excalidrawDesign & creation

excalidraw

An open-source virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn style diagrams with real-time collaboration.

Frontend
Full stack
Product
Design
Collaboration
Productivity
Content creation
Web
Library/framework
Browser
Self-hostable
Runs locally
Docker supported

Open website View on GitHub

Popularity: 133.3k Stars; GitHub stars
Recent activity: 9/30/2026; Updated in the last 30 days
License: MIT; Permissive

Why it matters

We look beyond stars: what problem it solves, whether it creates real utility, and what makes its approach worth noticing.

Last 90 days

Problem

Addresses the lack of intuitive, hand-drawn style virtual whiteboards for digital communication, meeting team requirements for remote collaboration and diagramming.

Practical value

Provides an infinite canvas whiteboard app and npm package featuring basic shape tools, end-to-end encryption, real-time collaboration, and React component integration.

Innovation / differentiation

Distinguishes itself from traditional engineering diagram tools through a unique unstructured hand-drawn visual style and browser-based end-to-end encrypted real-time collaboration.

Leverage potential

As an open-source npm package and app, it can be directly embedded by other developers into web products or editor extensions for reuse.

Why now

The operational demand for remote work and distributed team collaboration remains steadily present.

Community activity

In the last 90 days there were 146 new issues and 440 pull requests; the bounded issue/PR samples include 79 issue authors and 54 PR contributors, with 0 releases.

Maintainer responsiveness

The 99-issue window sample had a 27% close rate, and the 100-pull-request sample had a 24% merge rate. Maintainer-response observations covered 38% of that issue sample, with a 0% response rate and median first response of not enough data.

54 contributors in PR sample0 releasesIssue response rate 0% · sample 38 (38% coverage)PR merge rate 24% · 100 sampled in window

Key highlights

Supports hand-drawn shapes, arrows, free-drawing, and custom shape libraries
Exports drawings to PNG, SVG, and raw .excalidraw JSON files
Operates on local-first storage with PWA offline support

Quick start

How it is installed, how hard it is, and where to start.

Where it runs

Browser

Difficulty

Easy — follow the steps

Docker supportedSelf-hostableRuns locally

01Open excalidraw.com in your browser to start drawing immediately
02To integrate into a React project, install the dependencies: npm install react react-dom @excalidraw/excalidraw
03Import and render the Excalidraw component into your application view

Best for

Teams that want data on their own servers
Developers who want to try it on their machine
People who prefer Docker deploys

More about it

Excalidraw is an open-source virtual whiteboard optimized for sketching hand-drawn style diagrams and wireframes. Beyond its standalone web app, the project distributes an npm component package for embedding the editor directly into React applications.

The editor features an infinite canvas, basic shape tools, hand-drawn lines, dark mode, and customizable shape libraries. Built on a local-first model, drawings automatically save to browser local storage and support offline execution via PWA.

On excalidraw.com, users can create end-to-end encrypted real-time collaborative sessions or generate read-only links for sharing.

Sources

Each field shows its status and source — expand to review.

12 · Expand

capability tags
Verified
collaboration, productivity, content_creation
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
Latest release
Verified
v0.18.1
Source: GitHub API · latest_release=v0.18.1 · 10/1/2026
License
Verified
MIT
Source: GitHub API · license.spdx_id=MIT · 10/1/2026
needs api key
Verified
No
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/14/2026
One-liner
Verified
{"en":"An open-source virtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn style diagrams with real-time collaboration.","zh":"手绘风格的开源虚拟画板，支持实时多人协作与端到端加密绘图。"}
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/14/2026
Platforms
Verified
browser
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/14/2026
Category hint
Inferred from materials
security
Source: Project README · hint=security · 8/14/2026
product forms
Verified
web, library_framework
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
role tags
Verified
frontend, fullstack, product, design
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
supports docker
Verified
Yes
Source: Repository file · dockerfile=true; compose=true · 10/1/2026
supports local
Verified
Yes
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/14/2026
supports self host
Verified
Yes
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/14/2026

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