only relay ciphertext.

How does it compare to a well-known alternative?

Against tldraw, Excalidraw is the finished product with the bigger library ecosystem; tldraw leans further into being an SDK. Against Miro or FigJam, Excalidraw is free, open source and far lighter — at the cost of their enterprise template and management layers.

How do I get started?

Open excalidraw.com and draw. To self-host, clone the repo, yarn install, yarn start.

// keep exploring

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// alternatives

Alternatives in Design

The most-starred other Design projects in the LibreAI catalogue — the realistic shortlist if Excalidraw is not the right fit.

Get Excalidraw

Free and open — grab the source, star the repo, and start creating.